JLJack Lew
I cannot do it. It's unconstitutional.
We're talking about rolling out e-coin loans. I fail to see how the Constitution fits into this logic. Look, with e-coin equal to one dollar, it'll free up the economy. It'll give you some breathing space.
JLJack Lew
You knew this was going to happen from the get go. And you're hitting me with this while there's an energy crisis across the eastern seaboard.
[shrugs] Uh huh, I am coming to you first, asking...
JLJack Lew
Don't give me that. The only reason why you're here first is because you don't want to get slapped with regulations. But if you are indeed asking, then I am saying no. Now, constitutionally, you can't make your own currency. That is the federal government's job! [pounds the table] We simply can't let you make big loans in e-coin that you wouldn't make in dollars.
[sighs] Jack. Look at me. I am not the problem here. The problem here is hard cash is fading rapidly. It's just the way of the world right now. And Bitcoin is spreading. And if Bitcoin takes over, we are all in a world of hell. It is unregulated. It's already reached its transaction volume maximum and it is partly controlled by Chinese miners...
JLJack Lew
You just accepted two trillion dollars from them.
Yes, yes. And now I want to use it against them. [smiles] With e-coin, we control the ledger. And the mining servers. We are the authority. I will make sure you have visibility into every single wallet that's opened. Every loan, every transaction. Which means we can start making new assets, which means we can start rebuilding the banking sector, without your having to inject even more politically unpalatable federal funds into it.
JLJack Lew
The president will laugh in my face.
But you know this is the right thing to do. This is going to be controlled by a good old fashioned American company. You want to regulate it, be my guest. Regulate the shit out of it. I'll give you backdoors, side doors, tracing...whatever you want. Just don't shut it down. [pause] This was always the future Jack. The 5/9 attacks just accelerated it.
JLJack Lew
[pause] How long? How long have you been pressing this pedal? How long have you been plotting against me?
Oh, come on, Jack. [laughs] We've known each other for years. You know full well I... I don't give a shit about you. So please, don't hold a personal grudge just because you lost. Defeats can still be profitable.
[narrating] It's one thing to question your mind; it's another to question your eyes and ears. But, then again, isn't it all the same? Our senses just mediocre inputs to our brain? Sure, we rely on them, trust they accurately portray the real world around us, but what if the haunting truth is they can't? That what we perceive isn't the real world at all, but just our mind's best guess? That all we really have is a garbled reality, a truly fuzzy picture we will never make out?
[narrating] Darlene’s right. I can’t trust them. This was too easy. But at least I stopped them. For now. I can go home knowing that. But was she right about me? Am I sticking my head in the sand? Did my revolution just bury our minds instead of freeing them? Encrypting Evil Corp’s data was meant to empower us, but instead, it left us powerless, scaring us into even more submission. Five/Nine didn’t get rid of the invisible hand. It turned it into a fist that punched us in the dick. And, like a botnet, the fear I created is spreading so fast, it’s practically airborne. It’s swallowed us whole, digested us, and now we’re stuck in its asshole, waiting to be dumped out. And while we’re here, they are having their way with us. They’ve packaged our fight into product, turned our dissent into intellectual property, televising our revolution with commercial breaks. They’ve backdoored into our minds and robbed our truth, refurbished the facts, then marked up the price. This is what they do. This is what they’re good at. This is their greatest trick. Lobotomizing us into their virtual reality horror show. And this all started because I tried to hide from society. Remember? [Fuck society.] Yeah, I fucked society all right. I reset it to zero and if I don’t do anything about it, it’ll continue to grow in this malignant way. And that’s what I’m afraid of the most. This dark future I set in motion. Who knows what could come from this… What if, instead of fighting back, we cave? Give away our privacy for security. Exchange dignity for safety. Trade in revolution for repression. What if we choose weakness over strength? They’ll even have us build our own prison. This is what they wanted all along. For us to buy in on our worst selves. And I just made it easier for them. I didn’t start a revolution; I just made us docile enough for their slaughtering. And I can stand here and blame Evil Corp and every other conglomerate out there for taking advantage of us. Blame the FBI, NSA, CIA for letting them get away with this. Blame all the world’s leaders for aiding and abetting them. Blame Adam Smith for inventing modern-day capitalism in the first fucking place. Blame money for dividing us. Blame us for letting it. But none of that’s true. The truth is, I’m the one to blame. I’m the problem. This was my fault. All of it. I did this.
