Kontrol

Tzakapotek Jones didn’t believe in the concept of control. He wasn’t a diehard libertarian or anything; he simply couldn’t be bothered to join the revolution. Frankly, Tzak was put off by the core-concept of affiliation. He had read a lot of books, and reasoned that history was nothing more than a series of “silly little movements,” where the object is always the same: “grubby fingers, grasping at the illusion of a distant, fractured whole.” As Tzak was the end-product of a pretentious post-philosophical age, throw-away lines like that fell out of his mouth on a regular basis, and most of his friends ranked his musings as insightful, and even “brilliant.” Leading thinkers pondered the reasons we are led about and easily controlled, and Tzak openly questioned THEIR existence. “How do you know that you aren’t just an immune response to a particularly bad idea?” he would probe, and – inevitably – some dumbass would rise up and try and prove him wrong.

“But things are real!” they’d interject, serious as a heart attack. Or – “the mechanisms you describe are only representations of order displacing chaos!” Some of them were almost as hip as Tzak, you know? Not that it mattered. Jones could twist words around into a Mobius finger-trap of frustrated concession. He had studied EST, and knew about foundational needs. He had studied NLP and knew that certain words and phrases were triggers that contained the power to activate an untrained mind. Tzak loved to pull the trigger, and watch people go off.

For all his wit and insight, Tzakapotek Jones was a bit of a crank. He was only sporadically productive, and found it hard to remain focused past the romance stage of a new scheme or idea. Somehow – this endeared him to an ever widening circle of “fans.” In a normal time and place, such a person would be of little interest. But this wasn’t a normal time or place, and Tzak knew it. His insight made him an occasional celebrity, in a world where fame spread like a virus on 140 characters or less, and died twice as fast. He chose his words carefully, subtly manipulating the lowest levels of social engagement and awareness. He picked at the scabs of truth and knowledge, and fostered strife between natural allies. He wasn’t trying to change the world. In his mind, it was already rotten to the core. His aim was the controlled demolition of all existing paradigms, left, right and center. Tzak got away with it for a long time because the ratings were good and the script seemed plausible.

a reply to: 0zzymand0s

Absolutely brilliant. I loved every word.

a reply to: 0zzymand0s

Nice guy that Tzak. Did you meet him here?

Thanks, Cagliostro!

TerryMcGuire -- he was definitely inspired by recent activity on ATS. I think I'll turn him loose on the population of a semi-fictional Earth and see if they make him king.