Is Victor a victim of cultural decay?  We'll probably never know.  Since he
has been downsized he has given them too many other reasons to want to take
him even further down.  "Victor are you a disgruntled ex-employee?"
   "Man, I'm more than merely disgruntled.  I'm deeply offended!  Nietzsche
was right about the 'will to power' and the 'herd instinct'.  Control of a
Social Thought Template is the desire that drives all the worst people to the
top.  They want to command your thoughts and deeds, thereby making you an
extension of their ego.  Ego is deliberatly singular because they seem to be
of one mind.  The management fads spread so fast that the changes appear
simultaneous.  But that's macro and right now I'm concerned with micro.
   "You know, Art can be a dirty little spec when he has a mind to and he's
one of the most sincere people around here.  (John Le'Treue's sincerity
depends on who he talked to last.)  In the last class period we were working
on the operating system setup and I was trying to get the students to work
through the problem by looking up the procedure in the online help or in their
texts.  I was trying to get them to learn to learn on their own.  So when I
was asked for the answers I pointed them to the source of the information.
Art walked in and one of the kids asks him for an answer that I had just
evaded according to my method.  Art must have thought I didn't know because he
walked up behind the boy and began to tell him: first click here... now here...
He's doing it very forcefully, making the young man an extension of his ego.
He was willing to give the information, in his own way but I won't tolerate
that method when I'm the victim and I interrupted what he was doing by telling
him we weren't idiots and didn't need to be led by the hand through the
process.
   "What he was trying to do is one kind of knowledge based process of building
power and a sense of superiority that tends to negate genuine achievement in all
fields today.  The technique, which controls through ego extention (and the
implied dispacement of the other's self) has become more prevalent in each
succeeding generation.  It's nearly taken for granted that one must suffer
this travesty in order to have employment.  So much so, that to talk about it is
to risk ridicule for trying to expose what is obvious and even 'natural'.  It
has become so universal that most people have no sense of being controlled.
Whatever sense of 'I' they started with, if they ever had one, is lost in the
confusion of their experience.  The socially assigned identity is all that is
left to them.  Personality has become nothing if not a position in a hierarchy.
That this has been allowed to happen, mostly in the last hundred and fifty
years by the way, is deeply offensive to me.  The distinction between shepard
and flock may have blurred with the coming of democracy to our world but the
evil of thought control has worsened with the industrial revolution."
   "But Victor, we can't go back in time!"
   "I wasn't suggesting we could.  I'm saying that the illusion some people
have of superiority, one they have sold almost universally on Earth, and that
advances the superficial and pretentious, is increasing misery for most of us.
I'm saying the situation is intolerable and that we can and must get together
to undo the great harm that has been done to most of us for the particular
benefit of a few.  I'm saying the deterioration of society, through these and
other prcesses, is reaching an event horizon.  We have to take matters into our
own hands and do something.  Quickly!  Even if it's wrong!"

   Victor had been spending a lot of time in the adjunct faculty "office".  I
already mentioned that common pool of computers, one outgoing only phone and
one incoming message phone that could only be handled by staff.  Many of his
fellow part timers had had conversations with him not all liked him.  There were
one or two with whom he was friendly but most ignored him even if they didn't
make pointed remarks about his bogarting the number six computer.
   Much of his use was legitimate.  He still spent twelve to sixteen hours per
week preparing for class.  He's been spending quite a bit more explring "Java",
the Sun Microsystem's (tm) object oriented universal platform programming
language.  Being much like C++ it wasn't too confusing though their are a great
number of library objects to become familiar with.  Java can be used to write
PC applcations or web page "applets".  The language is extensable and Sun
welcomes contributions to it.
