dead people

2026-05-12

Imagine a man, an Unknowing Dead, who has repeatedly thrown himself into pits all in order to "take risks."

Throughout his life he has found pit after pit, and into every one of them he has willingly leapt. Each endeavour ends in loss. Sometimes he loses money, sometimes time, sometimes friends, sometimes opportunities. Yet after every fall he drags himself out, studies his wounds, convinces himself that he has learned something profound, and begins searching for another pit into which he might throw himself.

One day, while strategising on yet another gamble, a friend comes to him and informs him that his problem is spiritual, that there exists some unseen obstruction upon his path.

Now, if this man were a Knowing Dead, he would have pointed at his friend and laughed. He would have asked why a man who has spent his entire life diving headfirst into pits requires invisible forces to explain his condition. He would have asked why the pit itself was insufficient evidence. But he is not a Knowing Dead. Like most of you reading this, he is an Unknowing Dead, a fool whom, when tapped to awaken, slaps the hand away and drifts deeper into sleep.

The man rises from his seat shocked and trembling.

"WHAT SHOULD I DO?"

Thus begins his pilgrimage.

Together, fool and fool, they wander from one Parasitic Knowing Dead to another. One speaks of curses. Another speaks of hostile spirits. Another speaks of destiny. Another informs him that hidden enemies labour day and night against his success. A fourth assures him that prosperity is already his, provided he purchases the correct key with which to unlock it. Everywhere he goes he is furnished with explanations. Invisible chains. Invisible barriers. Invisible enemies. Invisible defects. Every failure in his life is carefully interpreted, classified, and assigned a supernatural cause.

Years pass.

The Unknowing Dead becomes highly educated in things that do not exist. He learns elaborate vocabularies for imaginary afflictions and memorises entire systems devoted to diagnosing invisible maladies. He can explain why fortune abandoned him, why opportunities escaped him, why success continues to elude him, and why the zenith remains forever beyond reach. The only thing he never learns is how to recognise a pit.

This is the condition of many Unknowing Dead.

You are told that something blocks your path, and often this is true. There are obstacles. There are barriers. There are structures that constrain you and powers that profit from those constraints. Yet rather than identifying these things, many of you seek refuge in fiction. You invent mysteries where none are required. You construct invisible causes for visible effects. You blame spirits for what institutions accomplish, curses for what incentives produce, destiny for what systems manufacture, and unseen enemies for the work of entirely ordinary men.

Meanwhile your true obstacles feed fat upon your marrow. Governments consume your meagre Commons while those standing above them feast upon greater Commons still. Wealth accumulates. Power reproduces itself. Institutions perpetuate their own interests and shape the field long before the game begins. The terms are often decided before negotiations commence, the winners frequently selected before competitions begin, and entire populations are trained to search beyond existence for explanations that can be found comfortably within it.

The Parasitic Knowing Dead understand this perfectly.

They understand that a man searching for curses is not examining contracts. A man hunting invisible enemies is not studying institutions. A man obsessed with spiritual blockages is not asking who benefits from his condition. Thus they encourage the search. They sell maps to places that do not exist, remedies for ailments never suffered, and solutions to problems carefully invented for the occasion.

The pit remains exactly where it has always been.

Yet the Unknowing Dead, standing at its edge once again, stares upward searching for the hand that pushed him.