On an unsettling dream…
I had a weird dream last night. In the dream, something apocalyptically odd had happened. Pollen from space, perhaps. Or a Tipping-Point style collapse where an idea or a chemical or a radio wave or something finally hit such a level that it generated utterly pandemic effects – spreading throughout the entire human population in a matter of moments. About a third of all the people on the planet suddenly became utterly obedient and suggestible – satisfied simply to serve – all apparently good-natured and pliable. One by one they'd kind of imprint on unaffected people around them, doing basically whatever they said. Initially, all the non-obedient people were horrified. They wanted their friends back, their relatives. There was research and work to try and get them back to normal. But gradually the non-obedient began to get used to it. Newly obedient people were gradually stripped of their good jobs and started to happily help out the people they were imprinted on – doing smaller jobs, littler things, menial tasks. Gradually though, the non-obedient people started to feel darker temptations, secretly and shamefully relishing the power and the opportunities it afforded them. Gradually the obedient people came to be seen as less than human, and – because they didn't fight back, and didn't express pain – were gradually and regularly physically abused, sexually violated and essentially enslaved. Gradually the world fell into two castes – the mainstream of humanity who could express any desire they wanted on their human 'pets' but who had a dark hint of discomfort and shame to everything they did, and a submissive and willing underclass. No one knew whether inside each member of the underclass was a fully conscious human being screaming in protest or whether they were as they seemed – docile, placid, unfazed. One of the people I like most in the world had become an oppressor…
← Remaindered Links (after Kottke)… → Hydra – a brief experiential review…