   IBM "Aglets" (tm) are one such extension to Java.  They are so named as a
contraction for "Agile Applet".  Some say agent applet but that's not what IBM
says.  Though they do refer to them as agents in their own literature.  Which
is appropriate since they are electronic intelligence agents.  An Aglet may
be launched from a network server to gather information from other machines on
the net.  They can be recalled or commanded to report by server that dispatched
them.  They can be made intelligent enough to clone themselves (like a virus)
and travel to other systems to find the information they need.  They can also
be instructed to announce their presence but their is no requirement that they
do so.  Victor thought his leg was being pulled when his brother-in-law told
him about aglets a couple of years ago.  Now an aglet development package has
just been released, for free, by IBM.  SUN gives away a Java development kit
that is needed to compile and run Java programs, including building and
dispatching aglets.  Victor down loaded both to one of the "office" computers.
   The IBM disclaimer warns about the improper ethics that would be involved if
you dispatched aglets outside of your own enterprise' network.  Victor is
skeptical of the ethics of "some" corporations.  His paranoid imagination even
considers the possibility of corporate snooping into the private PCs that many
people have in their homes.   He told a lot of the people he talks to regularly
about aglets and his desire to develop a Java program to detect them and alter
the messages that they return to their home bases.  This seems prudent to
Victor.

  Pete is also the campus safety officer.  Victor isn't sure what that
means but, without actually saying anything, Pete managed to imply involvement
with the campus police in everything from dealing with weapons toting students
to bomb threats by the faculty.
   "Yeah, the guy was calling bomb threats into day care centers from his
office here.  We got him on tape.  It'll be a long time before he sees the
light of day: twenty one counts."
   Victor was wandering why a herpetologist was so fascinated with security but
he passed on the obvious snake pun.  He could sympathize with catching some nut
that was terrorizing children but security was the excuse most often used in
the past twenty years for treacherously infringing on the Bill of Rights.
Ironically, the most anal security freaks are also, too often, self styled
constitutionalists.  The only freedom they are really interested in is the
freedom from taxes that they have been manipulated into believing are the
reason they can't get rich.
   Vic hadn't made his views a secret in the short time he'd been around and
realized Pete probably mentioned the incident to tease.  Victor teased a little
in return.  "That's not my style. I want to talk someone else into doing the
dirty work.  I think your guy was trying to get attention.  That's the kind
who get caught.  The serious trouble makers stay clear of the action and just
work on people's heads.  I think maybe I'll go teach the gang bangers where to
point there guns.  They're stupid to shoot each other when society has them
all down."  Victor pointed to the wall where there was a sign that said "Police
Parking Only".  He said, "point the gun there fool".
   Pete had often talked of guns and "playfully" threatened Victor by pointing
his finger at him and mock shooting him.  He also talked a lot about shooting
this or that and other violent retribution for "deserving" individuals, of
course.  Once Victor had asked him why he was always talking shit like a
high school boy and Pete had responded that it was fun.  Victor seldom talks
shit and had meant just to point at the wall in order to avoid decending to
Pete's level by pointing his finger at him.
   But Pete missed the point.  "We got the terrorist and he hadn't actually
planted any bombs.  But he'll still spend the rest of his life in jail!"
Victor smiled as Pete turned and walked away.  The next time they met the
conversation was less controversial and Victor soon forgot which foot he had
stuck in his mouth or Pete's ass and what order he had done them in.
   "Victor, you better be careful about that gun talk.  When people like Pete
talk shit it is innocent fun but you tease them with their own crap you are a
potentially dangerous psychotic!  The new federal anti-terrorist laws can put
you in jail for making threats.  Try to watch your mouth."
   Victor, for once, had no snappy rejoinder.

   The worst case is a good thing to be aware of so you can be prepared if it
happens but it seldom really happens.  The best case, that someone will offer
Victor a free place to live while I he gets more involved at the college, might
be just as likely to occur as the worst.  Well, maybe not just as likely but
that doesn't mean the worst will happen.
  Something in between happened to Victor.  The land he was camping on is close
to the College.  It belongs to the University.  The University Police visited
him and informed him that he is not allowed to camp there.  After questioning
and searching Victor and checking for warrants they let him go.  He had already
told them he would "move" immediately so they just said they would check on
that later.  They didn't confiscate any of his property, not even the snub nosed
.38 special revolver.  He had  told them it was for self defense and was
seldom loaded between dawn and dark.  They asked him not to reload it until
after they had left the area.  After breakfast, he packed up and left.
