-Caveat Lector-
Begin forwarded message:
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: August 29, 2007 4:14:35 PM PDT
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED],
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: The American Daydream
THE POSSESSED
By Adam Engel
8/28/07
http://www.bestcyrano.org/THOMASPAINE/?p=242
The Possessed Man is not a bad man, nor a good one. He is
terrified. Alone among friends and family, he “works” to support
his family, but is not exactly sure of what he does. He
“administrates creative product strategies,” according to the Job
Description on file at Human Resources.
The Health Insurance covers his wife and two kids, both under seven
years of age and subject to all manner of illness and disease. Then
there were the pregnancies themselves, and the drugs he must take
daily to function at his job without drinking, or veering into
violence, or bursting into tears. He’s covered by the company plan,
but loopholes open and money falls through. Deductibles. Co-payments.
He is no longer interested in his friends, the few that he still
has, or in having friends at all. What good are they, except to
drink with, and he’s not supposed to drink while on his pills —
though he does anyway. And don’t think this is all confidential,
that they don’t know, the ‘they’ at the company, whoever they might
be, that he sees a head-drugger to stay on top of things.
He’s thirty-five and still paying student loans.
Graduate program at the University. MBA. Had to do it. Or else how
would he have climbed to even his middling position on the ladder?
He’s reached his final rung. He knows he hasn’t the energy to kill,
the will that would enable him to climb further. In fact, the
remaining energies of his life will be directed toward hanging on
to the rung he’s reached. To remaining at his place on the
limitless ladder to the sky. He can barely see the people at the
bottom, but he would need quite a powerful telescope indeed to even
glimpse the stars at the top.
The kids will want to go to college. His wife, also a mediocrity,
but in a different capacity at a different firm, a different
profession, will grow stronger, as women tend to after fifty, after
the sex and procreation, after the body, just when he is starting
to collapse. Rapid rise from twenty to forty, slow descent, then at
fifty the cascading tumble. Unless you’re at the top of the ladder,
in which case fifty is not fifty, due to special treatments,
physical training, private cooks, drugs, vitamins and surgeries…
He’s reached the end of something, he knows, but he has the
responsibility to see things through, at least until the kids are
out of school. But of course college won’t be enough. It wasn’t for
him. He needed a Masters. His kids will need Ph.D.s.
He worries that somehow the system will fail him. It has not failed
him to this point, merely placed him at his rightful place in the
hierarchy. But he fears that the system, based on protocols, laws,
unwritten rules, tacit agreements and technologies that he can
never hope to understand, will collapse of its own weight and
intricacy. He does not understand how the Network works, or how
food gets to the supermarkets, or how the parent company trickles
his paycheck down the many holding companies and through his
department and into his bank account. He does not understand the
high level of partnership between the bank and the corporation that
owns it, which is the parent of the company he works for, and where
he will spend his days before being traded or shuffled off in some
arcane corporate deal or merger or is fired outright. Laid off. And
then what? Sending out resumes as he’d done as a kid fresh out of
college and as a young married man with his expensive MBA?
He fears limited resources, so he does not read the hard copy of
the City News, but browses the paper’s site on the Network. But
when does he have time to read this, working nine to five as he
does, which is not nine to five at all, but eight to six, seven,
sometimes ten o’clock? By which point he is exhausted, despite his
clockwork consumption of caffeine and nicotine.
And when he does call up the news from the Network sites he
realizes how small he and his life are, even in the context of the
corporation, not to mention the role of the parent company in
international affairs. Good god. The corporation is everywhere, in
every country. Many of these countries are at war with each other,
and if the corporation’s interests are seriously threatened, might
go to war with the Nation.
But the Nation is already at war. He is glad that the Nation
possesses the most well-trained, technologically advanced military
force on the planet. He had not gone to the last war, for he was in
graduate school. But the current war terrifies him, the destruction
the Nation wreaks upon its challenger with missiles paid for with
his tax money. He has been extremely nervous since the current war
began. But he does not doubt that after the slaughter the Citizens
will be treated to parades and celebrations on television and he
will watch flag-waving marchers outside his office window.
He is neither angry nor satisfied with the affairs of the Nation
any more than he is or could be with the machinations of the parent
company. It is all beyond his grasp. He is, if not happy, grateful
to be able to rise each morning, take his pills, and begin the
commute to his job and arrive at his job, no matter how demanding.
No matter how trivial. No matter how wasteful of his time on earth.
The countless meetings, the talk talk talk. The assignments from
his superiors that he organizes and delegates to his subordinates.
Often he finds himself with nothing to do, no actual work, but
virtual work, deadlines planned for the future, the possibility of
truckloads of data hanging over his head. So he spends many hours —
those not spent attending meetings — creating plans and memos and
scenarios for the monstrous jobs, the impossible tasks to come.
He finds his wife attractive. They go to the gym. He forces himself
to “pump iron,” not to postpone the inevitable descent, but to make
the landing smoother. He’s seen many a man crash. But he doesn’t
have the energy for his wife that he once had. Maybe once a week,
if that. And of course she has her career too, and they are both
busy with the children.
He feels, given the uncertainty of the world, that he should own a
gun, at least a rifle. The Police exist to protect his property,
not his family — anyway, they are always there when you need them,
but seldom here where they could save your life, if so inclined.
But he is confused by the City’s Byzantine gun laws, and he is not
comfortable letting the Government know he has a weapon. Should the
Government turn for the worse, the gun owners in the Database will
be the first ones visited by the police. But he fears being caught
with an illegal weapon, a mandatory jail term, and the end of his
career and all he’d strived for. Only those outside the system can
flourish unregistered weapons with impunity.
