| |
by The Alchemist, Unknown News
Sept. 22, 2006
"Tell us about the Olden Days, Granny!"
"Yes, please!"
"Make it a scary one!"
"Ok, now settle down. Once upon a time, long, long ago, there were men
called Soldiers, who were paid to kill people…"
"Why would they do that?"
"Well, most of them thought they had no choice. You see, the Corporations
and other ghosts who ran the world made sure that there were very bad
schools that did not teach the children anything but to hate other people.
And when they grew up, the only way they could survive was to take a job as
a Soldier. Well, then…"
"What's a Core peration?"
"A Corporation? Well, a corporation was a big powerful evil ghost that told
the people how to behave. At first, the corporations were little and did
not have much power, but after awhile they grew strong, and began to control
every part of the people's lives."
"But why would the people listen to a ghost? There's no such thing as
ghosts."
"Well, that is what we know now. But in the Olden Days, people believed
very strongly in ghosts. They believed so strongly, that most people served
many ghosts. They worked at unhappy jobs to make the ghosts richer. They
ate the poisonous food that the ghosts told them to. They even believed the
ghosts when they told them to go and kill other innocent people. Of course
those other people had their own ghosts too. So all these ghosts got bigger
and more powerful as more and more people served them. And the bigger and
powerfuller they got, the more they controlled the people's lives, even
compelling them to wear clothing with some of the ghosts' symbols on them,
so people would remember who they served all the time."
"That's dumb!"
"Yeah, I wouldn't work for any old ghost."
"Well Children, you have the benefit of modern learning. Back when they
were the most powerful, the Ghosts controlled everything, and if you didn't
work for them, you would be very, very poor and starve or die of illness.
But most people were so accustomed to the presence of the Ghosts, that they
thought they were Supposed to serve them. They wanted to serve the Ghosts,
to become high-level servants in the Ghosts' organizations. They even had
passed laws giving the Corporate ghosts special powers over the regular
Citizens"
"What!"
"That's crazy. Everyone knows that All Citizens are Equal in the Eyes of
Society."
"Well, yes honey, that's what we know now. But back then, people believed
that Rich people were better than Poor people, and the best way to be a Rich
person, was to have a high position serving one or more Ghosts."
"That's dumb!"
"And creepy. Brrr.."
"Yes dear, but you did ask for a scary story. There is more. Shall I go
on?"
"Yes, please."
"Yes!"
"Well, there were special kind of Ghosts called Governments and Religions.
They were mostly in charge of making people kill each other. Of course,
like all the evil ghosts, they pretended to be for the Good of the people.
Governments promised to Protect the people, and Religion promised to
increase their Love and Peace. And just like those Corporate Ghosts who
promised Happiness, they all in fact were designed to do the exact opposite.
The Government Ghosts neglected and endangered the people. The
corporations took their time and energy and left them depressed. And the
Religion Ghost took whatever energy they had left from serving the first two
Ghosts and channeled it into narrow pathways of hate."
"Ewww!"
"Yuck! What about the Soldiers?"
"Well, most of the Soldiers were controlled by the Government Ghosts, but
Religion had quite a few over the years, and even Corporation got in on it
in a big way, mostly though by making large amounts of profit on all the
tools of war they made the people buy, and all the new business that arose
from war. You have to understand that once a person was a Soldier, he had to
do whatever the Ghost told him to, even if it meant dropping huge bombs into
peaceful neighborhoods and killing everybody and blowing up their hospitals
and gardens and power stations and schools."
"That's awful!"
"But why?"
"To make the ghosts ever more powerful. You see, all the people paid a
great tribute of the fruits of their labors to the ghosts. In fact, they
had little left for themselves (except the high-ranked Ghost servants, of
course). So the Government Ghosts would take the Peoples wealth that was
supposed to be spent on schools and medicine and research and art and spent
it on War. After the war, Corporate ghosts would gain huge profits by
promising to rebuild the bombed out areas, but really taking most of the
money and not doing much rebuilding. During the whole affair, the Religion
ghosts would exhort the people into greater efforts of hating and killing
each other."
"How could they get away with that? Weren't the people mad?"
"Well, some of them were. But most were working so hard all day and night
to make enough wealth to feed the ghosts, that they did not have the time
and energy needed for critical thought. Besides, they had been told since
they were little children that the Ghosts were Good, and they should obey
and respect the Ghosts. Many of the highest of the Ghost henchmen served
multiple Ghost masters. This made things efficient. For example, a
Government ghost henchman would force the Soldiers to go and invade another
land and destroy their civilization. Then the same henchmen would award a
"contract" to his other master, a Corporate Ghost, to rebuild the area he
just destroyed. For this he was well rewarded and given many riches and
slaves. The ghosts' needed henchmen, people they could use to direct the
Ghost's will in the world. Unlike most people, who still retained some
remnant of caring for each other, these henchmen were absolutely absorbed
into serving their Ghost masters. Many would go insane along the way as
they traded away their humanity, but there were enough people who were
willing to try. Some became truly powerful on a worldwide scale, but by
that time they were just hollow men. Just a shell for the Ghost to ride in."
Wide eyes.
"Granny, there's no Ghosts anymore, are there?"
"No, honey, the people stopped believing in them a long time ago. It was a
good thing too, elsewise you and I would probably not even be alive today.
Those ghosts had taken over just about the whole world and were busy killing
everything."
"But how did the people overthrow the ghosts, when the people were the ones
who gave the ghosts their power by believing in them so strongly?"
Shrewd child. Good.
"That's a story for another night. Now off to sleep with you two."
|
|
In the Olden Days, people believed very strongly in ghosts.
They believed so strongly, that most people served many ghosts.
They worked at unhappy jobs to make the ghosts richer.
They ate the poisonous food that the ghosts told them to.
They even believed the ghosts when they told them to go and kill other innocent people.
Of course those other people had their own ghosts too.
So all these ghosts got bigger and more powerful as more and more people served them.
And the bigger and powerfuller they got, the more they controlled the people's lives, even compelling them to wear clothing with some of the ghosts' symbols on them, so people would remember who they served all the time."
|
|
|
There's much more than this at Unknown News.
|