   He won't be forced to quit teaching by this setback unless it happens a few
more times.  In which case they will arrest him and it will become a moot point.
This isn't catastrophic but it doesn't make life any easier. He'll try to be
prepared for the worst case and hope for the best but knows that neither one
happens very often.  If negative things are a little (or a lot) more likely to
occur it is probably due to our attitudes.
   I don't mean that noticing negative things makes them more likely to happen.
We must always see what is and not delude ourselves.  But believing a thing will
happen is not the same as being aware of what does happen.  And believing a
thing strongly, especially when many others believe the same thing, can make
that thing more likely to occur.  The things I'm talking about here are social
phenomena and their individual expressions and not thoughtful, willful and
autonomous behavior.

   Hamm is a young man who thinks he is on to a good thing.  Part of his job
is setting up and maintaining network security: a big concern in the late
1990's.  Like alcoholism it is a progressive disease.  And like the flu, we
are all affected by it.  Some get it seriously and others take it lightly but
it gets to us all, directly or indirectly.  The need for security is based on
the assumptin of the worst in people and of course it therefore tends to be a
self fulfilling prophesy.  Those with security measures for sale will
demonstrate your vulnerability thereby propagating the knowledge of the means
to breach your systems.  But most of the dupes of this scam never see how they
have been had because they are immersed in that aspect of the thought template
that promotes paranoia, to the same depth they are drowning in the rest of the
bullshit.  Victor scored no points with Hamm by telling him as much.  The
subject of viruses had come up.
   "There are some real viruses but a lot of is is smoke to cover operating
system bugs or inhibit competition from third party software authors.  Of course
there is also a lot of anti-virus software to sell."  Victor continued, "I once
told a security manager at the university that all his systems would be perfectly
if he boxed them and put them in storage."
   Hamm was not impressed with Victor's sarcasms.  "Most of my job here is
protecting the systems from hackers."
   "Really, what do the hackers do?"
   "They screw with the systems and cause crashes and disk faiures."
   "The operating system bugs also cause crashes.  What is the normal rate of
disk failure for the number of computers you have under your control and how
does it compare to your rate?  What evidence do you have that hackers are
getting into your systems?".
   Hamm was not happpy with the questions.  His evasion was transparent as he
said, "It's the students, they'll wreck anything they can get into."
   Victor realized it was going nowhere.  He would only get more defensive
responses if he pointed out that the students were there to learn and needed
access to systems, and knowledge of them, to do it.  That there were other ways
to discourage the students predations that wouldn't inhibit their abilty to
understand the computers.  But maybe Hamm didn't want to risk his job security
by allowing a lot of younger people to learn to do it.  Victor decided to prod
just a little more when he said, "What do you hope to accomplish with all the
security?"
   Hamm made a display of his position by repliing, "What have you accomplished
in your life?"  His smile was playful and unoffending.
   Victor new Hamm's measure.  "I've nearly rid myself of the delusion of
superiority that aflicts many people; the pretentiousness that is the cause,
with childish selfishness and greed, of the misery of so many."
   The smile remained as he said, "You think you're pretty good don't you?"
   "No better or worse than anyone else may be.  No more or less deserving of
anything."  There was no great rift.  They maintained a working relationship.

   "So what is the point Victor?  How did you get Hamm to be anymore aware of
the common delusion and how it supports corporate culture or the danger to
himself and others like him if we, as a society, continue on our current
path?"
   "Could I have pointed out that the age at which experienced people are
pushed out the door for younger, cheaper employees is getting lower and lower
and that information hiding would be useless in the long run?  I think Hamm
already has some sense of that but either is a true believer or thinks he can
ride it out.  I don't know how to get through to people like that."
