Five minute free write Day 208 - Paper

The monotonic sound of the overhead ventilation fan vibrated deep into his skull as the silence that coated the room got thicker and thicker.

The three of them were crowded into the antiseptic white box. Two stood while he sat.

Black suits, grim faces, they watched him with hawkish eyes. Products of their environment, no will of their own, automatons to act in the stead of their master.

Handcuffed to an industrial steel office desk there was only one thing that they wanted from him. Something that they'd wanted from him for days. But over and over he had refused.

Their eyes...he could feel them on him. Telling him what to do, almost forcing his hands to act be mere power of will. That's what it had become, a battle of wills.

The paper was there, and so was the pen, sitting just inches from where his hands rested. Where they had placed them hours before after dragging him into here.

No words, just that paper, and the means to put down what they had told him to put down.

The fan seemed to stutter, catch, a couple mechanical clicks and it was back to it's monotony.

'No.'

They didn't answer him.

'No. I will not do this.'

Their eyes worked to bore deeper into his mind, to bend his conciousness, to make him see what they wanted him to.

'I will not write what you told me.'

His crime had been simple. To speak up. To speak out. To refuse to engage in the silence that so many had become comfortable with.

---

Five minutes just never is enough to get done what I wanted to get done.

My mind must be in an interesting place to write something like this. Or maybe I was just watching a bunch of videos about the 'dark web,' privacy, and modern anarchy, hehe. It might also be a reflection of the times I think are coming for my country. A time where speaking out about the things you think will be held against you at some point. A truly scary, but very real possibility when the guy at the top keeps on trying to angle things that way. Getting people to question what is fact, and what is false, even when they know the difference.

I've been absent from the free writes for a while...close to a month now. My mind has been focused elsewhere, on a more visual medium, versus the fun of words by themselves. It's a process of growth, evolution, and forward motion. Putting the pieces of the puzzle together, so to speak. I miss this bastion of creativity, though.

But, the ability to evoke feelings, thoughts, action through various combinations of letters is lessening. Fewer and fewer are willing to put in the time to read...which sucks, but can't really be helped. Instead, those of us who wish to strike deep into people's psyche must adapt, figure new combinations of mediums, and jump into things they'd never thought they would.

The above scene is not too far off in the future...and to a degree exists nows, albeit unacknowledged by most of us. We hope for the better in people, in society, in government. But, unfortunately that kind of moral compass rarely makes it to the upper echelons of power. A reflection that should be quite clear by the way society is currently structured.

It was a nail that kind of got hammered home the other day as I drove home from my part time job. It was on the LA freeway, I forget which one. I was passing a pickup truck...an older one, and the back window of one side was busted out. There wasn't anything covering it, no tape, no cardboard, nothing. And driving it, an older gentleman with what appeared to be his wife in the passenger seat. I thought to myself, 'why the fuck can't they afford to fix that?'

Then I began to look at the road a lot closer. All the older cars, the ratty cars, the masses of people coming home from work, all with the same looks on their faces driving pretty much the same cars, making the same amount of money, eating the same shitty food. We are slaves to a societal structure that is sucking the life essence out of almost everyone.

Now, yes as a human being you can make pretty much almost any situation into a happy one. This isn't about perspective, world view, depression, whatever. It's about a simple marked difference between what has become a greater and greater divide. Another report came out recently about the pay differences between executives and the common worker...and it was shocking.

The greatest difference was something like 2700 to 1. So, literally for every dollar that their average worker made, they got 2700. Take that in for a second. $2700, for $1. Tell me, what human being does that much more value than another? And, how can any one person put the necessary amount of currency back into play that would make that a long-term feasible system instead of what we're getting today?

The funny part is we, as average people, end up defending that divide. Yes, they have more political clout than we do to change the rules in their favor, but we help them in every way. We call it the 'American Dream' We think that someday that could be us. We think that if we work hard enough, get our lucky break, we'll be the one looking down from the heavens. We tell ourselves that it's okay because it could be us one day in that position....

It's the lottery syndrome. We think it's going to happen to us until the day we die. The problem is that the environment that encouraged that kind of social movement is quickly fading. Between all the integrations of different companies in different sectors, wage barriers, and the simple buying out of any potential competition, a majority of us our really and truly fucked. Yet, we still defend what's happening. Put some long, hard, thought into it. Do you really think you're gonna leap from $50k a year to millions a year from a promotion? Or from a great idea and working hard?

We're getting blasted by the media and from our 'leadership' that our economy is booming (at the expense of the environment and most people's future) yet our schools systems are failing, we live with an ancient transportation system, our healthcare is the most expensive in the world yet ranked in the mid-30's for quality, and our basic infrastructure, well, fuck. Yet, we are told our economy is booming...and it is, for those who are strategically placed to take advantage of all the rules, or those who are willing to cheat to get there.

...yikes...this was supposed to be a five minute free write but turned into a rant about modern society...guess it has been a while since I wrote just to write :)

I need to cut this rant of, however, and get my ass home so I can get work done on a bunch of other stuff. No rest for the wicked and all that.

Hope I don't find myself in a room like the one I wrote about for writing this...

Thanks for reading. And if you made it all the way to the end, congrats!

Michael