They tell me I have white privilege, but I can’t see it. I pay more for concert tickets, and the interest rate on my mortgage is higher. I’m lower down the queue to get surgery. I have to pay my own way through school and university. And nobody’s given me any reparations, even though my ancestors were shipped to the other side of the world as prisoners. Every history book has been rewritten to erase our accomplishments, and our contributions to society are ignored. Somehow people think the Westminster System just spontaneously came into existence. Propaganda paints us as evil. All our monuments are being dismantled. And our presence in society is something that they’re trying to erase. They tell me that I’m guilty by virtue of my skin colour. They tell me that I have to pay rent to live on the land my family’s called their own for 8 generations. They tell me that I shouldn’t speak my mind, that I need to make space for others. But I’m not going to do that. I’m not going to constrain my excellence to give someone else a turn. Because it seems like the only way you can level the playing field is to rig the whole game against me. And I refuse to live in some communist hellscape where equity is the endgame. I want meritocracy.

This is it. The journey between birth and death. It’s happening to you right now. It has meaning, if you pay attention. But that meaning won’t be found by desperately scrolling through a social media algorithm. The world of plastic lights and megabytes obfuscates the true nature of reality. Endless dopamine makes you a slave to the digital overlord and you’re entertaining yourself to death. Distracted, you fail to achieve the things you know you’re capable of achieving. You numb the pain with alcohol. And the only people who will associate with you are losers who ruin your mind with the parasitic infection of groupthink. And you never experience what life is truly meant to be. Not as far as I can tell. And then there’s those who seek meaning through fighting ‘the enemy’. But this too is a hollow pursuit. How many dead bodies will make you satisfied? Genghis Kahn couldn’t stop. Because the reality is that the enemy is internal, and no amount of annihilation will satiate your blood lust. Solzhenitsyn said that the battleline between good and evil runs through the heart of every man. And Jung said that no tree can grow to heaven unless its roots reach down to hell. This means that our enemy is not the person on the other side of the political aisle, or across the border. It is incumbent on us to confront and tame the evil inside of us. If we fail to do so, we’re at risk of losing control of the shadow and subjecting the world to its unbridled manifestations. And that’s where the meaning is: in developing your own character. Spend time by yourself to find out what is truly real, and what you truly think. Then let yourself be burned by the fire of risk. This is the only way to progress beyond the surface-level existence you’re currently living. And the time to do all of this is now. Urgency is imperative. You can’t let your time be monopolised by trivial pleasures. Or a tyrannical overlord. Brutal, ruthless control over your schedule is required. And laser focus on the tasks which move you closer to greatness. You overestimate what you can achieve in a year, but underestimate what you can achieve in ten. What are you waiting for?

CACOPHONY IV World War 3 started 18 months ago. And the whole world's axis has tilted. But you didn't realise because the news told you to focus on the Voice. But that was an ill-conceived proposal which we voted against decisively. They'll blame the outcome on "misinformation" and then try to censor us all. (They won't get me because I'm on Nostr and have my email list). At least we know that celebrity coercion doesn't work anymore. And everyone's stopped believing corporations and mainstream media. Finally. Is this the end of big government? Are we finally tired of being assaulted by taxation and propaganda? Perhaps. But it's probably too little too late. Because I still think we're witnessing the Fall of Empire. The debasement of our currency is an indicator of that. We know that this is what got the Romans (partly). Greedy leaders punishing the populous to fund their wars and vanity projects. And I'll never forget that our currency was debased to fund greedy bankers and a virus invented by Anthony Fauci. The Ukraine war, too. And now we're paying the price. There's one clear winner from money printing, and it's not me. There's one clear winner in war, and it's not me. And someone would have benefited from the Voice proposal, but it wouldn't have been me. Or the Aboriginals. And now they tell me that colonisation justifies genocide? And at the same time they're calling me a coloniser? Look out for the people who equate the plight of Aboriginals with the plight of Palestinians. They're closeted war-mongers looking for blood to be shed on our own shores. Communist flags flown at the Voice rallies taught me a lesson. And now Aboriginal flags flown at the Hamas rallies teach me a lesson. Decolonisation is code word for genocide. Don't forget that. And don't let them censor the internet. Free communication is the only defence to tyranny.

