Slow-boiled

” Don’t give the Dog a Donut” (or else, he would cram in more request, over welcome his stay and occupy your life).

We’ve been had! Seriously. The whole national conversation and the means to deliver it have been hijacked by a few (just scan through Yahoo web page, you’ll see).

Slow-boiling a frog. Socially engineer its survival reflex out of the water.

Voila! Got ourselves a loser here. Boiled frog legs, any one?

We’ve been still as told. Pretend to meditate, to reflect and to recollect. As in La Recherche du temp perdu. Who is our “Swann”? Except we’re not in our death bed. We’re in the proverbial bathtub. Bubble. Slow boil and slow death. Vegetated. “Will you still love me, tomorrow”.

Talking to ourselves. Further divided, to the far end of the spectrum. White and non-White, tattooed and clean-shaven, work-from-home and occupy Airb-n-b (like that Harvard-educated lady who refuses to leave).

Slow-boil. Pre-meditated and meditated. Over time. The whole world watches in horror, into the screen. Seeing only what AI “actors” wanted us to see, to hear and to remember (to eventually buy).

Period.

Merchandising the candidate(s). Sifting through choices, from school to mate (even the matchmaking web-site viewers grew weary).

All the while, our reflex and resistance grow weak. Wobbling legs. Boiled legs. Rabbit, our bi-pedalist, at rest.

More Epsom salt please. It is well with my soul, but not my mind. I was looking for and living in a country. Now I found a cult instead: banned books give-away. Anyone still reads at all?

Or we just scroll up, press Like and let the AI register your presence or protest (no Unlike button).

Make it easy for the consumers (suckers) to buy. Rule 1 in Marketing. Shock and Awe.

Attention and retention.

We’re what we own. Period.

Excess capital, excess consumption, excess criticism.

Life on display, merchandised. Always out front, in the front (who is Thich Nhat Hanh?). Soul stuffs are for the slow, soul foods in backwaters.

Here in the city, only the front, the window display – Tiffany’s – that matters.

Croissant s’il vous plait!

Slowly we allow ourselves boiled away. Wasted. All because we could not say NO.

Do not give the dog a donut.

Do not scroll, click and share.

Sharing economy means it’s our house, our car and time. Been in McDonald lately? contactless.

Just like at the pump. No one is there to even greet you. Start here. Review your Order. Pay here.

We have evolved to the here and now. our ATM society. Withdraw that which we don’t put in (in the name of Sharing).

As life continues here on Earth (and soon it is on Mars), we reminisce the old conversation, the ballade of Moon River and the bravery of Black/White characters in the movies. Back then, they projected the movies on Silver Screen. Big one. Shared and seen by the multitude. In the dark. Groping and kissing. Eating pop corns and slurping Coca Cola. Cinema Paradiso.

We dream one dream. And we wake up when it says THE END. Follow the Exit sign.

With slow-boiling, there isn’t a definite end point. Dead frogs we become in a society that doesn’t give a damn about suckers, consumers and losers. Getta of here, before I call the cops.