A Conclusion - One

The following is the first in a series of conclusions for the Maximum Advantage Collection. Why have only one?

-I will enjoy watching you suffer

"Yeah, it's a nugget alright. How's that for a verbal world?"
–I said that.

Draft 1.0

One.
Predators may be found almost anywhere. Many a road rage incident has been averted by that contained therein. Many a brutality was contained. One day I realized the people on the television set were not real. Have you ever met a flat person? Why be traumatized? Why be anathematized? Of course, I knew that already. That's pretty boring. The stupid are not worth killing. They do it to themselves and deserve it. I just hope they don't kill me. Sometimes equality really sucks (not really–please don't hurt me). Or maybe not; one does need some amusement at the end of a long day–doing nothing but spewing. It beats vomiting–or going on a killing spree. Except, how does one kill a system?
Having established the premise that the whole system is different than its parts, combined with the resignation that systems cannot be fundamentally changed through reform, the only inevitable conclusion at which anyone mostly arrives is to either kill everyone else, or kill a targeted few in an attempt to terrorize and paralyze through fear and hatred. The first path is basically nihilistic and pointless; the second is more often than not psychotic but does produce advantage (but never Maximum Advantage). Societies generally promote action as virtuous by reward and respect. All cultures condition their products. In retrospect, success is often the result of patience. Those capable will come to know better the timing and means. The failures, attributable to lack of patience, may be contemplated. Striking involves risk; readiness will often bring about reduction. In the pursuit of victory, the Western notions concerning time are best discarded. Those products which never fully adopted the ways of the clock will possess inherent advantage (but again not Maximum Advantage). Unless sufficiently knowledgeable, systemic opponents are inherently disadvantaged. Their contempt is blinding. They refuse to neither fully understand nor accept the implications. An object lesson is the current state of perpetual war.
Systems require competitors; humans create enemies. Wars have been fought for thousands of years. The technological system, which was itself a product of industrial development, is a relatively recent occurrence. Common beliefs, such as that technological societies would forever alter the world and the acceptance of the modern state as eternal, may be unfounded. Time will tell. All things are transitory. All things change (or end). The world cannot be turned back; some things reoccur. Failures are common. Myths are never sustainable. The life spans of ideas can include senility. Nobody wants to hear it. Unquestioning prefers betrayal over disillusionment. Some find a cause over worth dying. Some kill in the process. The fanatic can never be repressed. Folly demands example. Who could ever know? It really is not difficult–we can see what we will. We do not have to wallow in ignorance. We just enjoy it. Addiction is prevalent–it cannot be avoided. Withering nurtures cogitative invalids. The world delivers the deathblow. Insight is not difficult. Fear is a major obstacle. Self-awareness is a curse. The population is repulsed and repelled. One cannot expect anything more–only that resources drive all attempts at influencing mass perceptions. Autocratic systems waste too much energy on the irrelevant. Suppression is best concentrated and sustained bursts, thus attempting to impress a verbal world. We are free to believe as we will, but we will mostly pay too high a price. Pride does not come cheap. We can become anyone; we will probably stay right where we were born. We do not want to believe it. We are free–a piece of paper says so.
Dreamers believe in change for the better. Reform is always resisted–it betrays weakness. The opportunistic will exploit change. In a technological society, the path of least resistance is demarcated by Maximum Advantage in all things. One can only advance so far. Tyrants are too easily exposed. One must rely upon inference. One must buy it. Too many do.

2004