The bank froze all my money Because I bought some crypto I thought the money was mine But the bank thinks it’s theirs And since I can’t get it back It looks like it’s theirs You don’t own your money Or your house Or your super They control it all

LOST IN THE LABYRINTH All the stories have been told, and all the lessons have been learned. But we’ve failed to move any closer to the centre of the labyrinth. Disoriented, we wander aimlessly back and forth at its entrance, failing to make any meaningful progress inward. Are we fated to repeat the same mistakes for all eternity? This question makes me claustrophobic. But as I sit here watching the thirteenth remake of Thor, and listening to sententious academics preach the merits of communism, it’s clear that the answer to my question is yes. We’re trapped in a perpetual purgatory where there are no new stories, and the only strategy politicians can come up with is to run into the same brick wall, but from a different angle. I’ve read the history books. I know where that road leads. And if we really do have a duty to show God the beauty of his creation, then fully utilising our capacity for conscious thought would be a great way to do this. But we’re hindered by our consistent refusal to learn lessons from our past, insisting instead to learn solely through the pain of mistake. This atavistic tendency explains why Meditations is still relevant after 2,000 years. Unlike our technology, which improves rapidly, our nature is static. We’re in an intellectual and spiritual deadlock. And the hubris of modern humans means that we’re blind to this tendency. The harsh lessons of the 19th and 20th centuries are eschewed due to perceived irrelevance, and we’re currently engaged in the wholesale destruction of the institutions which underpin our civilisation. This destruction is purportedly propitiation to new gods with which I’m not familiar. From what I can gather, there’s a belief that if we appease these new gods, they will free us from some vaguely asserted ‘oppression’ which supposedly characterised our past. They say that once the framework of the Western world has been dismantled, humanity will spontaneously propel forward into a new epoch characterised by morality, virtue, and abundance. But I don’t buy it. And from what I can tell, society is atrophying, not excelling. We haven’t been to the Moon in 50 years. We don’t fly supersonic on Concorde anymore. We’re more depressed than ever. Nobody can buy a house. There’s a new tax every day. Censorship is increasing. Most marriages end in divorce. Institutions can’t be trusted. And our words have lost all their meaning. Everybody is aware of this accelerating degeneration, yet nobody will engage with it in any meaningful way. Instead, we’re subjected to this inane public discourse, which appears to be more concerned with the obfuscation of issues than their resolution. I’m tired of being forced to navigate the quagmire of mindless tribalism and disingenuous doublespeak. And I’m tired of being trapped inside this sterile, brutalist environment which is seemingly designed to disconnect the individual from the divine. It’s made us lose touch with the universal. And in the process we’ve been deluded into believing that reality is confined to this mundane, sublunary plane. I think that’s why we’re lost in this metaphorical labyrinth of existence. - John Goddard

CONSTANT SURVEILLANCE I wake up to Alexa’s ominous red eye staring at me from the corner of my apartment. It follows my every move as I get ready for the day. Although it sits there silently, I know that the AI behind it is carefully measuring the social and environmental impact of all my actions. It records everything: my energy consumption, the environmental rating of the clothes I’m wearing, and even the social justice rating of the media I’m consuming. Somewhere deep within the bowels of the Capitol Building, a team of Social Scientists reviews my decisions in order to give me a Social Score. And this Social Score determines my place within the Organised Economy. Suddenly, my retina lights up It’s a notification that my monthly universal basic income has been credited to my Central Digital Bank account. Now I know that I have to get to the grocery store as quickly as possible. Because these days inflation increases weekly. If I wait too long, I won’t be able to afford enough food to last me the month. So I ask Alexa for a car, and after a few minutes a State-owned driverless vehicle arrives at my door. Before I’m permitted to enter the vehicle, I’m forced to watch an ad for this new drink called Pfizade. I wonder what’s in it? I stare blankly out the car window as a fleet of drones films the entirety of my 12-minute trip to the grocery store. Inside the store, I vaguely notice a mechanical whirr as those same drones follow me up and down the aisles, watching intently as I select my food items. Most of the shelves are empty, but that’s normal these days. I navigate my way through a mass of Citizens with sunken eyes and sallow skin, who are all scrambling to get nutrients before they’re driven further into poverty by inflation. I keep my head down as I shuffle past them, careful not to engage in unnecessary conversation. Because I know that saying the wrong thing is punishable by an immediate fine and reduction in Social Score. I’ve even heard that simply looking at someone for too long can be considered a crime these days, depending on where that person sits in the Victimhood Hierarchy. But it’s hard to say for sure. You see, it’s difficult to tell what the laws actually are; they seem malleable to the ever-changing whims of the Uni-Party. Eventually I make it to the fridges and I notice that there’s one steak left. My heart leaps with excitement. I can’t even remember the last time I saw a steak! I rush over to the fridge, but as I reach in to grab the steak, a bright red light flashes above me. I’m immediately surrounded by four drones, hovering at head height. “INSUFFICIENT CARBON ALLOWANCE!” They shriek at me in a semi-human AI generated voice. I watch in disappointment as my bone-thin arm returns the steak to the fridge and replaces it with a bug patty. As I leave the grocery store, I’m notified that my universal basic income account has been automatically debited $487.20. That’s almost $40 more than last month. I begin to wonder why prices keep increasing, since the Economic Liberation was supposed to bring about prosperity. But I quickly stop myself from thinking about it too much about it in case I commit a Thought Crime. At home, I heat up the flavourless bug patty for dinner. As I masticate on the unsatisfying goo, I find myself fantasising about the steak I wasn’t permitted to eat. I can’t remember the last time I felt satiated. As I step into the shower, I catch a glimpse of my emaciated body in the mirror. I don’t even notice that Alexa’s red eye is staring at it as well.

