Francine has been fascinated with the pamphlets that Bernard, the postal clerk, gave her last week. Each one is a single 8 1/2 x 11 inch paper sheet folded over, with every inch on both sides filled with small dense text purporting to warn the reader of upcoming dangers for the world, except for the first page of the pamphlet, which has the title for the pamphlet in a larger font size. One pamphlet is about how North America is going to be turned into a nature preserve, except for a few cities. Another is about how a genetically-engineered flu will wipe out most of the world's population. Yet another explains how The United Nations is going to evolve into The United States Of Earth, and current nations will take the roles of states and provinces. None of the pamphlets is signed, nor is any contact information listed. Occasionally "we" is used as a subject, but the pamphlets all seem to be the work of one person, who either has a great imagination or knows more than the rest of us. The pamphlets always appear randomly in various places across the country such as in a bookstore, a coffeeshop, a laundromat, or a church. Some people collect the pamphlets and scan them in and post them online, where others download them to print out and distribute around their communities, but, as far as anyone can tell, the pamphlets are never posted online by the writer herself or himself. This is because, according to what's stated in one pamphlet, the writer claims that the Internet is too controlled and her or his, er, their warnings would be flooded with misinformation or censored; therefore, he or she, er, they only trust print distributed samizdat style through word of mouth. On the websites devoted to the pamphlets, there have been some fake pamphlets detected, and every time a new pamphlet appears, there is considerable debate about whether it is another by the writer, or by some imposter.
As a result, Francine is trying to solve the mystery of the pamphlets. Where do they come from? Who writes them? Are they truly the product of a voice in the wilderness trying to wake the populace, or the latest disinformation tactic in the infowars by the powers that be to muddy the waters of truth? It is hard to know anything for sure anymore. The mainstream media lies for the government and the big corporations, or if they don't lie outright, they simply omit the whole truth. For example, Newnews just ran a cover story debunking alternative and holistic medicine, but its advertising pages are filled with advertisements for the products of big pharmaceutical corporations, so who can really believe what its reporters say about competitors of and threats to those big advertisers? The reporters might be telling the truth, but they also might know who signs their paychecks ultimately. And, if no one uses an expensive drug with extensive side-effects because he or she knows that a cup of tea or even doing nothing will work just as well, then big pharmaceutical companies can't afford to advertise in large circulation magazines and websites, and if big pharmaceutical companies don't advertise, then reporters don't get paid, at least as it's set up in the current model of news. In a race between one's stomach and the truth, truth seldom wins.
Similarly, the alternative media are filled with a bunch of people who seem to make sense at first, but then are accused by others of being propagandists for various causes, or of even being gatekeepers, positioned by covert operatives, who hide the truth, so one doesn't even know if they can be trusted either. Some of them just have an instinctive distrust of government and business, which serves them well most of the time but steers them off course in a few cases. Some have their ideological blinders on, whether socialistic or libertarian, economic or psychological, northern or southern, rich or poor, or some other lens through which the whole world gets distorted. Some are simply bigots and blame the Jews, the Catholics, the Muslims, the blacks, the whites, the Russians, the Chinese, and so forth (take your pick) for all the ills of the world. Some even blame all the problems on forces from outside the world such as alien lizards or ancient Masonic demons.
And then there are the people who make sense. But picking them out of all the cacophony is very difficult. No wonder most people give up and are apathetic instead, settling for a full belly and a big-screen television, leaving the decisions that supply the food that fills that belly and builds that television to others.
To Francine, the entire civilization seemed ready to collapse. In the absence of the discredited old faiths, conspiracy theory serves as a new belief system that somewhere something someone, even if malevolent, is in control and the world makes sense.
What sense it makes she doesn't know, but the pamphlets seem to sketch a big picture when taken together.
Or does her need for reason make her susceptible to unreason?
Blog Love Omega Glee is a novel by Wred Fright about two bloggers who fall in love while the world falls apart, which is being serialized on his blog. To start reading from the beginning or read another installment, please visit Blog Love Omega Glee Central on WredFright.Com. If you like what you've read, or you've read all of Blog Love Omega Glee and want more Fright, then please read his first novel, which is available in print and as an ebook.
Posts
15 hours ago
0 comments:
Post a Comment