The Ransom Note
Willing or unwilling, you will pay.
I have your mind.
I have your body.
I have your soul.
If you want to do anything, you must pay me.
I am your beliefs.
That’s too vague.
I am not just any belief.
Those beliefs, like the sky is blue.
They’re harmless.
They have nothing on you.
I have something on you.
I know what you care about.
I manipulate what you care about.
I manipulate you.
If I tell you this is evil, I get you worked up.
If I tell you this is good, I get you worked up.
You do my bidding.
I am what you crave.
I am what you are averse to.
I am what you cling to.
I am what you are repelled by.
I am what you do not let go of.
But it’s not because of you.
It’s because of me.
I hold onto you.
You are my captive.
I hold you ransom.
I guess the answer to the riddle is "capitalism" :)
It holds your mind, your body and soul, because if you want to do anything you must pay.
It is our beliefs and our minds as it owns almost all the media and culture (except thankfully things like Ataraxia or Bust!, but that does not have the influence of Fox, Breitbart or the NYT).
Most of us cannot be self-supporting, so we have to sell ourselves for food, shelter and to support our children.
It knows what we care about better than our selves, due to advertising research, and manipulates and uses that to sell more products, and destroy working ecologies which we need for life.
If it tells us this is evil, it gets us worked up
If it tells us this is good, it gets us worked up
and therefore there are occasions in which peace, or skepticism, is largely impossible.
In any case most people do what they are told because habit makes it look good or bearable.
We are its captives, and without paying the ransom of wage labor and consumption we are dead. We are also dead if we pay, but we might not know this....