"Now children- behave!"
It starts early, the indoctrination. Manners, rules, etiquette. Hold your fork this way, open the door for ladies, trim that long hair, keep skirts below the knee, did you finish your homework?
Because you're going to become a well-rounded member of society.
Then later, in the workplace, rules of behavior. Adopting the dress code. 'The customer is always right'! Company meetings, brainstorming sessions, focus groups, and the overuse of charts that track every conceivable step of the process. Further indoctrination.
From the media comes more. Adverts, billboards, social media, magazines, live chats, commentary, feedback, it never ends. Who are you but a mental mutt after all this, a data-saturated product of social engineering?
Thomas Hafeneth- Unsplash.com
However, in a secret room behind a door that nobody knows about, where cameras and microphones don't see and hear, is REALITY. This is where those 'ministers of the seven developing nations' lay down the locker room talk, probably around a huge poker table while smoking big cigars.
"I'll bet two oil fields"
"Raise you a cell phone network"
"I'll see that raise and up it a mining concern"
"Say gentlemen, what say we raise prices all across the board?!"
"Here here!" Done and so recorded!"
"Ha ha ha, yuk, yuk, yuk".
(A knock is head outside the door, their cue that's it's time to go outside)
Time for the photo shoot!
(announcer cuts in) "Their meeting concluded, the ministers of the seven developing nations are seen here shaking hands and congratulating each other over a productive session"
Back they fly to their respective countries.
Photos are taken as they disembark from their planes, snippets of conversation are captured by the press as they hurriedly make their ways through the bustling halls of government, statements are released, looks of grave concern are displayed by these oh so very analytical represenatives and then once again the doors are closed, sealed from the outside, the room is announced to be debugged, and the gentlemen in the room exhale big sighs of relief.
Morgan David De Lossy- Unsplash.com
"Looks like they bought it" one says.
"Hook, line, and sinker, like always" says another.
"When the hell is our tee time?" says a third, irritated that they're not on the course already.
"My secure line says there's a holdup with the motorcade" says a fourth. "Some sort of protest is happening outside and it's taking time to clear. Wait- security says they found us another route. Gentlemen, it's Go Time!"