Dear Reader, I’ve been writing aout Authenticity and the Pressure to Conform and I’ll have Part 3 shortly but this frothy fantasy popped up for me and wanted to be said.
Many of live in SiloTown, locked inside in our silo privacy. The information about the wider SiloWorld is mediated for us by a single source, an invisible Big Brother and Sister about whom little is known.
At least some say so but others disagree. Maybe we should just put our heads down and get to work, they say. Forget this foolish talk.
And maybe we should.
But lately there’s a new thing happening. SiloPeople, of whom I’m one are sticking their heads out above the silos, gawking like prairie dogs into a common space? What do we see there? We see something when we look in each other's eyes that's different from the the story on the wide-screen SpellMaster video screens.
The first thing we see is someone looking back.
Photo by Moritz Kindler on Unsplash
Why did people pop up in the first place. Because Aaron, the Old Man said but no one asked for details because just then lunch came.
Apparently people started by themselves. They poked their heads up and look in each other's eyes. They listened to each other tell private truths about the silo life. They said what they privately thought and found it tastier than Single Malt. They longed to say what they secretly thought. They didn’t want to talk about the agenda presented on their SpellMaster as they labored away in their cubby silos.
The conversation happening out there in clear air of consciousness was intoxicating. It was like emerging from Plato's cave and discovering a whole new world. Except there was not just one escapee who returned to tell the others. “Put down your tools, they said, we are many.” Every day there were a few more.
What they saw outside
There was already a bunch of people who had their heads up poking up out of the silo, a loose network.
They started hesitantly. They didn’t have a clear agenda. Someone said they heard of another loose network from someone they used to know. That’s nothin’ says someone else. I heard there are many network things happening. Apparently it’s confusing, she said. They don’t have a common language for what’s happening.
The Old Man chimed in Yeah that’s true but we’re learning fast.
Not fast enough said the kid they called the Kid. We’re screwed.
The Old Man laughed, This is just the war and that’s what war is like. We’re gonna have to fight and we’re going to have to learn. Have you ever fought kid?, he asked. The kid smiled and shook his head.
Maybe we should listen to Aaron, mused the Old Man. A few around turned to look at him. Who’s Aaron?
Listen, said the old guy, whenever things get really bad and people start to pop out of their siloes there’s a decision they have to make. On the one had there’s a fuhrer who wants to tell you who to blame. He gets power because of the craziness around him and it’s easy to pay attention to him.
And that’s Aaron?, said the Kid.
No, Aaron’s the OTHER guy, said the old man.
Where’s he at, the Kid insisted. The old man turned around and pointed to a man under the oak tree who was just getting to his feet. That’s him there, he said. As they watched, Aaron strolled off behind a silo and couldn’t be seen.
The whole bunch of prairie dogs continued to meet. They got together out of their siloes often and then more often. They talked and listened to each other. After four months the Kid and his new girlfriend started to write the ideas down. I have just a few of those ideas since most of them blew away in The Wind. Others have other bits and probably they’re all out there somewhere.
Here are a few I have myself:
When you see it or hear it or feel it you know it’s true. When you forget it you think you must have been dreaming but then later it’s there again and you realize you were only dreaming when you thought it was gone. The real thing really is there.
There is something to know about which those who rule SiloWorld don’t know squat. They are old-fashioned control-masters with hepped-up tools. They have the consciousness of men who control a chain gang with a whip and are still jealous of the prisoners. They are stupid.
If we go away, we’ll be back.
Everyone belongs. We all belong equally but we’re all different. What is greatest in us is what makes us the same; the differences are beautiful but secondary. Nobody is more or less important than anyone else. It just seems that way because they get crazy in the Siloes.
(That was a common theme, like this excerpt from #96.)
(fragment) … is also the message of the teachings that persist in the perennial philosophy, in Christianity and in is fully there, although often not translated into current terms, that humanity really is one family and the success of one is literally the success of all. It sounds lofty and impractical, but it's actually that the real truth of our relationship, our success in helping the silo world is to emerge from it into the recognition of . . .
The Old Man died a few weeks in. Apparently he and the Kid used to talk about Aaron sometimes but no one quite got a handle on what they said. A few speculate about who Aaron was or is but no one was sure they’d recognize him if he showed up or even what or if there was anything special about him.