RIOT I don’t understand why you’re not rioting in the streets. They locked you up for 12 months and then caused all this inflation. Every aspect of your life is dictated by some fake government regulation. And now they’re trying to shut you up with the censorship bill? You get filmed everywhere you go, and they think you’re dumb enough to be controlled by propaganda. All your income gets eaten up by taxes, but you don’t even notice it because they’re all hidden. When I walk outside, I don’t get why everyone’s so calm. Don’t they notice that we’re living under a dictatorship? Or worse, a kleptocracy dressed up as a democracy? I mean, I think some people notice. They complain about how expensive things are. But they don’t actually DO anything about. And I think that’s because they’ve been beaten down to the point that they believe that the crushing weight of totalitarianism is INEVITABLE. This is what happens when you rob the population of their means to defend themselves. They become docile, compliant slaves. The Americans knew this, and they’re prepared to die for their right to defend themselves against tyranny. Australians are not. And it’s all I can see when I walk the streets. Downtrodden serfs living under communism. Complaining, but never acting. If you don’t want to get taxed more, you’re going to have to stand up and say “No”. Tell Albanese that we want our money out of the bloated public service and back in our own pockets. Then tell him to repeal all the fake regulations. Stop telling me how to live my life. And while you’re at it, abolish the ATO. How can you charge a capital gains tax if you’re not my partner in the venture? How can you justify taxing me to pay for a war in Ukraine? And how can you compulsorily acquire my land? It’s all State sanctioned theft under the threat of violence.

Ok I’m starting to wrap my head around nostr. Can anybody recommend some good creators or other accounts I should be following and sending SATs?

At this stage, I don’t know what’ll happen first. Will I get taxed into poverty, inflated into poverty, or be driven into poverty by migration? In any event, it’s clear that my poverty is the end goal of government policy. Not poverty generally, but my poverty in particular. Because all my tax dollars go to Albanese’s friends via corruption and consulting fees. And the value extracted from me through inflation goes to asset owners and banks. Business owners too, when you think about it. The banking system is fake and all of our money is fake. If you can’t recognise this after the last three years, then you deserve what’s coming to you. They printed money like crazy just to lock us in our houses. Now the price of everything has tripled. And all the economists with half a brain said this would happen. But we were told that modern central banks had “advanced”; that they knew how to implement quantitative easing without wrecking the economy. The hubris of economists and politicians is the only historical constant. They keep asking us to follow them over the same cliff, telling us that gravity won’t pull us down this time. The Marxists exemplify this perfectly. They think their ideologies have “modernised” and “advanced”. They tell us that they’ll work this time, despite the catastrophic failures of the past. But centralised control will never work because value is subjective. Once you realise that, you realise that a central authority can’t control the economy. Individual actors need to be free to make economic choices. The Austrians understand this perfectly, but nobody will listen to them because they’re labelled as “fringe” by the establishment. That’s the same label they gave to the doctors who suggested that injecting yourself with poison that hadn’t been properly tested was a bad idea. The media has warped your reality. So much so that you’ve just accepted it as axiomatic that our money is controlled by the government. Why? Because some paid shill went on Sunrise and told you that was the best way forward? Well I don’t want my purchasing power to be determined by Jim Chalmers’ capabilities. Or that nutcase Michelle Bullock who thinks that climate change is part of her mandate as RBA Governor. I don’t want these condescending, Marxist moralists to have any control over my financial future whatsoever. And I definitely don’t want to be inflated into poverty. We all know what fixes this.

