Ragnar on Nostr: IMAGINE THINKING YOU ARE NOT A SLAVE. LOL!!! This is a short story of our lives. So, ...

IMAGINE THINKING YOU ARE NOT A SLAVE. LOL!!!

This is a short story of our lives.

So, you are traveling on a high way and you get accosted by a robber called John Snow. John knows that he has no rights to your property. He is in a hurry to take as much from you as possible knowing he is aggressing against you and will quickly leave you alone as soon as he obtains what he can from you. He also doesn’t follow you around saying you now owe him a percentage of your life’s work from that day onwards. Deep down, John knows what he is doing to you is wrong and will not want another man to do same to him.

Somewhere down the road, another group of robbers accost you and take as much as they can from you; However, unlike John who knows that what he is doing is wrong, this gang of men and women lay a claim to your life’s work and follow you around like a ‘La Cosa Nostra’ cartel to ensure you pay what you ‘’owe’’ them with the threat of being thrown into a jail. To make matters more grave, these men and women actually convince onlookers, your family and friends that they are robbing you so that they can take care of you on your journey and prevent you from being robbed by the likes of John Snow. As time passes, you begin to believe this gang cares for you. Whenever you make a new trip, you meet them on the high way and they convince you why they need to take more from you in order to help protect you from some emergencies you may encounter on your sojourn.

When you stop at any rest point and buy food or a bottle of water to quench your thirst, they are there to take a cut as they have convinced you at this point that without them, this trade is impossible and that if they do not take that cut for the trade, the restaurant will definitely cheat you. As you get to your destination and pay rent to sleep, they come in to take yet another cut because they need to protect you from the John Snows in that neighbourhood.

Now, this does not end here. Whenever you get a gift from a friend or your parents, they say you cannot have all that alone, so you need to give up some of it for the benefit of the onlookers. This would have been more bearable if not for the fact that they make you keep track of all you owe them and promptly send it in at a particular time each year as they cannot be bothered to do the work of robbing you all by themselves! They also need you to participate in helping them rob you. They say that this is a necessary step because whether you like it or not, you are an affiliate part of the gang and you cannot denounce the membership.

To cap it all off, while the mobile division of this gang is with you on this journey, the home division of the gang has broken into your home. They have come across the valuables you have acquired over the years as a backup for an uncertain future. Without your knowledge, the home division carts away a small portion of these valuables as a way to make up for the ever decreasing loot brought in by the mobile division.

YES, I HEAR YOU. GOVERNMENT TAXATION IS DEFINITELY vOLuNtArY AND INFLATION IS gOoD FOR YOUR PROTECTION. LOL.