Political Hunger Games

Mr. Right, Part 1

Here’s a story to set the stage for today’s post on The Tolton Path:

“Mr. Right,” the Yellow light hovered, changing its shape with each sharply spoken word, “you are to answer the questions and nothing more.” Mr. Right remained standing, hunched while leaning on his cane, staring at the yellow light, thinking of a response. His entire life, he worked towards this moment. He was ready. It was transition day.

There were others–Blue, Red, Green and Orange–who remained still and silent. “My apologies,” Mr. Right said, bowing and briefly turning the palm of his hand towards it, “I merely mean to express my sincerity in passing on all the important elements of my life.” That was the goal of Mr. Right, to pass on his learnings, advice and experiences to his family members. Much has happened in the world over his life.

But Yellow was not pleased. Instantly, it grew the size of the room, “Silence!” It stretched into a thin vertical line before collapsing into its normal, hand-sized, shape. “As I said, the Colors will determine what should and should not be passed on. All your memories and thoughts have been stored and analyzed. You must answer my questions to provide the appropriate context.”

This continued to confuse Mr. Right. All his experiences–friendships, education, career, relationships–resulted in learnings that he hoped to provide his children and grandchildren. He did this as best he could in person over the years, but now, with the new technology, all this guidance he hoped to provide could be merged into a family master database. It is here where everything could be accessed by family members instantly as life events presented itself. Advice and knowledge passed on from generation to generation.

And with Mr. Right’s aging and diseased body, time was running out to complete his transition. He needed the okay from the Colors–an approval board to ensure only appropriate information was passed into the family database–to do so. He was sailing through the process until Yellow’s category came up for review. Mr. Right’s entire belief system was his foundation for this particular category. He could not answer questions without upsetting Yellow. But he must try, for his grandchildren and the generations to come. “Of course,” he replied to Yellow.

“Thank you, Mr. Right,” Blue said, stretching each word ever so slightly. “Please continue, Yellow.”

Yellow changed shape. The elderly, sick man straightened up as best he could. “Mr. Right,” Yellow said, “tell us why you voted the way you did.” 

-The end (for now)-

Sharing All Our Humanity

There is much more to us than who we voted for. We have experiences that form us and that are further built upon as we continue within our families and to socialize within friendships, activities, educations and careers. We have similar experiences that can help us connect yet also have very different experiences that can provide perspectives that we were lacking on our own that informs us to become compassionate.

As all knowledge continues to be digitized and contextualized into massive databases for generative AI platforms including those from OpenAI, Google, Microsoft, Amazon and Anthropic, it is only a matter of time before private databases are accessible for the broader population allowing each person to store and retrieve information and memories about their life. And such things could be shared or gifted to their heirs that will be further compiled and built upon. My story at the beginning of this post fathoms the idea where such things require the approval of an oversight board to ensure that information in this database is “appropriate” to be shared. 

There is a lot that affects how a human being thinks and makes decisions. No other creation is as complex as us. That’s the way God made us. Think of the last time you tried to figure out what to watch on Netflix. Now imagine judging someone solely on their choice of what they watch. We are much more than who we vote for. 

But the easiest way to hold a country hostage is to take political control over its branches and agencies. How does a party take political control? It’s simple–divide its population against one another. Divide it up in so many ways that the citizenry must look to the politicians to solve the very problems that the politicians created and who will never solve. Instead they will use the problem they created to continue to divide us and tighten its grip. 

Don’t let our media turn politics into The Hunger Games, where you despise large swaths of society, watching the battle and betting for your person to win. Instead, unite and connect with one another again. Smile, be joyful and care for your brothers and sisters. Your friends, family and neighbors are much more than who they vote for. And so are you.

Peace.