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Laura still went out on these dos although she rarely enjoyed them now - over time they had remained friends and this is what old friends did; getting on better maybe - more meaningful at least with Ashann. After paying, as was obligatory almost they checked the ShamTaj wall - they had it on their forecast but it seemed more sociable to go up to the wall. "He's a doll," pouted Laura and they all laughed - none of them would be seen dead with a Taj - least of all, Laura. Unless they renounced.
As they drifted into the club, Betos began watching Laura from afar - he saw her detachment; whilst her friends were indulging, her involvement appeared token, supposedly enjoying the atmosphere but her gestures half-hearted, her interest in dance tapering off after initial enthusiasm. She was someone to know, he thought; maybe she would even help him.
Eventually he assuredly stood in front of her offering chat. Yes he was nice looking, but his arrogance when he first approached made her squirm - perhaps mistakenly she let that go. Charming, Betos was that to a tee but this didn't attract Laura - or so she thought. What interested her could never be found whilst they were at a club, only afterwards possibly could they discover how important the path was to each other. Rarely did such meetings extend beyond the club as these clubs were just .... shallow.
But Betos, there was something about him, and she thought it wasn't his charm; could she fall for any insincerity that masqueraded as charm? To begin with there was no issue because of no highhook, so they met next day for lunch to see if there was something other than charm; some substance? Pleasant enough but he still seemed to be hiding behind his charm; to be fair that is just conditioning - and of course it works with many. Her measure of course always was, and she hoped always would be, the path so none of that mattered. She tried him with one of her benchmarks. She gave out the conviction "She knew this", it was just met with a smile; why didn't she just walk out? But there was something to him. Was it the path, the potential for the path, or just his teflon charm? She refused his advances but was prepared to meet him again.
And that was when she thoroughly investigated the ShamTaj App. "Betos Nazarian", family money had built the Sarya online empire. What they declared was obnoxious enough, but the app reckoned that the Nazarian non-declarations were huge. So this sicko thought he could charm her, well next day she would embarrass him, she didn't need an app to cause such Taj shame. Why wasn't he on the Shamtaj wall already?
She approached with her own charm offensive, and he completely threw her off by announcing he was Betos Nazarian. "I am sorry I didn't tell you before, I have not tried to take advantage."
Although taken aback by his blunt admission, she was still fuming - she still wanted to do her duty and shame him as much as publicly possible, but something held her back.
"After talking the other night I thought you could help me," Betos began tentatively.
“Yes, renounce, you Taj” she muttered under her breath.
Half guessing, maybe he subliminally heard her, "I want your help in renouncing," he pleaded, his voice quivering.
"Do I look like the Bureau of Renouncement?" she snapped at him.
Looking at her - at her anger, he felt so much resentment; he had thought that her depth would have helped him. It looked like he was wrong, apologising he got up to leave.
Still deeply resentful there was enough inside her to tell him to wait. "Why or how can I help you?" she asked with a partial olive branch.
"To be honest, I thought we could get together for longer, and then you would want to help me renounce," he started "but I knew I couldn't keep up the pretence. You can see, your path can see." He paused "this is not a line, maybe it is the path ....” He stopped as she sneered at him.
"First you are Taj, and you think to waste this Talak's valuable time," she paused trying to control her temper "and now you give me a routine about the path," she snapped still snarling at him.
There was silence, and she could see he was struggling with something. "Laura. For a long time I have thought about renouncing, but I love my parents," he told her frankly.
"But the harm they do with their accumulation, and I presume where they invest," she answered out of the decumulation handbook.
He held up his hand as if to say "back off". "I am not defending them, I just love them. They are my family, their lifestyle - our lifestyle - is all I have ever known," he continued. His voice was cracking, it was emotional with guilt and apology.
The emotion got to her and she toned down. Sure she believed all the pathtivist rhetoric - it was so painfully obvious and true, but Taj were Talak too. They have the potential to love and feel the way Talaks do, there is nothing that says they cannot follow the path - be spiritual and even be pathtivists.
Having seen the empathy in her almost as soon as they met, he could see that he was getting through to her. His heart swelled up, maybe she is the right one. "That is why I am asking you to help me. I haven't been able to renounce on my own, I think with your help I can," he blurted out again "I sense something in you that can help me. I don't know what it is. If I say "compassion", you'll say I am giving you a line but I really feel you can help me."
"You put a lot on a girl," but she smiled warmly and he felt good with this.
"For me there is a problem with the renouncement people. You walk in to them and immediately you are the enemy. Like you did before, they see Taj first, they see the harm the Taj do, and as a Taj you become the focus of their anger at all Taj - the Taj class. No excuses, I know the Taj do harm, that is why I want to renounce .... but I am Talak too. I have feelings, I can love - I do love. Renouncing means I have to end my lifestyle, and make contact with the people I love difficult. Will my family continue to speak to me? My friends, well the people from school and uni I still hang around with - even if some are a bit sympathetic - will have to stop talking to me. Some won't mind as they will see me as common, but some will be so sad as we have been friends for a long time. Renouncing is a big decision for me, and I need help - not a chapter from the Renouncement bible."
