“Good morning, how are you” is an attempt at mind control. I recently watched a Brave New World portrayal where the person who asked this question simply finished the whole conversation before engaging in the meat(bugs) of their transactional conversation. “Good morning how are you good thankyou very much I have received the results of your test…” without pause, tone or interest nor even expectation of reply. Watching this, I can only now see such interactions as transactional, which has helped me to master the art of the dreaded ‘small talk’.
Small talk is also a transaction where you begin with the easy transaction “how are you” knowing very well the expectations of the answer. The point of a transaction is to come away with the goods without resistance or overcharge. Therefore it is easy to participate in small talk as you can comment on anything you know the expected answer to, “these zucchinis are cheap today” or “selling many of these lemons?”. The transactional answer can only be positive and there is no consequence for an untruthful answer. The fact that these questions are always assumed to illicit a positive answer is mind control. A successful transaction is a positive one. Inside you might think that having to pay for these goods is a ridiculous encroachment of liberty, but saying so might get you banned from the store for upsetting the staff. You cannot be free from the positivity of transactions if you wish to eat.
Legalese has permeated almost all facets of our daily interactions now, our fictional self, our identity documents/bank account, engages with the store, our work, our movement, our relationships, our shelter, volunteering, and possibly soon with the permeation of blockchain technology, the totality of our morals, principles and beliefs. Soon perhaps we will have to consciously (awake) or unconsciously (masses) adapt our morals and principles to align our transactions with a dictated moral dogma in order to successfully trade using commercial means. And in a Brave New World, the highly regulated commercial means is the only allowed means of trade.
Surely over the past two years you have noticed that ‘law enforcement’ no longer allows for the use of judgement or empathy. You have either done wrong or you will not be engaged. Guilty until proven innocent is their method of transaction. This is a result of a state becoming too burdened by debt of their own creation. The only way to keep their system above water is to ensure perfect compliance, meaning more fines, more transactions, no warnings, no sympathy, no empathy. Think of my opening statement about how a Brave New World conversation goes. “Hello have you been speeding yes you have I am officer ____ you have 28 days to finalise this transaction or your ability to drive will be revoked until payment is made thank you have a nice night goodbye”. You don’t get to rebel, you don’t get to explain why, you don’t get to avoid payment. Rebellion doesn’t exist in a Brave New World.
Even relationships are becoming almost entirely transactional, nowadays the question going through minds in a relationship living together may be ‘is the tradeoff of being married to this idiot allowing me to portray the best lifestyle I can attain’ rather than a genuine like for each other and commitment to raising a family with combined agreed upon values separate to those of the underlying transactional wider social dictate. Although this may be the case as far back as political systems existed, complying to the wider social virtues is no doubt an increasing dimension of the relationship. Relationships are not about love in a Brave New World, love is in competition to its reverse, evol.
Albert Camus wrote
“The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion.”
How may I ask, do you become free in an unfree world? Death is the only solution that comes to mind. Only then can the spirit at the very most become free. Sure, there are manipulations and ways to exploit the Brave New World system but these become tighter and tighter as an all-encompassing moral dictatory technocratic government seek out those who do engage in such behaviours, perhaps even allowing for their behaviours to continue unabated for a period of time if only to gather more intelligence before whipping out the rug from underneath them.
Your job as an awake human being is to constantly be ready to adapt to new manipulations of the system when they are removed as their moving of resources to cover up one leak exposes another. Now that you know that everything is a transaction, I hope this gives you the confidence in being able to wear the proverbial Guy Fawkes mask when undertaking your daily transactions before retreating to your own self and mind to stay on top of your plans for manipulation and adaptation in order for your truthful and sprited morals, beliefs and principles to be carried forward as time exhausts the Brave New World and love once again takes over.