The Domino Effect

 

 

The Domino Effect

 

Since the dawn of time people stood in a row, like dominos, circling the earth, waited for something or didn’t, could not sleep or slept standing. Even though Domino, too, could see the meaning of standing here in all sorts of weather and, like the others, raise his children and make weapons without leaving his spot for a moment, or turning around, he was more tired than the others, and thought: “I am more tired than the others, but on the other hand am the first to devise the domino effect that in the long run solves my sleeping problem. I’ll tip over the person in front of me.” Then he waited for all the others to topple over, all the way around the world, could after 25 years see the wave of falling people approaching, could afterwards feel that he was thrown to the ground with great force, after which he happily was knocked unconscious before he fell asleep.

The first descendents gave Domino responsibility for the epoch in human history that, by way of introduction, was called “The Sleeping Period”, where nothing new and nothing good happened; he was ascribed the responsibility for individuals’ not immediately standing up again; rulers called him hostile to lying-down people, others believed he had been a fascist and communist, still others that he had no respect for the people or that he respected the people, of which those presently lying down spoke as not having respect for themselves. But some also believed he had meant to spread the message of unconsciousness or reasonable sleep in a sleepless or always-sleeping world, but this was immoral in an age where everyone had to work consciously at struggling for the earth’s future, a message that people in his time already were willing to fight for by assembling different cultures: Black and white, poor and rich, sick and well were assembled singly in the name of equality and systematized in accordance to one another and one another’s shamefully different skin color and religious outbursts in the otherwise originally unethical and un-mixed row. But as to Domino’s popular rebellion, it had been discovered or concealed that, because of all these differences – including the linguistic – people said nothing to each other and didn’t like each other’s different colors and language and customs; people had forgotten the languages that were not spoken, had reproduced standing up and, as ancestors, slowly established the new generation as usual - in a row five feet, ten inches to the right of their own - and when it had become full-grown and was mature enough to never move away from itself and reached all the way around the world, Domino had just thought to himself: “Now we other silent ones can fall, the young are taking over.” Consequently the first descendants didn’t want to make the same mistake, but it was only a mistake because it was said of Domino that he hadn’t been conscious of his responsibility and somehow or other should have expected that the people, once fallen, would never raise themselves up again, that with the domino effect’s inhuman exposure of human dignity and independence they probably wanted to, but couldn’t. So they most likely stood up anyway, because Domino’s unprecedented contempt for man gave great unanticipated strength and because people herewith naturally fought for humanism and against the misanthropic as it manifests itself when it is worse than one expects, even though one expects the worst, and the worst is something one apparently cannot imagine, but likely still fears or forgets.

When such a great responsibility is conferred on a person in this way, one gives cause for allowing this person to be hated at certain times and admired at others. Thus at first Domino was also despised by coming generations, but by the next generation he was already considered a hero because these generations distinctly needed to sleep and rebel, which they were able to do at the same time. These generations lay down collectively and in a certain sense independently, specifically not letting themselves fall all at once, which contributed to their self-esteem, and, lying down, spoke of the early pioneer and lauded him for his respect for mankind, its freedom and right to choose, its lack of will to do so, its right to sleep when tired without violating the limits of nature – in other words, for his struggle for humanism. But already by the next generation, their descendents truly wanted to rebel and tear themselves loose from their fathers and mothers and they arose up resolutely as their parents had dictated, in spite of their reclining starting point, and hated Domino for having revealed the possibility of falling. They lived in fear of suddenly seeing the wave, of the possibility of there being just one secret admirer of Domino among men; they rebelled by again positioning black and white, rich and poor, sick and well, singly, one right after the other, to demonstrate their humanity; in other words they abstained from talking and like all their forefathers developed science and the weapons industry while they stood up and dreamt of the very modern humanism, this new morality. Besides this, they made use of newly-developed medicine that kept one awake an entire lifetime, stared each other silently in the back, didn’t laugh about the silence or this sight, developed more new weapons to be on the safe side, standing in the same spot, used them to kill a portion of the row because of skin color, religion or money, thereby also avoiding the domino effect, and thought about inter-cultural understanding. These people left descendants who in new rows again adored Domino for his historical contribution and his revelation of the possibility for redemption, and these descendants lay themselves down and developed a bit of science and technology and some weapons, but their descendants stood up and began to speak again because they had a cultural and ethnic hatred to communicate to each other and they killed a portion of the row, thereby avoiding the domino effect. But their descendants lay down and spoke for humanism and peace and humanity, but their descendants again spoke for war and ethnic and religious hatred and stood up and killed one another, but their descendants lay down and were silent and thought about humanism, and their descendants stood up silently. And prior to the wars that usually took place by tossing bombs as far up the row as possible - and therefore humanly must be assumed to be at a certain distance from the soon-to-be dead, before new wars could stop it - it happened again: a single person, a little more tired than usual, was unable to resist the temptation to fall asleep and initiated the demonstrative domino effect.