Thoughts of anger crossed her mind. Sanctimonious liberals. Ideologues. She hated that aspect of these people. Yes, they said the same things as she did but they had no compassion; would they have tried to be sympathetic? For years their ideologue spouting had alienated the PAPTaj egos - Talaks who are Privileged Arrogant Puppets working for the Taj; the struggle needed these Talaks. Instead as a result of this compassionless whining, the egos of many PAPTies reacted emotionally, enclaved and began supporting anti-PC-authoritarianism - that was not at all constructive. With reinforced conditioning it took a long time for PAPTies to overcome this aversion, and focus their attention on the real problem – the Taj; of course the Taj knew this and had funded writers and intellectuals who attacked these rulebook liberals - these PC ideologues. Yet they whined and bleated away, further enhancing the divisions the Taj had created. In some ways Laura hated these idealogues just as much as the Taj and it took all the discipline of her spirit not to have empathy with Betos; Betos had struck a sympathetic chord.
"You have me a bit, Betos," she smiled encouragingly "but what do you want me to do? Maybe ...."
His visage visibly dropped with relief, and he felt a moment of overwhelming love for Laura; he knew his sense was right. Wanting to jump up and smother her to death, he tentatively put out his hand - she let him hold her by the wrist. "Will you go with me to the Renouncement Bureau? I am not sure I can face their chastisement alone. Being with you, they will be more favourable to me - not liking me of course because I am Taj," he smiled winningly.
And the open vulnerability was working, he was winning her over. How could she say no? Nazarian money was hugely influential, the Nazarian dynasty was famous for its power; if that power could be undermined? If any Nazarian money could be diverted into indigenitisation or frontline communes or villages, this would be a major shift in the decumulation balance.
"I will go with you to the Bureau, but I make no promises," she agreed beginning to get excited - this was making a difference, she was making a difference.
She arranged to meet him the next day to go to the Bureau.
Once home she began research searching for "Taj renounce" as a starting point. Towards the top was tajout.org. Starting small, the Tajout movement began as a group of college Talaks; they created a website demanding that we put pressure on the rich elite who took Talak money out of circulation and left it accumulating in tax-free accounts or dubious unsustainable finance mechanisms. These accumulations were used to invest in a system that perpetuated the poverty and exploitation of Talak. As the first group who targetted the rich elites, Tajout demanded Taj give money back to the Talak. "We are Talak, Taj give back."
As sometimes happens this slogan struck a chord and began to reverberate with more and more Talaks, especially when Tajout targetted the investment wing of banks:-
"We are Talak,
.... Taj, give back"
"We are Talak,
.... Taj, give back"
It became a "battle cry". At the demos Talaks would all stand with their arms raised in a 3-finger salute. "We are Talak," they all shouted. Then there was a pause of intended silence, followed by all the protesters stomping on the ground shouting "Taj, give back"; they, ordinary Talaks, were pointing at the banks.
Tajout then called for a change, moving away from the banks with their layers of public and private protection Tajout began to target the large powerful Taj families. Tajout would examine the wealth of individual Taj dynasties producing genealogies of those to target. First there would be demonstrations outside their homes, chanting "We are Talak, Taj give back". As the movement grew Tajout split into cells focussing on the families where they lived, where their kids went to school, where they ate at restaurants, where they went on holidays. And wherever the dynasties went Tajout would organise demos. The movement caught on globally because Talak began to see that they had a legitimate target for all their woes. For a long time many Talaks had known that this system of neoliberalism was the cause of all their suffering, the wars in the world and their own wage-slavery, but the Corporations were global, controlling governments and other PAPTies. Banks and corporations were untouchable, how could Tajout have made a change there? Repeatedly these knowledgeable Talaks demanded the system be fixed but nothing changed as they had no power. OK minor concessions - but nothing significant changed. In fact it got worse as the corporations got bigger and invulnerable, making the impositions on Talaks worse and worse and worse. Anonymity was important within the Corporations, a big company could not be a target but the CEOs could. Although there were of course gross exceptions who flaunted their money, mostly the super-rich preferred anonymity - these mostly anonymous rich Talaks formed most of the Taj, and were vulnerable to the exposure of Tajout.
Increasingly these Taj became concerned as their lifestyles were affected by exposure. Stressing that their demonstrations were peaceful, Tajout tried not to give Taj the excuse of violence; irrespective, some Taj lied and tried to use this excuse of violence because they had power and control. But everywhere Taj families went they were just met with chants, salutes raised "We are Talak", pause and pointing "Mercen, give back". Taj didn't like this infringement of their liberty, this public shaming and awareness. For the central moneygrabbers a bunch of Talaks chanting at them just fanned their egos. But the wives doing fashionable shopping were targetted; at the large stores Tajout would see the 3 fingers of demonstrators “We are Talak”, pause and pointing “Mrs Mercen, give back”. Disturbing the quiet chat and coffee was the beginning of the end of the lifestyles of these rich, it was an end to there being Taj and Talak at the same time.
