This week, I am looking at the concepts of chapter 3, the last chapter in Fahrenheit 451. As the second time reading it, I can honestly say that I don’t remember a single thing about this book. I had a slight hope that maybe it would come back to me as I went along, but – nope. That is OK, because now I can come at it with a fresh and unbiased prospective.

If you read the book, then you know where the chapter starts. I’ll just say that there was a lot of burning of things. This translated into a failed manhunt and ending with nuclear war. And when once over, it was time to rebuild society. A little simplistic and abrupt if you ask me.

I have to be careful that I keep things in line as I write today. I am simultaneously thinking about this chapter and the overall wrap-up next week. While they are related, they are most definitely not the same. It has more to do with the origin story of the book rather than what is happening in this particular chapter.

Enough flowery non-sense and platitudes, let’s get into it. What I wanted to talk about today was a particular incident in the book. After Montag escaped from the scene of his troubles and his pursuers lost the trail something happened. What happened was that a fill-in for Montag was identified. The mechanical hound pursued, attacked and executed that person. All the while the event was filmed for TV and the action was conveniently abstract by camera angle, action and distance.

I definitely shouldn’t admit this but I will anyway. You see, I believe that people are stupid, until they are not. What I am saying is that people will believe almost anything reasonable until proven otherwise. Generally speaking this is related to issue that never effected me until they did and then they were real or wrong.

A political response to covid was believed and accepted by all sides because all sides were pretty much saying the same thing. Until your job was deemed ’essential’ or your job required a vaccine card or your dentist made you wear a mask in the lobby. It was then people said “wait a minute, this isn’t right. We are all in this together, or are we?”

You see, for propaganda to be effective, it has to be seen as accurate or true. When the mechanical hound killed the stand in for Montag, it was for show. It was to prove that a renegade’s actions has consequences and justice was served. As long as the greater population believed that there was no escape or no hope of resistance, there actually wasn’t.

An artificial society where friends and relatives are TV images, reality is built on whatever is seen. We all know that TV is staged and scripted. So the saying that perception is reality clearly germane to the topic. All my friends are on Facebook/Instagram/Snapchat/TikTok. You catch what I am saying? I a saying that we are halfway there to living in an artificial society.

How many times have you heard about people that beat a disease are the ones that fight it at every turn? When my wife was going through cancer treatment, I read case studies provided for support members that spoke to the very situation. Of course, this is not everyone’s destiny but certainly when the stars align and the person has the right attitude, sometimes the seemingly impossible can happen.

End Your Programming Routine: I am certainly not advocating for doing something crazy or life threatening by fighting a tyrannical entity with deadly consequences. The definition of changing your programming is challenging the status quo. You must observe and question what you see versus what you know. A worthy fight is one that is worth the risks.