I Am Receding, and So Are We All

We're human, after all. Wouldn't you rather I drive you than some remote-controlled robot? That's what's coming after all, if you allow it to happen. Humans are too needy. We demand things, especially respect. Robots need nothing, not sustenance, love or understanding. They cannot be disrespected, spit upon, beaten to the point of utter terror. We're on our way to obsolescence.

"There is no pain... you are receding... a distant smoke on the horizon... you are only coming through in waves... your lips move, but I cannot hear what you are saying..."

(Before I go any further, thank you Roger Waters and David Gilmour... your words and music have moved me in ways many of us unthinkably fathom with every heartbeat. This post is a tribute to both your music and lyrics, but also to those of us who have swayed and lived your prophetic magic.)

I have become, comfortably numb. After nearly seven years in this gig, I can see the my ship sailing. The management has made it quite clear, we are just a little pin prick, and I feel a little sick. I can't stand up, because it's working too good. It keeps me going through the show, but the pain is receding. It's inevitable. I can see that ship's smoke on the horizon. I'm moving my lips, but they won't hear what I'm saying. When I was a child I caught a fleeting glimpse out of the corner of my eyes, now I turn to look and it's nearly gone. I cannot put my finger on it now... my inner child has grown and the dream is almost gone. I am, simply, comfortably numb.

If this ship continues to sail on its current course, we're all doomed. Everyone who works their bones to a mind-numbing sadness understands. Big Money has its sights set on our ultimate slavery. We'll eventually do as we're told, or we will die. All of us. They will have all they need, and we will no longer be necessary. Everything they need will be covered by the automation we're allowing to take over.

Whenever you allow yourself to use automated checkouts at the grocery, automatic bill-pay through online banking, or any number of today's "convenience" chores, you're adding to the ultimatum which says the working man and woman have become quite simply... obsolete. Vote for the "wrong" party, and you're ultimately signing our collective death warrant. I'll leave it to you all to decide which I speak of.

Those who have, no longer will need those who do not. Their needs will be met via computer. I saw it when my career as a typographer came to a screeching halt as the personal computer made its debut in the 1990s. All the advances of the human mind and the creativeness of our souls was captured upon bytes which have no conscience. They need no money to survive... only electricity. Those who paid for its development knew what their ultimate goal was, and we will soon be unnecessary to their greedy means.

Be warned, transit riding public: when your buses no longer have a human in the seat, your number is next. If the complex task of transporting humans becomes automated, whose job is next on the chopping block? If you have no more reason to your employment, what is the logical path to your existence? Annihilation...

Are we simply spinning our wheels toward oblivion? We already know our voices aren't important. Given transit management's knack of downplaying collective concerns of our basic heartbeats, it makes one woncder if this pulse even registers in the hollowness of their empty souls. Don't they realize they're part of the diabolical scheme which dictates their own demise?

We have allowed a faceless collective to determine our own demise. We fight amongst ourselves over which hand will deliver the final blow to our simple existence, and the powers who control the puppet strings laugh in glee at our impending and final battle cry, which will ring hollow in the volume of their collective and evil laughter.

A friend of mine, fellow Operator who happened to "steal" my favorite run for me for Fall 2019, told me this: "Someday operators will be reduced to controlling drones who watch over our automated buses. It's coming, and we'd best be ready." Wow, I fear he's right. Less operators means fewer complaints management has to deal with. Fewer people doing the work we should always do anyway. It struck a chord of fear in my soul.

Republican, Democrat, Independent, Whoever... I love you all because we're all doomed. Together. Our death is tolling now, and we're allowing it to happen through the divisiveness which is perpetrated and encouraged by those who pull our collective strings. "Our religion is superior to yours, because God reigns supreme." Bullshit. Your gods won't earn a paycheck, or keep your child from overdosing on the drugs Big Pharma makes easily-available without giving a damn what the consequences are of the additive properties attached to them, while holding the antidote at bay to most who cannot afford them. We're doomed, unless we learn to stand as ONE, and shout to the heavens that we refuse to bow down to Big Money.

The 13th Amendment to the United States Constitution, fought for and paid for by the blood of the last great American President, my revered and beloved Abraham Lincoln, states that “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.”

Yet, we have all become slaves to those who control our collective fortunes. Lincoln fought his entire political career against slavery, yet we find ourselves once again victim of this scourge against all humanity. Had President Lincoln survived, perhaps he would have seen the ultimate fallacy which he gave his life to prevent. Maybe he would have foreseen the divisiveness which would arise from the disharmony he so fervently hoped to prevent. Alas, the hatred of the South prevented a peaceful and loving Reconstruction that might have kept us from the horrific racial strife which led to the Rev. Martin Luther King's assassination in 1968. Maybe Lincoln envisioned a future in which we learned to love one another and move forward as ONE. But it was not to be. Now, we are poised with knives at each other's throats, pawns in the end-game that dictates our ultimate demise.

I choose love over hate, each moment of every day. I love those who differ from my beliefs. I celebrate the rights of those whose lives differ from mine, and offer my strengths to their cause. Why?  Because we're all Americans, and we work hard every day in hopes that we will leave a better tomorrow for all our toils today. It's what President Lincoln would respect, and encourage us all to do. It's what my father fought World War II for... the idea that America is where dreams can come true.

Don't agree with my political views? That's okay. We're brothers and sisters no matter our differences. I'm on your level. Fight with me, rather than against me. Otherwise, we're doomed to the same fate at the hands of those who care naught for us. I reach out my hand to you all... you simply need to grasp it to understand our collective plight.

God Bless you, and may He bless yours with the same goodness I know as mine. Peace be always with you.

Love,
Deke N. Blue
Transit Operator