The Decadent Worker

CONSIDER THIS A WARNING

“Also, he (Brother-in-law) spoke of a demonstration against the testing ot the hydrogen bomb at Bikini. A protest took place in Times Square. Goats had been used as guinea pigs in the H-bomb test, so, ‘They mounted a stuffed goat on roller skates and wheeled it around Times Square with a sign hanging from its neck that said: “Today me — tomorrow you!”‘ That story he told two or three times.” — Kerry Wendell Thornley, The Dreadlock Recollections (c) 1984, p. 103

“With the recent surge in home video equipment, there is greater intimacy between viewer and image which increases the likelihood that paranoids are being spoken to directly by radio and TV commentators. The lay public is also given access to advanced monitoring equipment previously available only to lofty intruders… The reason behind this new market is apparently to put the weapons into the hands of everyone and the pursuer’s identity is camouflaged even more.

“The intruder’s scourge is virtually unnoticed even though it strikes in such a wide variety of places and through many different mediums: forms of indirect lighting, environmental music, concert and theatre sound systems (whose noise patterns induce headache, nausea and diarrhea), soap opera themes, game shows, mainstream science fiction films, rock music lyrics and the proliferation of faulty and toxic products (pain-relievers, tampons, microwave ovens) which make more and more people wonder whether they are also among the chosen.

“Now that the scientific eye finally acknowledges how the act of observation alters what is seen, pursuers misinterpret this revelation and imagine they are at the center of the universe, free to invade anyone’s privacy. Though there is little chance that paranoids will someday unite and retaliate, they can at least revel in the scrimpy victory of knowing that their tormentors are also the bait for another onlooker who is, in turn, watched by another and another in an infinite chain of command. Soon persecutors will develop counter-paranoia, thinking they are being spied on by their own quarry. Perhaps we are all being watched; we are both assailant and target in the growing perfidy which ’seems’ to be against no one, but is essentially against everyone.” — Joseph Lans, The Paranoid Manifesto,” Critique, Spring/Summer 1983, pp. 294-5

“I’ve got a brand new pair of roller skates and you’ve got a key.” — Melanie

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