Chapter 29
ShadowMen.........1993
“Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by the rulers as useful.”-Lucius Annaeus Seneca, 4 BC- 65 AD
“Mercury, my man, how Are you today?” asked Zeus sincerely. “You look a little green about the gills.....
Ça ne va pas? Tu n’as pas l’air dans ton assiette.”
“Oui, I am not myself! The Telecom situation is getting harder and harder to handle. It’s taking on a life of its own, causing national entrenchment. Each country, or group of countries, sees the Telecom technology as a strategic opportunity to rule worldwide communications. They believe the first to dominate will control all communications, and will therefore rule the world. They have scared each other up to outrageous heights; devoting unprecedented national resources to being the winner at all costs.”
“Hades has whipped this one up a bit too much, oui?”
“It’s not just him......its the new league of ambitious and ruthless executives we created. They are insatiably greedy, and doing foolish things out of ignorance and sheer selfishness. Its astounding what people will do, when they are given a little bit of power; and, they lack the wisdom to channel it correctly.”
“As always is the case......c’est la vie.... Is there anything we can do at this point?”
“No, just let it ride out its course. They keep saying the power of computing isn’t going to be the computer, but the network.”
“Just so, I planted that one. Its to keep them focused on one thing. Establishing the physical structure of global communications, while I insure server technology is fully implemented throughout the internet. The future of computing is in the network, but the power will vest in its databases and information servers. The servers will serve three functions: to direct traffic, to allow or restrict access to information/ and database servers, and to collect information on users. The critical issue is how we filter, and direct, access to information bases; and, how we gain information on those Who use them.....as pertains to How they use them. Search engines will be the lens through which we will allow users to view data....thus effectively controlling perceptions, while still presenting an environment of objectivity and openness. They will never suspect.”
“Hypnos does.”
“I was worried about that. I think we underestimated our comical old man. They are inscrutable at times, oui?”
“Inscrutable in their ruthlessness. Because it’s so ingrained in their culture, they seemed oblivious - especially when they were so behind technologically. Yes, we underestimated them terribly.
While we have been using our workforces to full advantage, we still have a semblance of a Judeo/Christian value structure......even in Hades' contingent. If for nothing but public appearances, we work hard to maintain the illusion of human rights......or some fragment of humanity......because that’s what our populace perceives as their ultimate salvation in life. They see a life after this life, as a goal to help keep hope alive. It’s in the core of our laws, and daily lives. The Chinese leadership, however, has no illusions of respect for others’ lives....it has been bred out of them, as it’s been bred into ours, over thousands of years. But, ours started around two thousand years ago, while theirs goes back well over 5,000 years of unbroken cultural evolution....or devolution - depending on your perspective. They are much further ahead of us in many ways.”
“Yes, but they generally lack creativity as a culture. Their culture doesn’t support creative and inspirational thought any longer; independent thought and actions are squashed, while supremacy at clever deceptions, tricks, and outright blatant lies is rewarded with respect. That’s why they were behind technologically, because they couldn’t develop these kinds of things in their closed, repressive, and highly controlled system.”
“You’re right, this is their weakness......their Achilles’ heal.......but, it won’t last for long. They are highly adaptive, and they are absorbing our knowledge base incredibly fast. And we, unfortunately, let them in. The danger here is that we thought that the economic consumption system would rule everywhere....eventually out of self interest, and self aggrandizement. But, they didn’t join our group to be assimilated; they joined it to learn our ways, and assimilate us. They saw, correctly, that unbridled consumerism is very similar to addiction. We saw profits, and growth, and they cleverly let his retain our illusions; while, they saw a new opium to be utilized on the masses - like in the old opium wars. We have an inbred weakness, along with a lingering, outdated, value system. They, correctly, see our marketing driven consumerism as a highly effective propaganda tool. To keep their population in check, and to rule ours, all they have to do is adopt the tool while retaining their objectives. They are using our very tool against us. The trade deficits between the United States and China alone, are in the hundreds of billions of USD per year, and shows no sign of abating.”
“Well, what can we do?”
“We can try to defeat them outright, or buy time so that we can adapt our populations to a new world value system.”
“You know we can’t defeat them outright without exposing ourselves, and suffering devastating financial losses. We’re dependent upon the drug of consumerism ourselves, now.....well, at least in the trade of it. We have become the delivery system in this version of drug trafficking. We, like the distributors and dealers in drugs, can’t stop supplying our users, and aren’t ready to take over full production of the drugs. It was a clever trap.
“But we aren’t lost...yet. I think we can buy time for our populace to shift values; and for us to develop alternative sources of production. What we have on our side is their Achilles’ heal......it cuts both ways, and we need to exploit it. They are still like a bunch of clueless army ants; and therefore not as adaptive to major change as we are. Theirs is a numbers game of overwhelm and keep marching, however slowly, until they achieve their objective. A hive mentality, of fully interchangeable human parts.”
“You’re right, did I tell you how they sent some high minister to
“No, what happened?”
“The delegation literally spent weeks wandering around the
"Ok, I think our course is clear. We need to reduce dependence upon Chinese imports, while preparing our peoples for a more logical, and pragmatic view of life; something less emotional and unpredictable. We need to destroy their beliefs as to an afterlife, or transcendental states. We need to make them as pragmatic as the Chinese; minimizing anything other than production, consumption, and financial enrichment. The time for using values ‘of life’ is gone, and outdated. To survive, we must adapt quicker to their ways, before they control ours.
