The More You Ignore Me by Travis Nichols Page B

“family.” I have none of these things. But, you see, I will take it all away from him. I will make him into a creature beneath me, so he can feel what it’s like, finally, to be shunned.
    It does not feel good.
    Though I imagine there will be some consolation for him, knowing, as he does, that he deserves his fate.
    Will I ever be happy again?
    Will I ever feel free of the excruciating burden of this crusade?
    It is torture, but I admit it is a kind of exquisite torture for I know I am in the right.
    I am like Buster Keaton beset by distracting morons in The Passionate Plumber .
    I must remain true and keep my eyes closed to the temptations of defeat and appeasement.
    He has offered, I admit, appeasement.
    Chris has offered to “talk things through” over the phone, but what could he possibly say to me?
    That he is sorry?
    He could only bewitch me with his sophistry as he has bewitched all the rest.
    I refuse.
    You see, the real tragedy of my banishment is not personal, but that we were on the cusp of exposing the secret cabal hiding in plain sight, the gentlemen’s agreement between powers that, through miraculous circumstances, can be revealed on an admittedly humble wedding blog.
    Yes, I’m aware Chris implemented this wedding blog simply out of obligation to follow the fashion, to, in what has become commonplace, coopt an authentic community like the one we had for a time over at BlissfulBasket.com , YoungUns.com , or even AdamsFuneralHome.net .
    I don’t blame him or any of the other mindless followers!
    For what courage would have had to be on display for a man to stand up in his soulless office building, in some gray meeting room, and say, “No! This, at long last, is finally something that is not ours to take!”
    Oh, it surely would have caused heads to burst open in wonder, fetid juices splattering over dull paperwork just to have someone acknowledge the unchecked greed underlying all the actions of these organizations; but not just this organization—each and every organization involved, wittingly or no, in this cabal!
    They are all in it together!
    American capitalism knows how to profit off of a perpetual war machine funded by the state, so instead of cranking up production to meet the war needs, the state cranks up war to meet the production needs!
    All throughout the empire, citizens trade their time and energy with the “machine” in exchange for comfort, and so comfort keeps the wars going.
    And you all, if you won’t stand with me, continue to aid and abet this comfort by colluding in the conspiracy to silence the comfortless!
    But, you see, I am standing up where you would not, and, dear me, most likely could not .
    You have much to lose—or so you think, though in fact I hope you can see that you couldn’t be more wrong—whereas I, lonely, bereft, cut asunder by the world, have nothing to lose.
    I am offering you my undying loyalty in exchange for what?
    Nothing!
    A mere acknowledgment that, yes, I exist, that you do in fact hear me, that this isn’t all in my mind, that I need not be RESTRICTED IN THIS MANNER !
    As you may know, I offered the same to this know-nothing underthing Chris, but he refused me.
    In fact, I suspect he hired a vandal to deface my (rented) property in an act of hateful defiance to my overture, for the day I posted a few revelations on the blog, I came home from my grocer rounds to find a fresh egg cracked on the door to my residence.
    Can you believe it?
    I am still almost unable to type it without flying into a destructive rage—and, in fact, the only thing that keeps me from dashing my brains against the wall is that the vandal wasn’t able to penetrate the outer ramparts of the building to defile my actual door, only the front door of the building itself.
    To be honest, it was more of the sidewall to the east of the door, but his point was made, the motherless scum!
    How could such a lunatic even be