5/10/2012

5/31/2012 8:20 PM

3

0

0 wins / 0 losses

Architect

My dear Smogbrush, The letter may come across short, no apologies will be made for this. I would like to think you have been thoroughly consumed in continuous attention for your patient, as though you were capable of such focus. Certainly I know better. Your reply ought not bare any excuses; moreover, there had better be a reply. Serving chiefly as a reminder, as seems necessary in your case, I take this letter, as an additional opportunity, to enlighten you with an application of the principles explained in my last letter. I had a patient who, only in the physical sense, lived in London. He habitually occupied a specific bench within a museum, on which he read. My man lived in my pocket for a good number of years when suddenly I saw in him a train of thought that was going rather the wrong way. In an instant the Enemy was at his side and my twenty years work was teetering. Had I lost my wits and engaged in argument I might have been undone. I, instead, called upon the part of the man which I had best under my command saying, "About time for lunch isn't it?" One can never quite overhear what the Enemy is saying, though I imagine he said something like, "Oh, this is far more important than lunch." for when I whispered back, "To important to consider at this time, better to get a fresh breath and come at it with a readied mind." he closed his book, garnered his coat, and headed out the door. The instant he hit the outside I knew I had won. I directed his attention to a boy calling out the day's paper, an odd looking old man, and an attractive young woman. All he needed was a splash of "reality" to be kept under thumb. He is now safe with Our Father Below. Remember, it is most often best to avoid direct engagement. Distract and divert as often as possible. Your Affectionate Uncle Lockrot

My dear Leechlung, You have done a good number of things quite right, but you have gone about a few things rather the wrong way. I am proud of you for being wise enough to evade the Enemy instead of trying to fight him off, clearly a successful effort. As it comes across to me, however, you have based your entire long term strategy on keeping her happy. You may be shocked to hear that this is incredibly counterproductive, and easily undone. Do you honestly intend to tell me that you are going to keep her happy forever? You are trying to play the Enemy's game, and I dare say his skills in that field are better than yours. What do you imagine will transpire when the painful realities of human life come crashing down upon her? The Enemy, faster than you can gather your wits, will be at her side, asking her something like, "What has it all meant up till now?" or, "What are you missing?" Do you see the trouble Leechlung? One tragedy and eight years of appeasement come undone. This can happen because you haven't really been gaining any ground; instead, you appear to have been trying to hold it. You are playing defense while the Enemy lacks a foothold. Unfortunately, you will likely find that going on the offense is now quite difficult. You see, you have enabled her to become a highly productive little worm and as such her habits are largely not in our favor. Why did you feel the need to make her productive? The appeasement policy ought to be ended exchanging it for something else later. First, start wearing away on productive habits, running, studying, etc. Hopefully your own efforts have not rendered this impossible. Keep in mind the Supplementation Assumptions. As we have no control of the flow of time, the amount of time the patient has in any given number of days cannot be shortened. So Any time an activity is restricted, they do something else in its place, and any time an activity is added, the time is taken away from something else. The goal then, is to bring about a decline in the quality of her time spent. Supplementation as referred to here is this: The expected human pattern to attempt to fill voids and/or increase liveliness, health, wealth, wisdom, etc. (This is a part of their nature that should be corrupted if possible.) Now to the point, you can not possibly expect to be able to simply break habits she has enjoyed for several years. Even if you did, replacing them with idle procrastination would be too much to hope for. She would likely convert the efforts into something similar, make a habit of it, and be quite happy with herself. To overcome this, a replacement program must be put into play. If you try to directly take away her healthful habits, she will resist, and quite strongly. Instead try to introduce less productive activities that she will still enjoy. Naturally that time must be taken from something. If you have not yet guessed, you won't "get" a new patient anytime soon. Honestly you already endangered the one you have. Your affectionate Uncle, Lockrot

My dear Smogbrush, I have at last read your letter (congratulations on your success in the academy). I am pleased with your enthusiasm to wage the war, but I note, with special interest, your guiding of the patient's friendships. All the time you've spent, "making certain that he sees a great deal of his materialist friend to ensure his eventual conformity to that way" struck me as a trifle naive. It sounds as though you suppose that direct conflict, or argument, with the Enemy was the ideal method of keeping the creature out of His clutches. You see, the Enemy can argue too, and quite well, and by doing so we are very likely moving the struggle onto His field. Increasingly, since your patient was a small child (though handled under another's wing at that time) he has been encountering extended instances of a number of incompatible philosophies all vying to occupy his mind at once, resulting in a need for skeptical thinking. He does not conceive the concept of true and false as we do. He, instead, regards doctrines with terms such as, "heartless" or "practical", "obsolete" or, "academic". The current Jargon of his generation, not argument, is your best ally in keeping him from the Enemy. It is a waste of time to try to convince him something is true, he will likely decide on that himself; instead, Make him think it is, "Informed", "Educated", "Relevant", "Noble", or "Courageous", that it is the enlightened philosophy to rise in the future. Ludicrous sentiments like that are the sort of thing your man cares about. Back to the subject of arguments; the real trouble of those is that when we engage in them we run the risk of stimulating the bundle of cells within the patients that the humans so fondly call a brain. If that were to happen who knows what dangerous things might be called to mind. You must not forget that you are there to fuddle him. One might get the impression, by the way some of you young fiends talk, that our work is to teach them something! Write back in a week, and in the meantime, keep careful account of what your patient does; I look forward to looking it over. Your Affectionate Uncle, Lockrot