Mr. Cartwright and the Final Solution

"There has been an incredible amount of speculation about why Mr. Cartwright is, as a fake person, so much more effective than a real person. Anyone who’s bothered to think about it has a theory. Some note the contrast of his emotionless demeanor and his dry sense of humor. Others see his ageless face and physical averageness, not too fit, not too fat, not to quick, as his most appealing facet. Most speculate that his seemingly ruthless decisions, his refusal to allow sentiment to blurry his thinking, his firing of the single, lazy mother in Book Two, as a highlight of the kind of leader the world needs, instead of the kind of leader the world wants. The biggest draw of Emilius Cartwright, in my opinion, is that he always has a plan.

Across cultures and religions, there’s only one person that everyone hails as a hero – Emilius Cartwright. Mr. Cartwright has the power to reach across gender, race, and age, to transcend experience and touch hearts and minds. Unfortunately, Mr. Cartwright is a fictional character, as effective a tool for world peace as a jar of pickles.

But Mr. Cartwright’s creator is very real, and has a very real plan for world peace…to hire tens of thousands of people to proselytize on the street and convince strangers to abandon their selfish ways. But will the human need for peace trump the human lust for war?