Gideon's Manifesto
The Unabomber said he'd stop sending letter bombs if the Post would agree
To print his manifesto for all to see.
The manifesto said that our problems from technology
had created a social order that keeps man from being free.
Other killers have done the same
They have a message burning in their brain
The idea of murder doesn't give them pause
Dead people don't matter, just the cause.
Here's my manifesto, in some ways I agree
That there is a two-edged sword to technology.
Take A.I., it lets criminals impersonate a voice
If your desperate niece calls for money, do you have a choice?
But here is my message, loud and plain
Criminals have technology to affect your brain.
Take Scopolamine, used by crooks to zombify:
Look up "Devil's breath", it's not pie in the sky.
Devil's breath can be sprayed like a spell through the air.
Those crooks in Columbia use other drugs too, doesn't seem fair.
It's not like a shootout, where you both have a gun:
More like a rout, where the crooks have fun.
But here's where things get even worse
Kind of hard to put this in verse.
Bad guys have gotten tech - maybe from Russia, maybe home grown:
Advanced knowledge of the brain, and drugs unknown.
They can amplify your urges, including to mate
Again, I don't like writing this, but it's getting late.
Drugs that affect your amygdala, cause sudden fear
Drugs to give a heart attack, selective like a spear.
Remember, all these can be sprayed, an invisible way
You could be in front of ten cops, and car comes by that day
You feel the spray, you feel the change
You fall to the ground, because you were in range.
You sound like a lunatic, you sound like a nut
Nobody's interested in arguing "if, and, or but."
But a can of worms has been opened, victims take the fall.
Where no one knows there was a crime at all.
Now how do I know all this, isn't it more probable
That I just had 'sensations" that seemed intolerable?
It's a long story, but if you hear it, it makes sense
It started when I crossed taboos and caused offense.
Where regular folk might just disapprove
Criminals act, criminals move
For this victim, criminals wanted him to know
I had nowhere to run, nowhere to go.
Couldn't go to the police, saying technology had outrun them
Couldn't put a convincing story to paper and pen
But you reading this, can believe or at least wonder
on this silent storm with lightning, but without thunder.
Where skepticism can prevent what people should know:
Though I try to put it in this manifesto.
An advanced technology can't be told from magic
The results can be good, the results can be tragic.
The cage has been opened, the dragon flew
So much damage being done, and nary a clue.
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