This myth also took several thousand years to dispel, or rather: it lived on secretly in the myth that replaced it. Descendants spoke of Domino 1 and Domino 2, about their messages that were either redeeming or captivating, and about the natural right to sleep, or the advantages of temporary or lasting unconsciousness, and in the rows that reached around the world people repeated mystical tales about Domino 1 and Domino 2 and pointed out made-up differences in their views. Some thought the messages were about the right to sleep, others, that the message was symbolic and had to do with taking hold of life and choosing activity and individuality, but no one dared step out of either the lying or standing rows, and everyone maintained the illusion that both Domino 1 and 2 had chosen to fall and hadn’t merely fallen asleep.

It still appears to man to be a great, humane step in the right direction either to lie down or stand up, just as long as one does the opposite of his either ignorant or inhumane forefathers, who either always lack insight or - merely insufficiently consciously and inadequately - are capable of substantiating their either lying or standing position. And still the coming generation often sees that the previous one could not do otherwise, and to what degree, in other words: how great progress it is now making itself by standing up or lying down with a whole other kind of freedom, thanks to having sussed out the mistakes of the past, partially excusing them for lack of knowledge, partially regretting them anyway and finding them inexcusable. It is still not possible to do other than lie down or stand up the less one sits, but naturally a revolutionary notion like this must be invented by a Domino 3, with the obvious advantage and disadvantage that one thereby partly rules out the future domino effect, partly can not long for the liberating wave or fear it. However, what one can already do now is proudly stand up a little after the others or pretend for a moment to have decided to remain standing, perhaps even wait a few days, urge the remaining mass to spread rumors, respect and contempt, or read in the newspapers about the few almost mythological cases that allegedly find self-respect and manifest a certain individuality or freedom by virtue of the enormous luck that all others omit. Nothing more is needed to be especially moral than that one either lie down or stand, and one still cannot sense the prospect of sitting, cannot grasp the new thinking upon which it is based, the great amount of research, suffering and war, the birth of such a clever person at the right moment; no, it is totally unthinkable: from a completely unthinkable future plane to regret the present’s miserable state and too early feel this as a lack of freedom or simply assume responsibility for the future’s stupidities; no, it cannot be done, unless one with completely new methods from one’s always especially precocious ethical standpoint is in justifiable doubt regarding the ethical power of judgment of the future and decide the future for the future, and refuse to let the chair be invented, for example, without also doing it oneself. But the chair isn’t invented. The Directorate for the Maintaining of the Ethical Rank has difficulty controlling black and white, rich and poor, and the Domino 1’s, Domino 2’s and the hopeful Domino 3’s, whose prophets so far have received the first three letter in the word ”chair”, one right after the other; due in part, naturally, to hatred and diverging interpretations, partly precisely because it is thereby very hard to control the people who prefer to be controlled in groups that with a certain regularity can maintain a religiously- or ethnically-based hatred. Consequently the Domino 1’s have grouped themselves together, as have the Domino 2’s and Domino 3’s, and are capable of constantly sending relevant religious messages through their portion of the row with particular vigor and spitefulness. These likely have a certain amount of importance to the other sections of the row and perhaps make their way a small distance into foreign sections, but in the long run aren’t decisively able to win over decisive portions of the other sections though the transitions between religions or skin color are always characterized by a certain irresolution, which basically is the closest one comes to humanism. Nevertheless rumors circulate among the ranks that the Domino 1’s have invented the seat, Domino 2’s, the seat back and the Domino 3’s the chair legs, but it has nothing to do with co-ordination, for the Domino 1’s have invented the seat in order to kill other religious groups, the Domino 2’s have invented the seat back to kill other religious groups, the Domino 3’s, the chair legs in order to kill other religious groups. Three examples, in other words, of the culturally determined notions one has about weapons and their possibilities for use, not specifically thought of as a slow drawing-together of cultures, that is, a method by which one could show a desire to meet half way, even with completely absurd suggestions as to how these three things might be combined. There have already been speeches and a series of ridiculous inventions and weird constructions that poke in all directions and are altogether inapplicable, the less one specifically looks at the spirit and not the technique, the intention and not the result, constructions that seem very much to distance themselves from the chair rather than approach it. Thus Domino 3 is already required to possess an ability to ignore a series of mistakes, or - specifically because of them - be capable of seeing the underlying movement in the direction of the chair, of seeing a belief in man, but also in the fallacy that these constructions must necessarily incorporate in the chair, and a totally unrealistic belief that, standing up, people wouldn’t prefer killing one another either, or at best create un-identical and more honest – though perhaps unusable – cultural products that tell a truer story. Moreover with Domino 3’s coming, man would for a long time be so enthusiastic and wild that only later generations, little by little and for a long time for not very long periods, would be able to begin sitting down. All in all it’s very doubtful whether one would use the chair and not consider it a provocation instead, or be completely unable to figure out whether it should be sat on, instead of being used as a weapon, for example; yes, perhaps even a coming Domino 3 doesn’t know the chair’s function, or else maybe he knows that man demonstratively will not sit on it and thus create it in this image of its human uselessness and inadequacy. There will, then, be talk of a decided malformation, that, visible to the naked eye, can have so provocative an effect that future generations - in their belief in Domino 3’s secret and intention, that is, that a morale must be derived from the chair’s appearance – still try out a series of strange positions that continue to torment body and soul in a way that fundamentally redeems human impotence.