   I didn't have any suggestions for Victor.  I was still worried about his
comments to Pete about inciting riots.  Vic didn't exactly say inciting riots
or really say anything at all.  Given the benefit of a daubt that is.  But some
people are not inclined to give anything to folks like Victor.  What he had
said could be construed as a terrorist threat should one wish to do so.  If the
security craze grows it could easily turn into a=generalk witch hunt and we all
know how much real evidence is required for those trials.  I know what Victor
would say if I pointed that out.
   "What the hell do I have to lose?"

   John Le'Treue inadvertantly tipped Victor off to the attempt planned by Milton
to get copies of the first half of the semester's work.  John had established
some distance from Victor.  Victor suspected it was due to his failure to show
proper gratitude for being worked 40-50 hours a week for less than half of
minimum wage.  They think Victor is more foolish than they are.  They are
compelled to: so they can easily dismiss is his unpopular views about society.
   Victor had run into John on campus and they talked a few minutes.  John
asked, "Have you seen that homeless guy with the torn jacket down by the
hospital?"
   Victor knew John had a reason for asking, "Yeah, I offered him a dollar once
and he acted insulted.  But he took it."
   John looked disappointed, "Oh, unapproachable hunh?  I thought maybe we
might take him to a restaurant and buy him a meal."
   John had wanted to give Victor an opportunity to pass on the good deed that
John had done for him.  And to remind him it had been done and that he was
not showing much gratitude.  But his conformist soul de'jour had been altered
by a recent series of media spots depicting the more angry and bitter (and
potentially revolutionary) of the homeless as paranoid and unapproachable.
So he was able to make his suggestion do double duty, both pointing out that
Victor's attitude was typically unapproachable and simultaneously reminding
him of his lack of gratitude. That is what set Victor to wondering if Milton
was planning to harvest the disk files he had been working two months on.  They
would believe Victor's failure to acknowledge their benevolence justified the
ripoff and it was typical of John to gloat in advance.  Of course Victor was
incapable of devining all this.  After all he is still homeless in spite of
the meager income.  And homeless people aren't very smart!  Are they?  This
occured two days before Victor's last class prior to spring break.
   Victor had been in the habit of copiing each new file to the same floppy and
bringing it to class with him along with printed and copied notes to handout to
the students.  The floppy also contained the computer slide shows that
accompany the lectures.  The day of the class Vic backed up everything he had
on the hard disk.  Then he copied just the files for that nights lecture onto
another diskette and deleted the originals.  Then he dumped the hard disk
"recycle bin".  This may have all been wasted effort because they may already
have taken all but tonights work.  But he was going to develop better habits
for the rest of the semester.
   At a half hour before classtime the copy center hadn't delivered the
handouts.  He called and was told they'd been picked up six hours earlier.
He walked to the classroom and would find that they had not been delivered
there but ran into Ham, who was abnormally (for Ham) helpful.
   "No Victor, no one has seen them here but, wow, how many students do you
have?"
   "Just seven."
   "I can print out seven copies on the laser printer here, give me the
diskette.  You can go get set up for class."  Ham actually flinched when he
said the words "set up".
   Victor knew he was already set up but he handed over the diskette; with
one eighth of the files for the semester so far.  Then he followed Ham back to
his computer and stayed until he was given the disk back.  The monitor was
turned off when Ham placed the diskette in the drive but Victor heard the
computer's recognition the drive door had closed.  Then he heard more.
Probably a batch file, run in DOS mode, and suspended awaiting the insertion
of a floppy: the OS autodetects the drive door closing and resumes the command
sequence written in the .bat file.  That sequence would be: copy the files to
the hard disk then exit DOS mode.  The PC would then return to windows, all
before the monitor lit up.  Victor, having been away from computers and society
for five years would be too far behind and slow to see any of this.
   Victor gave no recognition that he knew what had happened.  How will he
ever convince the people of the 90's that they are not faster they're just
hustled?  That by helping their employers to steal from fellow employees, they
are setting themselves up to be similarly ripped off.  The little bit approval
they get in return won't buy them a position when they reach the age and level
of experience at which managers believe their technical servants become
unprofitable.