WRONGTHINK I just got fired for wrongthink. Then I find out that my bank account’s been frozen, too. I try to get an Uber back home but no cars will pick me up. How did Uber find out I committed wrongthink? I check my phone and apparently I’ve been banned from Instagram for the same reason. Then a social worker knocks on my door and takes my son from me. They tell me I’ve endangered my son by exposing him to wrongthink. The State will now house and re-educate him, ensuring that he is only exposed to Government-Approved facts. I feel my heart rate increase. I try to turn some lights on, but it looks like my power has been disconnected. I remember that I have some cash upstairs, so I decide to use that to buy some food whilst my bank accounts are frozen. But the grocery store tells me that it can’t accept cash. So now I can’t even buy food! I think I have some vague recollections of people warning me about the dangers of a cashless society… I call all my friends for help, but none of them want to talk to me. They’ve all been warned about my wrongthink. They know that if they talk to me on the phone for too long, they’ll get punished as well. I call the police to see if they can help me. They say no, but I’m referred to a Government-Approved Mental Support Officer. I tell her my situation, and she listens carefully. Once I’m done, I hear the Officer get extremely excited. She tells me that the Government has a new solution they’re trialing for people in my situation: a Euthanasia Care Package. She says it’s my best option. The best thing is that it’s $0 up front! They just charge a 58% tax on my estate. I ask if there are any other options, as this seems a bit heavy-handed. But she says that Euthanasia is perfect for people like me. She stresses that it’s a voluntary decision, but then adds that the Government will continue to deny me services until I opt in to the Euthanasia Care Package. I sit on the floor of my living room in despair. How could all of this happen to me? And just because I noticed that the TV was telling me lies? I didn’t even break any laws. These days it seems that there’s one set of rules for the people who repeat what the news tells them. And another set of rules for the people who speak out about the continuous stream of inconsistencies and outright lies that we are force-fed every day at 6pm. And these lies coming from the TV seem so obvious to me. So I wonder how other people don’t notice them. Why don’t they say anything? And then after a while I realise that they must notice them, but they’ve been forced to ignore their own eyes by this machinery of coercion. You see, governments, media, and corporations are now so interconnected globally that they can move in unison to unperson anyone who doesn’t say that 2 + 2 = 5. And so I was unpersoned for wrongthink. As if I’d committed a crime. But I wasn’t tried by a court, I was tried by this new judicial system. Where there’s no evidence, no trial, and no judge. Just a verdict and a punishment.

AT THE ALTER OF THE TRANS GODS I change my profile photo during Pride Month so everyone knows that I’m an #ally. I add my pronouns to my email signature even though I’m quite clearly a man. I play along with my “trans” colleague’s delusion by calling him Amy (despite the fact that nobody could mistake him for a woman). My daughter will be infertile when she’s older because her primary school teacher thought she should go on puberty blockers. I had no say in the matter. I have a rainbow flag bumper sticker on my Rav 4. My wife was molested by a man wearing a dress in a public bathroom. I pay extra tax so that trans people can have dedicated suicide hotlines. I wonder why I have to go out of my way to “affirm” people who are clearly just depressed outcasts. I ask a friend this question and he reports me to the State Diversity Department. They fine me for Bigotry and put me on a watch list. I wonder what that entails. I sit down at my computer and take bite of my Government-Approved Bug-Based Burger. I see photos of a “bottom surgery” and feel pity for people who think this is the pathway to happiness. I post about this on social media. As I’m about to take a second bite of my burger, the State Diversity Police crash through my living room window. I get tazed and handcuffed. I feel a heavy boot pushing down on my back. My face is pressed against the carpet. They tell me that I’ve committed the crime of Spreading Uncomfortable Truths. Apparently that’s when you share information on social media that is technically true, but does not support the State Narrative as prescribed by Dictator Andrews. I tell the cops that I didn’t realise that was a crime. And they tell me it’s prohibited by the COVID Emergency Powers, which are left over from the COVID Pandemic of 2020. I have a vague memory of my birthing parent telling me something about the COVID Pandemic. I ask the police if it’s normal for emergency powers to continue for 50 years. They add 1 count of Weaponised Curiosity to my charges. I get tried for my crimes by the Rainbow Court of Equitable Justice. The three judges trying my cases represent the full spectrum of known sexualities: the Chief Justice is a MAP, whilst the other two judges are a drag queen and a trans-abled trans-woman. They see they see the colour of my skin and find me guilty of all charges. I must receive the maximum possible sentence in accordance with the White Privilege Sentencing Laws of 2027. This means that I’m sentenced to death by bottom surgery. My heart sinks because I’ve seen photos of this horrific punishment online. I get taken to the Final Care Clinic so that I can be made another sacrifice at the alter of the Trans Gods.

