In the Belly of the Beast, part I

[The Good Reverend Roger]

I guess I just wasn't listening.  You tried to tell me, you did.  I heard, I just wasn't paying attention.  So while you all went about your normal day's work, I grabbed a screwdriver and yanked the primary access hatch.

It was a tight squeeze, but I managed to fit my horrible middle-aged body inside.  I crawled around a bit, looking for something important to break.  Something The Machine™ would feel.  Something that couldn't be ignored.  A breaker panel, a power feed, anything.

But that's not what was in there.  No, there were a collection of people, all freeze-dried, like trigger.  And next to each was a red button with a speaker grille next to it, like you see on some museum displays.

The first person I came across was labeled as Thomas Malthus.  With no other ideas, I pressed the button.  There was a crackling from the speaker, and then an old man's voice said "There aren't enough resources to go around.  We shall surely all perish."

Well, that was kind of weird, so I moved to the next one.  The placard next to this man identified him as Aurelio Peccei.  I pushed the button, and again the crackle followed by "There are limits to growth.  When the resources are all expended, we will die."

Directly next to him was a man whose placard named him Alexander King.  I pushed the button next to him, and the voice said "We must scale back our growth, to put off the inevitable doom.  Shut all the lights, close down the factories.  Better that billions starve than the extinction of the species."

The next one was "Robert Rosenthal".  Button, crackle..."We can't expect much from society in terms of it saving itself.  People are told they are stupid, 'sheeple', unable to manage their affairs, etc, every day by the media, the activists, and everyone else with an iron in the fire.  They shall live down to those expectations."

By now I was getting pretty depressed.  I walked right past Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher, and Abbie Hoffman.  Down the narrow corridor, all the way to the end...Where I found one last person and speaker arrangement, and a metal door.  The woman's placard said "Alice Longstreet Roosevelt Longworth".  Theodore Rooselvelt's daughter, if memory serves me.  Oh, well.  I pushed the button.

Have you finished listening to fools, then?  Look at them, the whole line of scaredy-cats.  Truly, only a petulant teenager or a syphlitic idiot would mistake pessimism for realism."

Then she startled me by moving...To look directly at me, speaking without benefit of the grill.  "Do you believe them?"

"No", I responded, feeling slightly foolish, "Malthus had us all in our graves in 1890, and the two gentlemen from the Club of Rome predicted doom before 2000.  But we're still in a golden age.  Nobody believes this, of course, they all cry and whine about the debt, etc...But we're fine.  There's nothing wrong with us except..."

"Except?"

"Except that we have lost our nerve and our compassion.  We can't help the poor, because there wouldn't be enough, supposedly, for the rich...And every fool believes they will one day be rich.  In short, the richer parts of the planet believe all those idiots back there."

She laughed, dust coming from her mouth, and froze back into her original position.  Beside her, the metal door popped open.

Shrugging, I walked through.

To be continued/

[EK WAFFLR]

Oh wow.

[Richter]

Yes, THIS.  It really has the quality of something you cant quite articulate about the doomsayers until I read it.  Want to see wherr you take this.

[Cainad (dec.)]

I like this. I'd offer more substantive feedback but my phone is being a shit

[LMNO]

Yes.  You're on to something here.

[Eater of Clowns]

You went down there? Oh no, Roger you weren't supposed to go down there.

I don't see this working out well for you at all.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

You went down there? Oh no, Roger you weren't supposed to go down there.

I don't see this working out well for you at all.

NOBODY ELSE WOULD.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

BRRRRRR

This was good. VERY good. It hit the nail right on the head.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

BRRRRRR

This was good. VERY good. It hit the nail right on the head.

Malthus and his ilk weren't bad people.  On the contrary, they were good men with real concerns, who turned out to be wrong, but in a way that allowed them to be exploited by people who have an interest in lowered expectations for the masses.

The road to hell is paved with plausible scenarios.

[P3nT4gR4m]

Struck a chord with me. This is exactly the kind of shit I've been preoccupied with lately.

[Junkenstein]

"Except?"

"Except that we have lost our nerve and our compassion.  We can't help the poor, because there wouldn't be enough, supposedly, for the rich...And every fool believes they will one day be rich.  In short, the richer parts of the planet believe all those idiots back there."

That's when I shat myself.  There's this sense of complacent consent to the world and wrongs around you because sooner or later you'll get your BIG BREAK and you can't do anything to fuck up all this potentially fantastic wealth and lifestyle by actually giving a shit about the person next to you. Fuck them, they don't have your dreams and talents so it's fine that they work for a minimum wage that hasn't risen in forever. It's OK though because when you're IT you'll totally speak out about all the terrible injustices that made it possible for you to be in that position.

The next level of horror is that this attitude was prevalent throughout the worst excesses of the 80's are now enshrined in the public mindset as acceptable things to aspire to. Thatcher and Reagan won so completely, most people didn't even know there was a disagreement. Not aspiring to wealth/fame/power all the fucking time is at best suspicious and at worst downright subversive.

I hope to various Gods that humanity breaks the constant self imposed ego trip it appears to be on but with the total obsession with self will be the big thing this century. I'd guarantee it.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

That's when I shat myself.  There's this sense of complacent consent to the world and wrongs around you because sooner or later you'll get your BIG BREAK and you can't do anything to fuck up all this potentially fantastic wealth and lifestyle by actually giving a shit about the person next to you.

It's called being "pre-rich".  You don't object to an evil social structure, just your place in that structure.  It's being evil without a payoff.

The silly fuckers bleat about "innovation", these days, rather than the more tradition Horatio Alger bullshit.  The only response is "so what 'innovations' have YOU created"? 

I mean this is the best time in history, statistically speaking, to get really rich.  So why aren't these stupid fuckweasels rich?  Where are their Lear Jets, their Bentleys?

By their own philosophy's standard, they are all utter failures and "worthless eaters" or "takers".

[Junkenstein]

That's when I shat myself.  There's this sense of complacent consent to the world and wrongs around you because sooner or later you'll get your BIG BREAK and you can't do anything to fuck up all this potentially fantastic wealth and lifestyle by actually giving a shit about the person next to you.

It's called being "pre-rich".  You don't object to an evil social structure, just your place in that structure.  It's being evil without a payoff.

The silly fuckers bleat about "innovation", these days, rather than the more tradition Horatio Alger bullshit.  The only response is "so what 'innovations' have YOU created"? 

I mean this is the best time in history, statistically speaking, to get really rich.  So why aren't these stupid fuckweasels rich?  Where are their Lear Jets, their Bentleys?

By their own philosophy's standard, they are all utter failures and "worthless eaters" or "takers".

Who has the decency to treat themselves accordingly with their own beliefs though? Very few. It seems to make much more sense to black another skin colour and folk from not round here for all the failings you possess. Even more bizarre is the constant belief that you'll magically "Make it" just by doing exactly the same shit as yesterday all year every year. The most logical conclusion I can come to is that humanity is actually insanely narcissistic on a scale that no-ones able to admit.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Even more bizarre is the constant belief that you'll magically "Make it" just by doing exactly the same shit as yesterday all year every year. The most logical conclusion I can come to is that humanity is actually insanely narcissistic on a scale that no-ones able to admit.

"I am the main character."

[Junkenstein]

"Everything interesting that ever happened, happened while I was in the room".