Truly, he would rather be dead. He might live another forty years.
Forty years of this. Maybe fifty. Another reason to own a gun. He
can think of no better way to exit. Effective drugs are as illegal
as guns, and the medications the head-drugger prescribes won’t kill
him. Worse, they might put him to sleep, and he’d be caught holding
the bag — or pill bottle — trying to escape, a Federal crime. He
worked too hard for too long to lose it that way. If he must exit
this earth, he will buy a gun. On the black market. What and
wherever that is. If he makes the decision, it will not matter that
his corpse is found holding an illegal weapon. Then again, if he
gets caught in the act, before pulling the trigger, or chickens
out, they will send him to an institution. Again, that would ruin him.
Of course, this is all hypothetical. Daydream talk. He has a deep
responsibility to his family. His children. His is the kind of
ethic that was instilled in his subconscious forcefully,
frequently, and early on. It is so part of his psyche that he
cannot even attempt to fathom it. Just accept it, passively,
silently, albeit reluctantly.
Nevertheless, he does think critically about his children. He
wonders aloud — to himself, of course — if he actually loves his
children. His own childhood seems both distant and parallel. That
is, he often feels mired in his own childhood and resents the
adult, paternal role he must play. Also, he feels sorry for his
children and fears for them. He does not understand the structure
of the world outside his home and office cubicle, but he believes
it is heading for a fall, collapse, chaos.
What then? What of his children? What right had he and his wife to
yank them from the peace of Cosmic Nothingness and thrust them into
Time and consciousness against their will?
25 Responses to “The Possessed”
# Paul Donovanon 28 Aug 2007 at 8:52 pm
This is a fantastic piece.
If only those living in “denial”, or those who point their fingers
and judge, should see what causes all the stress, people of modest
means who are pushed too far under the daily stresses, worries and
snap etc. Unless you have lived it, or are a “privileged” kid who
rolled out of bed into a college education, which basically
amounted to a bigger and better drunken orgy/keg party than High
school, chances are you have never had the existential bumps…It’s
easy for you, so it’s easy for everyone. (not everyone takes it for
granted and is a brat of course).
We may all drive home on the same highway, stop at the same red
lights, but most haven’t driven on the same road - lets not even
mention those that take the bus, or those who have just decided to
take up shelter on the bench.
Great article Adam - it’s easy to judge. I was depressed driving
home today from work, and was thinking about writing something like
this, but couldn’t figure out how to approach it….no need to.
# Dave Breweron 29 Aug 2007 at 6:12 am
This is like looking a mirror! I am an electronics engineer & have
reached the end of my teather with corporate missery time (also
known as going to work). I quit my last job on the spot & walked
out. I have my own computer business but it is shrinking so fast
because of aggressive mis-leading advertising which says big box
stores are cheaper & better than the little guy which is an
outright lie because I can beat them all hands down in all but a
few items (gatecrashers) so I will be closing it within weeks. I
have found a maintenance job for a care in the cumunity group (no
corporation - just care of people who need care). I love my trade
with the fascinating circuits, components & challenges but I hate
the cube farm, endless meetings & ISO 9000&wotsit up the wazoo
which destroys creativity, individulism & fun. They can stick it
all up their arse now as I refuse to do it any longer. Truly an
inspired work!
# rocky nutallon 29 Aug 2007 at 6:38 am
He hit the nail on the head. I can’t help but feel we are all on a
train going full throttle and we see the tracks ending at a granite
mountain. We know that its going to end badly, but you can’t jump
from the train going 100 miles an hour either.
“they were drinkin from a fountain
that was pouring like an avalanche comin down the mountain.”
# Willon 29 Aug 2007 at 6:58 am
A similar article came out today –
http://www.unknownnews.org/070825a-LeonF.html
I am trying to leave the USA and start a new life somewhere else,
with my wife. But now the international corporate banking families
have created an artificial housing bubble that is intentionally
collapsing, in order to transfer my hard-earned wealth to their own
pockets, and I cannot sell my house in order to make the move
overseas.
Is it too late to leave?
And even if I do leave, will the country I go to extradite me back
to the US because I am under 36 and the US draft has been
instituted, to enslave me to war that will further the power and
wealth of the international corporate banking families that own the
United Nations and the major governments and organizations of the
world?
The reality is that we are already slaves. We already have no
privacy. It is better to remain ignorant of the illusion of
freedom, so that one remains “free” in their head. None of us has
the right to take this remaining freedom from another human being.
Nikonon 29 Aug 2007 at 7:46 am
Those wise enough to know the end of the world as we know it is
just around the corner are the few who will be left to rebuild
after it ceases.
Don’t lament the Collapse. We must go through Hell before we get to
Heaven. The total and thorough Collapse of the current rotted and
insane System will open the door to more simpler and reasonable
ways of organizing a Society that will directly benefit the People……
and next time we MUST keep it that way or suffer the same
consequences.
Get a sneak peek of the all-new AOL.com.
www.ctrl.org
DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER
==========
CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic
screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! These are
sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'—with its many half-truths, mis-
directions and outright frauds—is used politically by different groups with
major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought.
That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and
always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no
credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply.
Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector.
========================================================================
Archives Available at:
http://www.mail-archive.com/ctrl@listserv.aol.com/
<A HREF="http://www.mail-archive.com/ctrl@listserv.aol.com/";>ctrl</A>
========================================================================
To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email:
SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email:
SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Om
