Friday, March 23, 2012

Du musst amboss oder hammer sein.

Number Two: You are too strong. We'll see. "Du musst amboss oder hammer sein." 
Number Six: "You must be anvil or hammer." 
Number Two: I see you know your Goethe. 
Number Six: And you see me as the anvil? 
Number Two: Precisely. I am going to hammer you.

We are small compared to our enemy. We are weak. We are human and we face an inhuman monster. And more than that, we face an inhuman monster that is shrouded in secrecy, that is hidden from the many. Tell a person you have seen the Slender Man and their first thought is that you are crazy. How can we fight a war when we fight against not only our enemy, but also our society? A society that cannot see the Slender Man, but can see us?

The Panopticon continues to try and force their will upon Adam Krug. They are trying to break him, trying to make him see five fingers instead of four. And yet, somehow, I can understand why. They are afraid. They don't want to fight against the monster; they want to deny it even exists. But that cannot. To say it doesn't exist is to let it win.

The quote at the top comes from The Prisoner where Number Two continually tried to break Number Six and get him to reveal his secrets, but it never happened. Even in that quote, Number Two makes an error: the hammer never breaks the anvil. George Orwell wrote: "In real life it is always the anvil that breaks the hammer, never the other way about."

Fate shall yield 
To fickle Chance, and Chaos judge the strife.

If there is anything that the Gargoyle's experiments have shown, it is that the Slender Man is unpredictable. So, if we are to beat an unpredictable enemy, we should be unpredictable ourselves. We should not always take the quickest way or the easiest way, for that is where most traps lay. We should not run headlong into danger or death -- and yet sometimes, this is the best way to become unpredictable.

In Hamlet, Prince Hamlet pretends to be mad, but there is a method to it. Perhaps we should do that, go a little mad, become chaotic, be unpredictable.

By doing this, perhaps we can avoid Hamlet's fate and forge a better one.

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