The walk to the blue ball (excerpt from the book: Strategy of Peaceful Revolution, by Christoph Pfluger)
Two beings are walking in space, one older and the other younger. We could call them aliens, if it helps to provide an image. But in the end, that will already be too concrete.
These two beings look at the suns, wonder about pulsars, avoid black holes and wonder about what is happening to the many celestial bodies. Suddenly, they stumbled upon a wonderful blue planet that shone friendly on them.
“Let’s go,” said the younger one.
“It’s the land,” explains the eldest. “You don’t want to go ther. »
“Why not? It’s so beautiful. »
“Yes, it’s wonderful. But it has humans.”
“Are humans dangerous? »
“No, not really, but they’re playing a dangerous game. »
“A game can’t be dangerous. »
“Yes it can, if everyone validates it as serious and sacrifices half their life for it. »
“What are they playing with?”
“With pieces of coloured paper. »
“A dangerous game with colorful little papers! You can’t be serious. »
“But that’s the way it is. On the sheets of coloured paper, there are numbers, pictures of dead people and plain old buildings. Everyone wants them. And they can never get enough. »
“And what are these tickets for? »
“If someone needs something, a piece of land, to grow food, for example, they will have to give pieces of paper. »
“And the one who was in the field before, where did he get it? »
“He also bought it with tickets. »
“And the very first? »
“He probably said the land belonged to him and he took it. »
“This is crazy. It’s stealing. »
“That’s the way it is. But the land did not defend itself. »
“And how did it all start with these tickets? »
“The game started with a yellow metal found in rivers and mountains…”
“… that, like the land, it was simply declared to be his property! »
“Yes. And these pieces of metal were exchanged for things we needed: soil, tools, animals. »
“Also animals?
“Yes. Today, almost all the great animals on earth no longer belong to themselves, but to humans. Cattle, pigs, sheep. The other large animals lose so much of their desire to live on earth that they simply die. »
“We should save them and put them in a safe place. »
“You know that’s not possible. The free will of humans is inviolable. We must not play God. »
“But the angels. »
“No jokes! The situation is serious there, on the blue planet – for a long time, humans were able to own not only animals, but also humans. »
“If one man wanted to own another, he gave him some of that yellow metal, and he sold himself. »
“No, no, no, no. It was the same as with the field. One person captured another, then passed him along and received pieces of metal in exchange. With this, he could buy weapons, hire workers and capture several people at a time to collect even more pieces of metal. It’s been banned for a short time now. The people who were captured and sold are now selling themselves. But because there are so many people and so few tickets, they barely have enough to live on. They behave a little like wild animals: they lose the desire to live. »
“This game is crazy. How did we get to these paper tickets? »
“People with lots of metal pieces feared that those with less could steal them…”
“….because they were not the first on the territory. »
“Yes, I suppose so. Anyway, the rich with metals were afraid of theft and brought their coins to people with the deepest cellars, the safest closets and the darkest guards. As an acknowledgement of receipt, they received a piece of paper with a number and a signature. The other people knew that they could get pieces of metal for these tickets and accepted them as payment. The metal pieces were no longer needed. »
“Bad luck for the people in the cellar! »
“Not at all. They noticed that only a few pieces of paper had to be exchanged for pieces of metal at the same time. As a result, they issued more pieces of paper than they had pieces of metal. And, of course, they demanded a few pieces of metal for these empty tickets. A good lie needs to be rewarded. »
“I see. The people in the cellar distributed 1000 sheets of paper, but they demanded 1100, so there was never enough. So there was an increasing need for more and more tickets, for which we had to pay even more, so he needed more empty tickets and so on. »
“Yes, it continued until the fight for the tickets became so fierce that people killed each other and the game started with new people who had no idea that the tickets were empty. Sometimes the paper business ended when someone noticed that the people in the cellar didn’t have enough pieces of metal and that the papers became worthless. But people have not only lost their tickets, but often also their homes and sometimes even themselves.
“And the people in the cellar? Have they been punished?”
