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Addis Ababa (N!)— After a series of ups and downs — the Proteus scandal, the return of Slider, the Directive's attack on Utopia's legitimacy, and the Pax/Songbird wedding — Project Utopia's approval ratings seem to have stabilized at approximately 80%.
"We're quite pleased with the faith that the people of the world continue to show us," Director Justin Laragiome said recently. "Utopia hasn't denied once the problems we've found in our organization. Instead, we've worked all the harder to regain the public's trust, and to oppose those elements within our organization that would create or support something as odious as Project Proteus. The people of the world, 'conventional wisdom' to the contrary, are not stupid."
Most world leaders were supportive of Utopia's efforts to clean house and re-establish its good name. President Portman issued a press release a few days ago praising Utopia's work and efforts against Proteus, and RusCon Prime Minister Sierka was even mildly critical of the Directive's recent assault on Utopia's worldwide authority.
Utopia's detractors, of course, remain vocal. "We've had an increase in support against Utopia of over fifteen percent. That's a good start," General Barret Summer, the former American Eagle Vice-Presidential candidate, said during an interview with N! recently. "With time and hard work, we'll get the truth to the American people, and those poll numbers politicians watch so closely are gonna be a lot different here in the US."
Reactions from non-Utopia novas were mixed. "While I continue to disapprove of Utopia as a concept, it has become a philosophical difference," Count Orzaiz said in his most recent public appearance. "Their propaganda effort to mark all non-Utopian novas as 'irresponsible' has diminished dramatically, and the efforts of this 'Proteus' to incarcerate those enlightened novas of different appearances and philosophies have been all but eliminated. I suspect that, with Utopia and the Directive poised to contain one another, we could be looking at a Golden Age for nova-kind."
Less optimistic was DeVries elite Joseph "Pursuer" Simms, longtime rival of Caestus Pax. "Utopia, the Directive, the Teragen — they're all livin' in a fantasy world," he commented dryly. "They want everyone to play nice, either by spreading money around, stompin' those jackboots, or gettin' all the novas to slide into their navels like those yoga fakers — yeah, fakirs, whatever. Elites can see the money comin' in for as long as we keep breathing, because there's gonna be a lot of people beatin' on each other for a long time to come."
Caestus Pax, still on his honeymoon, was unavailable for comment, though his reaction should be easy to predict.
The fact remains that Utopia popularity remains high with the baseline on the street. "Utopia has saved this world more times than most people can count," Daniel Freiburg of Seattle commented bluntly. "The environment, the AIDS epidemic — that' right, it used to be an epidemic — energy, crime, homelessness — you name it, they've made it better. My sister used to have asthma. Now air pollution is so low that she hasn't had an attack in years. You can attack a group like that, but you'll never win, because they've shown the guts to fight the good fight for as long as it takes. If they were going to quit, they would've done it by now. The world's a better place for all of us, no matter who you are, thanks to Utopia. I guess it's no surprise some people can't handle that."
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