At Taj houses Tajout had demonstrators; when they left there were trackers who then directed the demonstrators. At the coffee shops and stores demonstrators were soon arrested but Tajout grew big and paid the fines, so more Talaks joined in. Enforcers became heavier imprisoning repeat offenders, but because the educated young of the PAPTies were the main Talaks arrested the Taj had to stop incarceration as they were alienating their best accumulators - best creators of accumulation.
Soon the stores catering to the elites were affected. Wherever the Taj went there were demonstrations so if you shopped with the rich your life was affected. Instead of these places being exclusive havens for the Taj and PAPTies, they became places of embarrassment, became shells and closed down. Soon these stores had to go online so whilst online business accumulated the ostentatious lifestyles of the rich and famous became lives of discomfort as they moved from demonstration to demonstration if they ever left the security of their walled compounds. Not a choice they wanted their money to buy.
Whilst all this was happening more and more Talaks began to realise that these Taj were parasites. Always there had been Talaks who analysed the economic system and pointed to those with privilege, these analysts even characterised a significant group of Talaks, the PAPTies, who followed the Taj hoping for breadcrumbs. Buying into all the propaganda for a long while, these PAPTies promoted the delusions the Taj wanted blaming the government, other races, liberals, for what the Taj created. But whilst some of these PAPTies acted deplorably with their Taj-induced privilege, most PAPTies claimed they were just making a living, and were just angry wanting to do something about life-styles disrupted by Tajout. Soon even these PAPTies began to realise that Tajout had built something substantive, something that had the power to affect them, affect their lives.
Everyone needed money to survive, that was the basis of the wage-slavery of the Taj system. But once it became clear that Tajout was impacting on the Taj lifestyle, many Taj wage-slaves, ordinary Talaks, saw a future with a greater freedom. Using the Tajout hotline chauffeurs, cooks, maids, butlers would report where their bosses were; through Tajout the itinerary of these exploiters would soon be known and everywhere the Taj went there were demonstrations - some large some token, but they were always there. Their super-rich life of excessive privilege was always disrupted. When Talaks were sacked for contacting hotlines, Tajout made an app, ShamTaj App. This app could be used to contact Tajout then once used it morphed into the operating system so it couldn't be detected. And the sackings made life worse for these privileged as their fellow workers reacted sympathetically and joined the ShamTaj app.
The Taj were squirming and a few started becoming ostentatious benefactors. Starting foundations in which they were supposedly giving back, their overt donations were a big show worn on their sleeves. Although this stifled Tajout for a while, gradually Tajout sympathisers began to analyse where these benefactions took place. Computer companies setup foundations in the name of their Taj for poor to buy computers, agricultural companies setup foundations in the name of their Taj to buy fertilisers, phone companies gave money to buy phones. For the Tajout community online it became clearer and clearer that this benefaction was a con - neoliberalism consuming in another form. Far and wide blogs started talking about this benefaction con, and soon there were demonstrations about the benefaction. Whilst the Taj argued they were feeding the poor, Talaks had already understood that the Taj were the problem and just saw this benefaction as a trick to bring poorer Talaks into the addictive world of consuming.
With Tajout developing the ShamTaj app, many Talaks soon followed it. Wherever they were they keyed in their location, and the app would tell them which Taj were in their area. On the app there would be a picture of the Taj dynastic, a description of the slave labour, and the environmental damage their corporation had caused. At different venues Tajout would hack into online advertising within a store, restaurant or even public advertising space to show a video of that dynasty's complicity in the Corporation's destruction of Kolok and her communities.
As time went on some Taj would withdraw from the corporations, take some of the money they had gained through exploitation, donated the rest to decumulation, and lived anonymously hoping that Tajout would leave them alone. Being Talaks then, they were not of interest as targets especially as these ex-Taj had contributed to indigenitisation projects, frontline struggles or localisation communes. However there continued an ongoing battle as there were always the greedy willing to replace the escapees. But gradually there was improvement with proper non-exploitative financing and a more sustainable way of life.
At this stage there had been a shift in Talak mentality. With the ShamTaj app many of the more greedy Taj were publicly shamed and then consequently ashamed of their accumulation - as they should have been. The ShamTaj app became an illegal fact of life on Kolok; young people rooted their phones, and so were able to anonymously run the app that seemlessly integrated into the megacandy OS. Whilst maintaining anonymity all those same young people wanted to be Tajout reps helping others with their apps. Views towards accumulation changed; it was not something to be revered or envied, it became a scourge. Still there were many PAPTies trying to get more money, but it was just not so easy because more Talaks were acting through spirit, and if there was any judgement these PAPTies did not measure up well.
Observer's Report to the Council on Gaia Section 117 Planet 5/q/3
Once the gaia, Kolok, had seen her attachment and become aware that her emotional link with the Talak egos was worsening the problem, she developed the needed discipline. For Kolok now had learned not to attach her consciousness, and without their realising this released the Talaks from their own egoic prisons.
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Public Domain Science Fiction Writer 
