"There were only six words left." ~ Gregory Maguire
The whole point of the experiment had been to see whether or not mankind could still function at the same high levels of evolution with fewer and fewer words. It had been decided, after the evidence that had accumulated over the centuries, that words were the bane of mankind, and that to rid the world of them would be the best way to preserve peace. The Fourth World War, which had decimated whole continents, had left the remainder reeling in shock. It was time to staunch the flow of blood, and that meant stanching the flow of words. It had begin slowly at first, with adverbs being made illegal, followed more rapidly by adjectives. Before long all conjunctions other than "and", "or" and "because" were eliminated.
By the time the Word Exchange Committee had decided to replace words with symbols and signs, there were only six words left. Even the favored conjunctions had been banned. Any word deemed unnecessary for conducting face-to-face business between people had been eliminated from the list. As you can imagine, those whose trade was words became the new outcasts, the great unwashed in the world, the lowest of the low. And it was with them that the last six words remained. They broadcast them clandestinely, were imprisoned for refusing to give up the location of their headquarters, where the typewriters, untraceable by any modern technology, kept all words alive.
The Wordies, as they came to be known, managed to get their six words into every official anti-word meeting, in restrooms, in lunchrooms, on billboards hastily hoisted overnight. They worked tirelessly "to get the word out" -- their motto and life's work. What were the six words that they used to keep the word alive, you may wonder.
"THE WORD WILL SET YOU FREE!"
)
