Yours goes in the honest reply undiluted with BS table. (That one's so short it doesn't even need to be indexed. I store it in braille on the world's second British Guiana One Cent magenta postage stamp. ;-) Oh: Each one from this list gets a footnote in The Thesis, should I ever feel the need for more academic Assurances I Am Greater Than Most.

I'll confess to the 'Don't Know' on lots of the Catch 22 questions out there, too.

(And while "walking onin others' moccasins and all" ever applies -- I see that I'd settle for / have settled for less$ and more-Moi than some of the examples suggested.) I've grown accustomed to needing very few of the Things To Die For, an actual surprise! {how easily I adapted} when I made a premeditated choice to trade My-time+neurons for Theirs.

With kids, of course all equations must become abnormalized - a factor I Know I cannot simulate even as a what-if. Prolly I'd Kill for {some} kids {not at all necessarily.. My-sperm spawned, either} - I've never pretended to religio-pacifism, or any of the other Manual-prescribed Goodnesses conjured up by Cloaked Crusaders for Conformity. {just more Job Security - that}

So, I guess mine is an easier course than yours + kids, and I have no pious judgments to pronounce (and if I did: I'd hope to be massively murdered, rhetorically at least ;-) After all - at zIWE: its the soich fer Truth what Counts!

Yours for a culture possessed of fewer Wants, less satisfiction with thing-collection and more Appreciation for humans generally -- (Oh.. and.. On Time, screw the Budget == while we still Can make that choice, natch.)


I Who Be

BTW on reflection - {it's even Scarier}
Your brief but comprehensive essay makes clearest why it IS that none of the massive techno- and even socio- reasoning re the Mega-kluge which Doze is.. ever penetrates. In an atmosphere such as you describe, the 'verity' of ANY remark or reply is, in time - automatically filtered to perfection into the what 'they' wish to hear today bin (at least - among all those who stay for a time). If I read with comprehension.

Were I writing a Discworld clone, I could use your description of Bizness in Ankh-Morpork as a veritable storyboard backbone for describing the fear-factor which inhibits honest communication.. (and it does no 'good' that, via subtle and gradual innuendo, one might.. get across a small fraction of a Large idea. With trepidation, palpable Risk.)

ie. No Wonder! US-bizness Sucks Galaxy-sized spiked objects (and for that matter -- any other places that rote emulate Our Style). No Wonder either.. the depression, the ennui.. the fucking earned cynicism culminating in some variety of disgust - whenever some unfortunate near-Original thinker might find self amidst such regimented fluff.

Poor {naive} Bastard! Get. Out. and Live... *anywhere else*. Or shrivel down, to fit inside that Armani brain-armor + Power Leash around that constricted vulnerable neck.


Great sociology stuff! At least I finally grok to fullness the utter futility of what used to be called dialogue; it's all Monologue signifying nada, at baby-talk level of both sincerity and content. [No doubt there are a few exceptions.. At your level of tentative-acceptance, for possessing techno competence they Know they need: maybe you get an exemption from some of the affectations? Hope so.] But then.. you get to close a real door! too

Mr. Lay sez, "Gosh! nobody TOLD me.." and everyone Rolls Eyes. But.. WTF WOULD 'tell' Shark #1 that Unpleasant Thought #1 .. such a tangled web we weave when first we build a bizness on deceit -but please to call it- Team Spirit cha. cha. ca. ca. A Petri dish for the likes of Billy et al - who, like bin-Laden, perfectly Understand "how it Is that We Are.. here": Shark-meat.

{Gawd} Am I Glad: I Missed This !!! as in fucking {Whew!}
Causes me to feel even-Freer! by comparison, y'know?
So - It's an even Better Day! {out here} :-) :-)


Thanks again for the horrifying Survival Primer,

Ashton


{Whew} {Aaahhhhhh}

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