But if you start with something promising and then end with a lame “the government keeps it a secret because if word gets out, it is too powerful”, is when my attention wanes.
Some time back, I was educating myself on this weird hippie culture theory on how the earth was a simulation and we all had been volunteers who had chosen – pre-birth – to be born to our parents (who we had chosen, too). That Life is something like a lesson or a game and we keep learning with each incarnation. The whole everything everywhere all at once quantum thing. I was very intrigued. Exhausted, but intrigued.
The plot was lost, however, when they said this was all proven by some man who could move out of his body and let his soul travel in the astral plane.
Don’t get me wrong. They didn’t lose me there. I was still very invested. I had read and done my research on astral projections and demonology and Satanism after reading a book called “He Came To Set The Captives Free” by Rebecca Brown as a kid. (Been properly scared too, by the by). As long as the astral travelling was reasoned out with demons and Garden of Eden and the Heavenly Battle, I was still very interested. Self-aware gullible, as I said. Also, great hook on this story, just ask Hollywood – amazing spin-offs and fanfics.
The greatest difference between fiction and non-fiction, as they say, is that fiction needs to make sense. Reality doesn't always make sense. But fiction must. In that framework, even the most Murakami-esque works need to operate on a set of well-defined parameters. The outrageous must have their boundaries. Logic is necessary for fiction to work. Hence what I said about conspiracy theories. Make it as wild as you can, just back it up. And tell it well. If your story must involve the government, make sure it doesn't include an all-powerful government, the kind that is perhaps run by Heaven. And if you remember, even the bureaucracy of Heaven produced Lucifer.
So it was that I closed my research the moment they started saying the man who could astral-project was taken by NASA and they tested him and he could correctly tell them what the weather was like in whatever co-ordinates they gave him. That he could even go to Jupiter and count the rings there. But then NASA got spooked because he was proving astral projection was real and it could be taught because all humans could do it if they knew how to. Because then, prisons would have no hold on humans anymore. And the government could no longer control us.
As I keep saying, when the government gets involved, everything becomes sus.
Not because this could never be untrue. That the government might very well not want this shit out, I can believe. But assuming something of the government that it simply is incapable of is problematic for me. The government is not some super mystery entity. It is filled with people like you and I. If all this stuff happened, there will be leaks. Definitely there will be leaks. Besides which, if such a thing existed, it is basically X-Men territory so of course there will be leaks. Even without people like you and I.
This line of thought assumes something basic: that we can take people at their words, and that working for the government suddenly makes everyone super tight-lipped. Not just that, the government is also usually made up almost entirely of bumbling idiots, in all its many headed glory. It is one thing for a section of it to stay quiet. But what of others? People truly underestimate the buffoonery of people in general.
That great wit Douglas Adams said, and I quote: A common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools. Something about this piece reminds me of that. What a great man! Gone too soon.
Moving on, it is however interesting to think that we don’t expect the government to be competent enough to, for example, build good roads and provide sufficient electricity and shit. But suddenly when it comes to astral body projection, they are super efficient about it? And mind, it’s not just once. This is supposedly a "capability" so that assumes there are many people who can do it, or that we can train people to do it. I really am all for believing that shit like this is possible. But let's not involve the government please.
I know all of these are examples of the US government which is not my government but a government is a government whether it is the US one or the India one (or the Mizoram one, under which I work) or the Vogon one, from Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. Whatever differences different set-ups have, bureaucracy has a way of levelling out a lot of basic things. Also governments are run by people and people are people. Whatever cultural or temporal differences we have, there is a universality to us that bureaucracy often reveals. And I chose all these examples because I very well can NOT give examples from my own work.
I stand by what I said. Feed me lies and I shall believe you. But let’s not get carried away with government conspiracy theories. No government is that competent to contain Dr Strange level magic. No government controls its servants that efficiently. If genetically altered superhuman mutants and Stranger Things happen, there will be leaks.
Until then, we look to Sci-fi.
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