Temporary Shut Down
Sarah J. Den Boer

The investigations that have "led analysts in the defense industry to ask for other drugs that could, for the sake of national defense, if not for the soldier, temporary shut down his or her emotional response."*

Somewhere,
some gods are laughing at us, a people who have
disconnected our own tendons, who have freely
volunteered to participate in an encephalon
stir-fry, of sorts. As we thro cloaks over
every stray limb and reel in each kite of passion,
we insist on only buying maps with
perpendicular corners, two-lane roads, car-washes
every seven miles. Complexity is becoming a
disease the way a person jumps up and down on
a diving board but never into the water because
his eardrums can only handle on level of
pressure. It is like looking into a pool of mercury,
a slow march towards robotization when
the princess will only kiss the frog if she
knows she can sell his legs on the black market.

*Adbusters, March/April 2004