Chapter VII

Have you ever heard of the app Tinder?  It’s this preposterous app that allows you to connect with people you’ve never met that you might like because they’re cute.  In effect, I guess it works like any other dating site, it allows you to meet people you probably wouldn’t meet otherwise, but it seems a bit creepier than other programs because it not only shows you people and their pictures and allows you to text them, but it tells you how close approximately you are to them.  Creepy right?  My girlfriend had it for a little while purely to mess with people.  It was somewhat disgusting the vigor with which people would change purely to find common ground with her.  For example she told one guy that she would castrate him for asking about prior relationships, to which he responded that he was so sad that it hadn’t worked out and that she should text him on his phone number.  I guess this could be called conformism.  In government matters it rears its ugly head under the name of populism.  It’s this dastardly practice of conformity that gives power to tyrants, usurpers, oppressors, and bellicose warmongerers.  Why?  Because each of us appreciates security more than freedom in most matters.  In every imaginary line that’s been drawn up, these nation states that offer us some sense of belonging and security, some freedom is taken.  But how much is too much?  How much can we justify?  And how many of us even care?