“No. They had a new idea. They met with the king. The king allowed them to distribute papers bearing his signature. He allowed his subordinates to pay taxes with the paper tickets of the people in the cellar rather than with pieces of metal issued by him. In return, he himself received the slips on preferential terms and in a quantity that he would never have reached with the metal pieces. With the many pieces of paper, he could wage war, conquer land and steal pieces of metal to pay his growing ticket debts. And the people in the cellar came out of their holes and built magnificent temples, so that everyone thought that they had to believe in the tickets if they wanted to know the favor of the gods. »
“Do people on earth believe in gods? »
“Yes. But most would not admit it. Some believe in one god, others believe in another, and everyone thinks that theirs is the only one. But from here, they believe in many gods. »
“And the god of paper from the people in the cellar? »
“He is the only god in whom all believe. And because they don’t notice it, the faith is so strong. »
“Doesn’t anyone know that the paper god is hollow? »
“Yes, they do. But anyone who questions him lives dangerously. He is portrayed as an idiot and is laughed at. If this is not enough, he will be fought and will have to fear for his life. »
“If the lack of tickets is so great, why don’t we print more? »
“We print so many that the paper economy is growing over people’s heads. That’s why they replaced the notes with the numbers with pure numbers that they didn’t even have to print anymore. They are simply stored in machines. The one who is connected to a machine can then move the numbers back and forth. »
“Ingenious. Then there will finally be enough numbers. »
“Unfortunately not. »
“Why not? »
“Because you can’t write numbers in machines like that. There are strict rules, which only people in the cellar in their temples understand. »
“And what will those be?”
“I’ve already explained them to you. You’re already almost a human being so long as you don’t want to understand how the number trick works. I should send you to earth so that you can become wise after suffering damage. If only the damage wasn’t so bad that you would lose your mind too! »
“So explain it to me again. I’m listening to you. »
“The numbers only come to those who commit to repaying more people. That is why the people in the cellar in their temples only give them to those who already have enough. These number people then come out into the world with their new numbers and buy things with which you can acquire even more numbers. Or they lend them to people without numbers who hope to do the same to finally overcome their lack of numbers. Some succeed and can build temples. But most of them don’t succeed, because there are never enough numbers, because you always have to pay back more to the people in the cellar who gave them to them. Instead of living in large temples, those who do not have many numbers live in small temples with a garden, but most of them in cages, many in huts and tents or even under bridges. And everyone is constantly trying to find numbers. They sell what they have, their lives, their ideas, their health, sometimes even their children. These numbers are then transmitted to people with many numbers, who go to people in cellars, pay them back a little bit of their debts and get even more numbers with which they go back into the world to make even more profit.”
“That’s terrible. Is there no resistance?”
“Of course. At first, people with large numbers put people with small numbers in suffocating factories, where they had to work sooner or later, died prematurely or fell into poverty. Then, people with a small number came together to grow and to obtain a larger number and better living conditions. A battle broke out between the big and small. »
“Who won? »
“When people with a large number realized that there were too few of them to win, they had a new idea. »
“And it was?
“They offered people with a small number to determine the rules themselves. But since it was impossible to discuss new rules with millions of people, they suggested that the few elect representatives who would then decide on new laws according to the majority principle. The few people were…”
“Aren’t there any simpler words? Giants and dwarves, for example.
“Good. Giants and dwarves! The dwarves were… agreed to let the new rules be determined by the representatives of all the dwarves and giants. What they didn’t suspect was that the giants had enough men to elect their own dwarves, so they could play a small giant. The rules of the number game have therefore not been changed, but only made more bearable. And the main advantage was that the dwarves thought they had made the rules themselves. »
“If the rules of the number game remained, the lack of numbers would continue to increase. »
“That’s right. More than a hundred years ago, that is, a hundred orbits of the Earth around the Sun, the differences between giants and dwarves were so great that all the great countries conquered and subdued foreign peoples. The giants were so insatiable that they staggered during the Great War, as they later called it. But the peace they established was essentially an extension of the war of numbers. The losers were so desperate that they chose a madman to lead them, who promised to turn them into giants and started an even bigger war. After years of burning and boarding, there were far fewer dwarves, and the giants were so weak that they needed the dwarves again. The dwarves worked hard, built small temples and dreamed of becoming giants.
