For consideration.

[ñͤͣ̄ͦ̌̑͗͊͛͂͗ ̸̨̨̣̺̼̣̜͙͈͕̮̊̈́̈͂͛̽͊ͭ̓͆ͅé ̰̓̓́ͯ́́͞]

I never liked the whole Alpha thing. Struck me the alpha is just as much a slave as the rest of the pack.

Well, that's why they call it The Machine^TM, P3nT.  They've finally created slavery with no masters.

I don't know, the .01% look a lot like masters.

Sure, they hide behind a thick web of incompetence to maintain plausible deniability, but they're pulling strings and scuttling investigations.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

I never liked the whole Alpha thing. Struck me the alpha is just as much a slave as the rest of the pack.

Well, that's why they call it The Machine^TM, P3nT.  They've finally created slavery with no masters.

I don't know, the .01% look a lot like masters.

Sure, they hide behind a thick web of incompetence to maintain plausible deniability, but they're pulling strings and scuttling investigations.

I think you're giving them way too much credit.

[P3nT4gR4m]

Even if there was one single evil genius pulling all the strings, he'd be a prisoner in his own ivory tower and a slave to his own obsession. I don't envy that guy one bit.

[rong]

evil genius? or great bird spirit?

[hooplala]

So, I guess my only downtime for content here will be from my phone, so we should try to see how that goes. 

I, the people, deserve more than these half-dead automatons who never even tried to open their eyes. The first whiff of adversity, and they do one of two things: give up, or try to cheat their way past it. At no time do they realize that the way to get past it is to just KEEP GOING. Not beat your head against the wall, that's one of the definitions of insanity. Plus, those monkeys already do that-- it's one of the worst ways to give up, to never change, to ignore what's going on around you and just keep doing what you're told. 

So they come to me, because they see that I'm riding over top of it all. And they don't want to do it themselves, they want to take it from me. They want me to show them what to do, as if the obvious is some sort of secret. Worse yet, they want me to do it for them. But even if I tell them the Truth, they refuse to accept it. 

And then, the pragmatic: I can/ I must stay friendly with them. More than that, they can be used. And I start feeling dirty, and powerful at the same time. I'm taking advantage of sleepwalkers, which isn't a win, it's just kicking puppies. 

That's what it is. Day in, day out. Idiots that try to take advantage of you, while you're obviously using the fuck out of them. And they don't even notice. It would be sad if it wasn't so funny. 

Fuck yes, man.  This is the same shit I run up against with friends and coworkers... this is a great piece, L.