Claire Wolfe - 10/28/2003: "Helplessness": "But it did have to do with it, and even though we couldn't make the connection in a linear way, everybody in the conversation groked that these things were connected. The connection is that the powers that be disregard the individual for the sake of 'convenience' or 'efficiency' or 'collecting aggregate data' or whatever. The individual becomes nothing but a data point, a case study, a unit. And 'units' have no rights. Units don't have feelings or hopes or desires -- certainly not any that need to be acknowledged by planners of 'efficient' systems. Or so the systemizers appear to believe.

This is where things begin to break down. The system evolves to serve the individual. Then it evolves to where the individual serves the system. That's where we're going now (and where we already are in many terrifying ways). But it can't last. You can manipulate people so far -- incredibly far. You can use and abuse them to a shocking degree. But in the end a system that disregards the emotional, spiritual, and intellectual -- and above all, highly individual -- nature of the individuals within it ... cannot hold."