THE VILLAGE STORY BOOK
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
" PRISONER OF PARADISE ", A short story by Tony Sandy.
Inside the green dome, No. 2 and his sidekick 31, are talking tactics for dealing with No. 6.
‘We need to get him into the societal gaming network - make him believe things work one way, then tell him they work another way. Break him like a green branch, by pushing him one way then the other. Social metronomy in other words.'
'Good cop, bad cop you mean? Torture him until you get the truth out of him.'
'Don't be so naive 31. If you want the truth out of anybody, you get them to relax, think that they are safe. That's why the best spies are women. No, torture is aimed at breaking a man's spirit, so that he'll grab any lifeline, any certainty - then you can mould him into anything you want. A man in pain will confess to anything - tell you whatever you want to hear, just to make it stop. You'll never get to the truth that way, in a month of Sundays. You can never be sure of any supposed secrets revealed that way. A broken man will be so grateful though, that he'll do anything for you.'
'The Stockholm Syndrome you mean?'
'Yes, they have such gratitude to the torturer because he's stopped that they end up loving him and become a convert to whatever cause he espouses. They would die for him. Slavish and brutish I know but it does the trick. A simple method. Get him to believe he fits in, break him of that belief, then reorientate again the way you want - hence 'The Three Layer Method.''
In another part of The Village, away from the prying spyware and uncertain loyalty of fellow inmates, No 6 grooms his own protege.
'There are two types of people in this world, 13 - liars and truth tellers. Your lifelong task is to learn to distinguish between the two.'
'You mean lying Blackfeet and the honest Blackfeet?'
'Precisely. The people around you can be more dangerous to you than the obvious jailers. Is somebody too friendly, too prying? What are their motives for enquiry? Those who hold us here, will try to confuse you and discourage any hope of escape and maybe they're right - perhaps the only true escape is in your mind. They want to break you and reshape you to their will. If you want to be somewhere else, doing something else - they'll use that chink of weakness to get inside your head and crack it open like a walnut. You have to resist them and your own urge to run away, staying present no matter what. It's the only way for you, to stay you. Accept whatever is thrown your way and cope with it as best you can. That's the secret.
A corrupt society like this, wants to turn you into a mindless slave, a willing worker but not an intelligent one. Only the freedom to explore can break you of this insularity as an isolated individual - learning requires physical and especially mental movement. The irony is that a slave state dumbs itself down, ensuring its own demise because it is never prepared for anything that requires individual responsibility, reacting when it is too late, after orders eventually filter down from on high. A free society encourages the best out of people, not puts fear in. It motivates people to investigate, innovate - bringing out their true creative character, their individuality. All the things a slave society is afraid of. They don't want to delve and don't want others who work for them, to delve either. They hire those who are as corrupt as they are. Those too lazy and too cowardly, to probe the depths, so their personal secrets are left quietly buried.'
'How does that relate to this place then?'
'Lies. They say that they want to extract the truth from each and every one of us but do they? Maybe instead they are trying to bury the truth in our minds because in reality they are our old masters? All we see for sure are our fellows tortured and dumped, plus distrust fostered to keep us apart but are they forthcoming about anything to do with them?'
'No.'
'No. They lie to you, to manipulate you. They cite authority and the public good, for their actions, whereas the only motive for those who tell you the truth is to set you free from error, mistake. They want you to think things are calm, controlled, predictable - that there is nothing they haven't thought of and that they are in total charge of everything - God even but it is just a boring prison for the brain dead. They want you to feel safe or at least give up hope. That way they know you won't give them any trouble, by trying to escape. Don't question, don't struggle, don't fight - just submit and pretend to be happy, like some grotesque cages clown!'
With that 6 fell silent - angry at what he'd said, what he'd done and lost in fearful thought at his own predicament, like a fly trapped in a web.=