Mirage: 2024 ...Part 11 ...Going Dark

Renegade

The weird thing about a crisis is you don't come apart, but instead, fall back on routine.

In the midst of the Emergency I was still lecturing and students were still dutifully showing up and taking notes, not so much with tablets, but the old way―with pen and paper.

I don't think any of us would be fazed to resort to quill and quire and scribble away in candle light.

The reason I suppose is because the human spirit is indomitable, or absurd as Sisyphus, rolling an impossible rock up a hill. As Camus explained, the struggle itself towards the heights is enough to fill a man's heart.

Really―why do we do that? I suppose we, like Sisyphus, must imagine ourselves to be happy. Perhaps it's a life-lie that helps us survive.

I'm musing on such things as I leave the lecture hall and run right into Ari.

"Hey Pal, I came looking for you. Lev filled me in on what you're planning and I've got good news for you."

"I hope it's not a good deal on an electric car."

"Nicely played," he laughed, "I like that―but no, it's something incredible. I need you to come with me right now―no questions asked. Come to my office and you won't be disappointed, I promise you that."

"What are you, selling Ari?" I ask, with a note of resignation in my voice.

"I told you―no questions asked. Those are just the rules. I'll be faithful―I'll deliver on my promise. You won't be sorry."

"Go ahead," I sigh, gesturing to the path. "Lead on MacDuff."

We walk to his office on St. George Street with me inwardly wondering if this is a myth akin to Saint Gorge slaying lions as I'm readily falling for another of Ari's wild schemes.

"Bear with me," he sings cheerily as we stomp up his unlit staircase until we're finally in the Dragon's Den and I find myself staring speechless at Nestor Marx, in the flesh―famed technologist, entrepreneur and pioneer of Digitware, the ultimate in wearable technology.

'' I'm sure Mr. Marx needs no introduction, " Ari chuckles, "but Nestor, allow me to present my tongue-tied friend, Alex Learner, sometime historian and now would-be renegade about to defy a direct government order."

"Tsk, tsk," the wunderkind admonished, "but if you're bent on such a reckless act, Professor Learner, why not perish gloriously?”

“I’m at a loss for words, Mr. Marx, but what do you have in mind, short of leading a coup?”

“How does a network of your own sound? I can build you a new and improved virtual space where you can instantly keep in touch with your colleagues. Oh. And did I say it would be improved? On this platform you’d be able to talk freely and plan with full anonymity, your identity and free speech rights fully protected and encrypted. Inshore, I’m offering you the chance to go dark on a secure network with state -of-the-art encryption protocols where your data cannot be intercepted by unauthorized third parties. How does that sound to you?”

I had to admit, it sounded like a godsend—a way out of this nightmare world without censorship and surveillance by central authorities.

Anyone wth traditional democratic values would be heartened to be presented with an opportunity to not only preserve and exercise free speech but to strike a blow at authoritarian forces bent on destroying our freedoms.

If he was looking for a rebel with courage to carry out his plans and oppose his elite rivals, I was his guy.