I WRITE FAST FICTION Because it used to be that you’d buy some Pulp from Southern Cross to read on the long ride home down the Sandringham Line. But not now, man. Now we have Fast Fiction. Coz we’re living in the digital age. This is the internet of THINGS. We want our stories punchy and we want them relevant and we want them now. And they have to be in the feed, man. Because it’s not real unless it’s in the feed. And plus that’s where everybody’s at these days. Nobody’s hanging out analogue anymore. And it’s no use writing about something that happened last year. That’s done, that’s over. That’s yesterday’s news and nobody wants to know about it. The Modern World exists in a 24 hour News Cycle. So it’s Fiction, but Fast. That’s why I smoke cigarettes and write stories on my iPhone. Because from my small island nation I can reach the world. And at first I found it strange that my Australian-Centric Semi-Fiction got shared internationally. I was surprised that people in New Zealand, Canada, America, and the UK, related to what I was saying. But now I know why. Global corporations are working with national governments to control Western citizens. And for some reason most companies are owned by Blackrock. And for some reason it’s beneficial to Blackrock if you cut off your dick and become a communist. And they’re also trying to put fake indigenous people in power. And speech is being censored like never before. Weak people get off on the thought of the government controlling what we say. But those of us who are capable and intelligent know that that’s a slippery slope. And plus we don’t want the government interfering in our lives. And I think we all owe a debt of gratitude to Elon Musk for paying $44 billion to save free speech. Without him we would still be living in 2021 where the truth was silenced. Now on Twitter we can actually have conversations and, finally, people can say things that are controversial. So I write Fast Fiction. And it makes some people mad. But they don’t understand that I just write shit I think is funny. And when some blue haired they/them gets triggered it makes my day. I think that communists will destroy Australia. I think Lidia Thorpe is a terrorist. I think Louis CK is funny and I think COVID was a scam. I just want to move to the Cayman Islands to pay no tax and leave Albo behind me. But my wife won’t let me so I need an outlet. That’s why I write Fast Fiction.

I WRITE FAST FICTION Because it used to be that you’d buy some Pulp from Southern Cross to read on the long ride home down the Sandringham Line. But not now, man. Now we have Fast Fiction. Coz we’re living in the digital age. This is the internet of THINGS. We want our stories punchy and we want them relevant and we want them now. And they have to be in the feed, man. Because it’s not real unless it’s in the feed. And plus that’s where everybody’s at these days. Nobody’s hanging out analogue anymore. And it’s no use writing about something that happened last year. That’s done, that’s over. That’s yesterday’s news and nobody wants to know about it. The Modern World exists in a 24 hour News Cycle. So it’s Fiction, but Fast. That’s why I smoke cigarettes and write stories on my iPhone. Because from my small island nation I can reach the world. And at first I found it strange that my Australian-Centric Semi-Fiction got shared internationally. I was surprised that people in New Zealand, Canada, America, and the UK, related to what I was saying. But now I know why. Global corporations are working with national governments to control Western citizens. And for some reason most companies are owned by Blackrock. And for some reason it’s beneficial to Blackrock if you cut off your dick and become a communist. And they’re also trying to put fake indigenous people in power. And speech is being censored like never before. Weak people get off on the thought of the government controlling what we say. But those of us who are capable and intelligent know that that’s a slippery slope. And plus we don’t want the government interfering in our lives. And I think we all owe a debt of gratitude to Elon Musk for paying $44 billion to save free speech. Without him we would still be living in 2021 where the truth was silenced. Now on Twitter we can actually have conversations and, finally, people can say things that are controversial. So I write Fast Fiction. And it makes some people mad. But they don’t understand that I just write shit I think is funny. And when some blue haired they/them gets triggered it makes my day. I think that communists will destroy Australia. I think Lidia Thorpe is a terrorist. I think Louis CK is funny and I think COVID was a scam. I just want to move to the Cayman Islands to pay no tax and leave Albo behind me. But my wife won’t let me so I need an outlet. That’s why I write Fast Fiction.