voice;

[animusnpcs]

--ridiculous. I suppose you'd just let them get away with it. [Jason's voice crackles over the network, catching him mid-conversation. His anger is obvious.]

It's my month and I get to do what I want. [Zo sounds childishly petulant.]

Your month but my collar checkups. We're lucky we've at least trained some of them in learned helplessness or who knows how much worse it could have been! [Jason's anger only increases--he obviously doesn't know he's being recorded and broadcast.] And you know the rules.

Yes, but Riki already-- [Zo's petulance increases, but Jason cuts him off sharply.]

Riki's concerns aren't mine. They've interfered with my business, I'll punish them.

[Zo's tone darkens--still childishly angry, but there's an edge to it.] You know I have to approve whatever you're gonna do.

[Jason sighs, but his tone softens a little. It's difficult to tell why with just audio to go on, though.] I realize that. I'm hardly going to request experiment time; it's my turn next month anyway. All I want from you is--

[The feed cuts out.]

(There will be no NPC responses to this post.)

Comments

[thelordsage]

What does helplessness have to do with this? I simply refused the boycott because it wasn't the action I wanted to take.

[tacticaldisaster]

Learned helplessness - Basically, he means he's tried to condition people into thinking that they cannot do anything, Sephiran. You and I may have chosen not to boycott the checkups for reasons other than that, but I suspect that quite a few people were thinking along the lines of "it's just going to hurt us, why bother?"

That's what he means - our own despair at our situation, the fact that people break down when hurt too much, has been used against us.

...It's despicable.

[thelordsage]

Ah, I see. Yes, it is despicable. There are people here who are very vulnerable and cannot help that fact. To exploit it by using their weakness against them is wrong.

[tacticaldisaster]

Precisely. It would also, I hate to admit it, explain why any proper attempts at a rebellion never get off the ground, or why so many don't do anything - because of the learned helplessness. It keeps them in power, and us underfoot - and they're counting on it to remain that way.

[...]

I wonder if there are any books on psychology - or anyone with extensive knowledge of it - here in the Tower? Perhaps if we found a way to reverse this...

[thelordsage]

Are we at a point where too many people believe they can't do anything, even though now is the time to act? We are on a time limit, as looking at a terminal will show you.

That may be a good place to start, but the mind is a difficult thing to change when it comes to subjects like this. I don't think that banishing the feelings of helplessness can be done by something as simple as a pep talk.

[tacticaldisaster]

Judging by the general reactions of the tower to the boycott, it certainly seems that way. Maybe everyone's still too in shock to believe that it's real - which plays right into their hands.

That's true. Hmm... [It takes her a moment to think this through.] ... Correct me if I'm wrong, but there are multiple factions within the Tower, aren't there? Perhaps another way is to convince them to work together against the administrators instead of trying to work separately. The problem with that, of course, is convincing them to work together. [There's a wry smile on her face.]

[thelordsage]

If the tower is that saturated with people who don't believe that they can do anything, then we may be in trouble.

[Now it's Sephiran's turn to think.] I'm sure there are multiple factions... but it may be impossible to get some of them to work together. It depends on the values of each group, and if they're not compatible, they may not work together well. In fact, poorly-matched groups may end up being to everyone's detriment.