Tuesday, March 9, 2021

Chapter 1: Section 4: Page 31: Line 102 (474)

 Along with the obvious appeal of its thousands of commercial possibilities, the Chicago Fair also happened to provide a vast ebb and flow of anonymity, where one could meet and transact business without necessarily being observed.

* * * * * * * * * *

The main reason a person might do business anonymously and without being observed is because they know they're doing the wrong thing. They must hide in the shadows; they must act only in darkness. For if the world knew what they were up to, they would be vilified and shunned. At least that was the case before 2016. In 1893, decorum still ruled the day. Sure, people knew who was screwing other people over and how they were gaming the system to gain insane wealth but as long as they kept their actions secret, it was often too difficult to prove exactly how illegal and unethical they were acting.

But by 2016, something wonderful had transpired (wonderful if you're a piece of shit, that is). The biggest piece of shit ever decided to run for president. All of the other pieces of shit who were doing their piece of shit business in dark hotel rooms full of tobacco smoke and empty of potted plants stood up in the daylight and said, "No, no! We are not affiliated with this huge piece of shit. He is what is wrong with business and politics and civility and everything! He does not represent us!" But then the little pieces of shit discovered that the teeny tiny pieces of shit (the ones with no real money and no real power) seemed to love the huge piece of shit and how he acted terribly right out in the open. It was then that the little pieces of shit had the scales fall from their eyes and a chorus of heavenly angels sang down in a thunderous voice, "You can finally and truly be yourselves! The huge piece of shit has made a leap of faith and it has paid off!" Then all of the little pieces of shit began worshiping and loving the huge piece of shit because he had freed them of their self-imposed manacles. He had taught them that they did not need to hide their unethical behavior behind dog whistles and half-truths. The teeny, tiny pieces of shit would believe whatever the larger and more powerful pieces of shit told them to believe.

So for future generations who might read this line and think, "Why would anybody care about anonymity and not being observed while acting like greedy miscreants? So weird!", just know it wasn't always that way.

No comments:

Post a Comment