Then of course the trolls across the river spied this land
and thought oh we can frolic there and across the river they came. The king
looked out of his widow and spied the trolls running amok and upsetting his frolicking
citizens and was displeased. Arming his ferocious care bear army with crude
weapons he sent them against the trolls. They were unilaterally dispatched...
along with a few citizens. But hey... there are always a few civilian
casualties in any war... collateral damage and all that...
And so the land was peaceful once more. Oh a few people
mourned those who had been lost, but the rest of the citizens went back to frolicking
once more and sharing and clicking links and... well... to put it crudely,
generating income for the king. That is what citizens are supposed to do after
all. And they grew complacent as they frolicked for they had a great king.
Then the king realised to make the next expansion of his
kingdom possible he was going to need a more direct method of making money. So
he did what any modern king might do... he got into bed with the banks. Of course
the banks had stipulations... nothing for nothing after all. Some of those
minorities who had been so welcome in the beginning would have to go. They were
distasteful and no one wanted them... really.
So before the dolcett diners, the incest indulgers... all
make believe of course... the animal lovers and the scat brigade could say WTF
they were silenced and banned... along with any mention, however innocent, of
children. Now some of the citizens remembered their history...
First they came for the communists,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a communist
Then they came for the socialists,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a socialist
Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a trade unionist
Then they came for the Jews.
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a Jew
Then they came for the Catholics,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a Catholic
And wondered how long before they too were going to be in
the firing line. But the rest of the citizens shouted for joy at this moral
victory over their corrupt cousins... conveniently forgetting that most of them
were breaking some law somewhere too. And besides some of that extra funding had
given them more ways to frolic and find like minded folk.
As time went on the citizens grew complacent once more, as
you do in a land of plenty. They started to forget about things like being
careful with their information and hiding behind their nice safe profiles and they
started to frequent other sites using the same pics and form off line
relationships... with flesh and blood people. Of course as things went sour, as they so
often do when dealing with people, others used the king's land to out people
using all that surplus information... sometimes with good intent and sometimes
with malice.
Of course some citizens started to protest upon realising it
could happen to any of them. After all they had thought that the rules applied
to everyone... and would be upheld. When they realised that was not necessarily
the case, particularly if it was done in the name of entertainment, the
protests became howls of outrage. The king looked out of his tower window and
was displeased. Not only were the cries for justice and fairness disturbing his
frolicking, but they were upsetting the other citizens... the ones still busy frolicking
and clicking and uploading content that was pleasing to his eyes.
So he shut down the protests in any way he could. He banned
people from groups, he used their personal information against them to publicly
out them once more in an effort to silence their support. He took away their voice
by removing loves on journal entries to reduce their ranking... in favour of often
vapid, stolen and plagiarised pictures and writing... oh and things supporting
him of course... on the platform of popularity. He dispatched his care bear
army, bearing bright and shiny new weapons, to route out the trouble makers and
silence them. Protest pictures were removed, writings were removed, take down
writs were issued and profiles disappeared in the dead of night...
See it is a sad fact that not all fairy tales end happily
ever after
And not all kings stay pure and clean... though to many of
their sycophantic followers that doesn't matter as long as there is frolicking
and nudity and a place full of people just like them.
Are we tilting at windmills? Oh yes indeed. We will drown
under the sheer weight of numbers.
That doesn't make what was done right nor does it make what
will come justified
All
that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.
(Attributed
to Edmund Burke)
Looks over the shoulder wondering how long it will be...