“That’s a risky gambit......”
“But, necessary. Work on the younger generation through popular culture images, movies, and marketing. Send a message to the older generations about retirement fears; and increase their righteous demand for ‘a comfortable living because we deserve, and earned it.’ Like the Chinese, we need to have the old population use the younger population to their ends. That means a complete break from family solidarity values; and an increase in self-interest . Use disenfranchisement between generations, and between socio-economic groups. An ‘everyone for themselves attitude’ needs to prevail. Total self interest needs to rule. That shouldn’t be hard to accomplish, eh?”
“No, quite easy, actually. Something else, we need to start looking for another autonomous place to replace Hong Kong‘s financial services, and to act as a new conduit for independent actions. They’re never going to let that place stay the way that it’s been. I think that’s very clear now; as much as I hate to admit it.
“I agree with you.....we thought business would rule them, but.... Too late for regrets, we just have to make adjustments....significant adjustments.....quickly.”
“What of the others?” asked Mercury.
“Phhhpppp! The others! Let’s let them keep Hypnos distracted, and unaware of our realizations. They will work perfectly for stooges....particularly, Hades. Can you imagine trying to get him to back off from expansion now? That’s a lost cause; and, maybe we can just let him get trapped out of his own greed,” Zeus said with a devious smile.
“I’m glad you can find some amusement in all of this. Maybe its because you are close to retiring?”
“No, my dear boy, I have just learned to accept the unexpected changes in life. After all we aren't as omnipotent as your names for us imply......regardless of how we may deceive ourselves into believing so.
Humbling experiences are good for us all......keeps us on our toes, so to speak.”
“Lets hope its not too humbling.....”
“Oui, c’est cela. Something else, Mercury.....I just realized that we need a few, ineffective, anti-heroes.
Can you do what you do best, and develop a few mortals to the task?”
“What do you want?”
“We have to assume that there will be a lot of resistance to our value shift - loss of influence, power, et cetera. We need a few champions of the old cause that we can control; thereby assuring its consequent failure through the failure of their cause célébrité, when we need it. Empower some that are too weak to really succeed without you; then, when the time comes, we can cut them down in full public view to weaken their cause at a critical juncture. Partially fund some visible religious, and charitable organizations; but not so much that they can be independent from our support. Build in financial dependence; and, encourage lots of good PR with very little action. The people running them should be rewarded for keeping up good appearances, not real actions. Give them a few victories; ones that are highly visible, but lack real impact. Make their job security and promotions based upon appeasement, not accomplishments; and, have their salaries be tied into their fundraising so that they will be dependent upon the donors....us. This way, we can manipulate them the way we want; and then, pull the plug when we want. You know the formula. Just like we did with the environmental groups, and the University foundation boards. The only difference is that we were breeding for dependent management, for control sake. This time, we are building for dependent management so we can make public executions when the time is right.”
"Ok. Seems like you are learning from Hypnos as well.”
“Mercury was a good name for yourself, no?”
“Oui,” he said dejectedly. “Oh, do you want me to gain control over the internet search engines? Given their future strength?”
“No, that would tip our hand, and we can have the governments and large corporations do that. We just have to make sure that their technology remains behind ours, so that we can ’influence’ it if need be. Anyway, it’ll become an effective tool of the new order. I guess we should thank Hypnos for challenging us. Part of the new order will be the fact that the populace will come to understand the propaganda being sown, they just won’t care about it. Thinking themselves more clever than others around them; again, promoting self interest over everything else. We have to give them little ‘graduation’ goals, as they reach new levels of deceptiveness. That’s the new order that the Chinese have really taught us.”
“Like that old saying: ‘Age and deception wins over youth and intelligence every time.’ huh?
This seems to be an extreme example of that truism, isn’t it?”
“Yes, but now we will institutionalize it into the cultures.....like the Chinese have. Once we eliminate the weak value beliefs in charity, nurturance, and benevolence of the aged, it will go well. And, that should be something easy to accomplish. We just start an age war between the generations.”
“I think my name for you was appropriate as well......Zeus.”
“Well, then, go do my bidding, Mercury, and all will be well......”
“Is this really anything new in human history?”
“Not really, but you are. You and I can communicate whatever message we desire.....almost instantaneously, globally. That assures consistency in the message, and the enviable ability to either support or destroy whatever we want. This, therefore, insures the achievement of our objectives.”
“It’s a dangerous power.”
“Yes it is. The only protection against it is true freedom of information, and true democracy.......and we both know where they stand, no?”
“Oui. Do you think the shadow group suspects anything?”
“No. It’s an unfortunate turn of events that they can‘t see.....blinded by greed.”
“
“Young is the principle problem. Even if they could grasp what’s happening, what match are they against that small but tight knit group of old and devious men that run the country? They will soon replace all leaders with Chinese nationals.”
“None, I guess. What should I do?”
“Ready Belize.”
“That's going to take some effort, and time.”
“Then you’d better get started.”
“Yes, my Lord Zeus,” he said with a mix of heavy irony and dread.
***************
©Tibet, Lamplight Unto a Darkened World…the American Delusion, a Parody of life ( L'illusion Américaine, une Parodie de Vie); is copyright protected, by author, Patrick Mahoney. Online Internet Reproduction/Propagation/Quotation Encouraged, with this citation. Any Printed reproduction, other than for personal reading, requires written permission by author, patrickm at http://patrickm.gather.com/ or patrick1000000000@yahoo.com
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