“Will there be enough space on earth for so many giants? »
“Of course not. There would be enough space for humans. But there is not enough room for the giants who want to grow bigger and bigger, even if the dwarves are getting very small. There are even giants in their towers who dream of limiting the number of dwarves. Because they don’t need many more. »
“Why not? »
“Because the game of numbers has turned the whole world into numbers. The machines can do almost anything the dwarves were needed for. Many even think that these machines can think. They only carry out orders, and as you know, that’s the opposite of thinking. Soon everything has its number, every object, every action and every feeling. The many numbers are arranged in powerful machines by a few large giants, added together and condensed into commands that the dwarves voluntarily obey, because they can no longer imagine a life without numbers. To do this, the giants have created installations that tell dwarves stories in numbers throughout the day. Stories announce the happiness of large numbers. But they also spread the fear of lack of numbers and the fear of people who no longer want to play the number game and tell stories full of hope about it. The dwarves take with them small machines, which are constantly connected to the machines of the big giants, so that they do not miss any of the stories. »
“Dwarves believe all that? »
“They don’t know anything else. The giants are smart. Their big machines know what the dwarfs like and what they are afraid of. They choose stories so that dwarves can never get enough. It can even be said that many small dwarves already live in large machines. Soon, everything will be a machine.
“And all because of this cash game. »
“Yes. I told you at the beginning that it was a dangerous game. »
“If you ask me, it’s no longer a game. »
“It is a fundamental question of the universe. Everyone must answer it for themselves. I am convinced that a game that can no longer be recognized, that becomes serious, is still a game. »
“And how do we get out of this?”
“A special human, perhaps one of us, once said: “You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. »
“So let’s go to this blue planet and spread the truth. »
“It’s against the rule of free will of non-interference. In the universe, free will prevails, which, by the way, is strongly questioned by the great giants of the machine. The miracle of free will stems from the fact that we always have the choice to do one or the other. Even if the big machines recommend or order the small dwarves to buy one or choose the other giant dwarf as their representative, they are basically free to do so or not. The only thing that can limit their choice and therefore their free will is fear and ignorance. That’s why the big giants with their big machines and their dedicated giant dwarves spread so much fear and so much useless information.
“Good. Giants and dwarves! The dwarves agreed, to let the new rules be determined by the representatives of all the dwarves and giants. What they didn’t suspect was that the giants were numerous enough to let their own dwarves be elected, which allowed them to play a small giant. The rules of the number game have therefore not been changed, but only made more bearable. And the main advantage was that the dwarves thought they had made the rules themselves. »
“If the rules of the number game remained, the lack of numbers would continue to increase. »
“So let’s go ahead and tell them, “Don’t be afraid. »
“Someone has already said that. But because people didn’t want to hear the message, they became dwarves and now hope he will come back. »
“And is he coming back? »
“I don’t know. He may have more meaningful things to do than to say something he has already said. I would recommend to the dwarves to turn off the machines once and for all and erase from their memory all the stories they have spread, for once to feel deep inside themselves and experience the indescribable happiness of life – and to feel the gratitude and the deep feeling that everything you need is there. There would be no need for a number game, and we could order the machines to work for everyone – not just the giants. »
“It’s my turn to be skeptical. »
“It’s the only chance. Dwarves must discover the truth for themselves. It doesn’t help to bring them something they already have. They are not children who have to be fooled several times. They are adults. Either they learn through revelations or through damage. »
“You’re being brutal. »
“Not at all. These are just the rules of the game. Who chooses, has to live with the consequences… Dear friend, we can still discuss this blue ball here for a long time. Its fate is in the hands of its inhabitants. We could also be heard. It would be a voluntary intervention if our conversation about the blue ball were known. »
“Contradiction. We are not the ones who are spreading the message, it is someone who could have listened to it. »
“You’re right. But I’m sure such an Earthman will distort everything again. »
“Forget it. You said yourself that people must recognize the truth themselves, not our truth or that of the secret spy, but their own truth.”
“I see, not only I learned something during this walk. »
“We could continue our walk later. »
“Goodbye
