"The Mighty, Mighty Blue Jay"

By Kordell Pichon

Introduction

"He who sacrifices a measure of freedom for a measure of security deserves neither freedom nor security" - Ben Franklin

The year is 2020 and the years beyond when we are taken to America and its united territories. Years of research and development starting in 1994 with the advent of the Internet and the unfettered constant communication have brought forth a new breed of terror that has gripped a nation and threatens the world.

Bob Dorman, the inventor of the modern operating system of the personal computer, with the aid of some of the brightest psychologists, engineers and some of the world's largest companies developed a system to create a media based system that would help memory retention, comprehension speed, and overall understanding. Originally created to enhance education by the doctors, Dorman and his men realized the true potential for this creation and steered its construction away from the educational to mind control through the media for purposes of advertising and corporate expansion. Word spread to the top CEOs in the country, and a crude version of the system known as ADAM (American Diametric Association Mechanism) was launched in 1998.

ADAM was simple subliminal advertising in principle and worked through common word association with attractive people. Unlike the common beer ad, it worked through common and constant placement of product throughout all mediums of advertising, entertainment, music and sports both facially and subconsciously at moments when the subject was in tune with any medium other than print. It was highly disputed if it worked but sales soared for the companies who used it, and soon consolidation of industry began to occur. Its shortcomings were many; mainly there was still such clutter and saturation, that even the subliminal elements could be avoided by the subject. Dorman himself thought the project was a failure and went back to the drawing board.

In 2001, after the horror of 9/11, the government investigated this program and sat down with Dorman, the corporations and their lead psychologist, Kenneth O'Reilly, to develop a program to better control soldiers so they would execute their orders even faster than through traditional conditioning and training. This unit was called the MACC (Military Assimilation Command Control) unit, or in code "Pavlov's Dogs" and was an elite and extremely covert unit of 40 people from the Army, Navy, Air Force and CIA who were unknown even to their own units and existed independently of the Armed Forces in Iraq. Instead of basic conditioning, their training was a 30-day session of intense exposure to distorted images of the enemy as animals, the President as a godly figure, and, unlike basic training and propaganda that was used by Goebbels during WWII, the reinforcement of near pleasurable images was introduced after every violent act against the enemy, adherence to the strategies, and tactics handed to them.

These people became the core of the secret missions to apprehend Saddam Hussein in 2002 and Osama Bin Laden in 2006. However, the brainwashing tactics were not practical. It was a highly personalized system to ensure retention and minimize rejection. O'Reilly believed that this would prevent the subjects from any rejection by unfamiliarity, or set off any natural safeguards such as disbelief, from the idea that they were simply being told things. The program used the icons of their deepest fantasies, extracted during hypnosis, as the characters of reinforcement. This also caused an unknown and unintended backlash when truthful discoveries were made about these icons that destroyed their value. This caused their greatest soldiers and accomplishments to degenerate into madness. The most serious of these came when their most famous unit member, Todd Carter, code named Blue Jay (who in 2006 captured Osama Bin Laden making him a national hero) discovered that the icon of his fantasies, a female basketball star, was a lesbian. This caused him to shed all of the controls that were placed on him, and he became outspoken in private against the government. The government captured him before he could go public, but his fame precluded him from being disposed of.

At the same time as the MACC experiment, ADAM was tweaked and re-launched. This time it was in governmental usage to relay partisan opinion through the 24-hour news service that constantly reinforced ideas of fear and the need to unite behind the President to keep secure, yet at the same time used every message at all times to note that this is the fair and balanced truth. This tactic worked on those already loyal and wiped out the middle ground, but caused a dangerous 50-50 split in the public that grew to nearing the threat of civil war. A depression also loomed with the aging population. However, the government saw ADAM as successful, as those who were loyal were so to the death and were unswayable by anyone or anything, often quoting tag lines verbatim.

In 2003 Dorman was summoned once again along with the CEOs of all major corporations and a deal was made. The Sherman Act would be repealed and all buying corporations would be given full national control of their respective categories through the brainwashing program. The united corporations bought in quickly and set up a plan and a program taking the best of ADAM with the intensity of MACC. There were practical concerns and many plans. A more intense version of ADAM was launched in 2006, using the capture of Bin Laden as a trigger named CARTER (Control of American Retention Through Ecstatic Reward) and used more suggestive images as well as a new feature involving personalized icons that were discovered through computer spyware tracking searches and then embedded on the personal computer of the user, creating reinforcement every second that the user was on the computer. This program was an improvement from ADAM politically, but commercially it had little effect and the corporations were still at war with their competitors. Meanwhile, all military were trained using MACC techniques.

O'Reilly saw the problem with CARTER right away. Commercially, the system was so personal, it could not alter personal taste, so the commercial appeal was lost and could even interfere with the product placement and subliminal messages of ADAM. Dorman and the corporations split ties with the government and went for their own development. In 2007 Todd Carter had his breakdown and the government abandoned all control programs. In the name of greed and finding a new tactic, the corporations armed themselves with a new plan with new research, teamed with the far right-wing religious leaders, and confronted the government with a bold new system, one that promised that, in time, full corporate and governmental control of America could be achieved.

O'Reilly took control of the project and Dorman was relegated to technical work. O'Reilly noted that ADAM was too general, yet CARTER was too personal. O'Reilly noted that for best effect, only a few icons should be created, but those icons should be present in any and all aspects of communication. There is individualism that cannot be ignored, but these traits can be neutralized if the same messages can be said in different ways; "Multiple tones to create the same harmony", as he put it. BRITNEY (Building Retention and Information Through a Nationally Educated Youth) was created for this purpose.

In 2008 the system was launched and became a great success. Sales for the participating companies quickly put their competition on the ropes, and the people were oblivious to any change in their lifestyles. In the 2008 election, religious fanatic Pete Richardson won as a 3rd party candidate for President with 45% of a three-way split. With the government in place the corporations expanded BRITNEY from just a fully controlled and tailored version of ADAM and into the multi-tiered system that O'Reilly had envisioned.

The system is multi-tiered: the corporations bought out the entertainment industry and used it as platform A, transforming it into a highly commercial, targeted yet echoing medium that controls all aspects of what is seen, from television, to outdoor, to even packages. It is an addictive force that keeps the people watching, listening, and/or online at all times. This keeps them interested and focused without interruption. It sharpens their senses and lowers their inhibitions during the primetime hours. When the news comes on, they are an open book ready to be filled with messages of fear, hatred, religious propaganda, and to stand by the government as the lone protector of freedom.

Platform B consists of the Internet, which tracks the moves of the people and tailors the exact same messages accordingly. It is a chance for a subject to feel in control of their own destiny, even if they are receiving the exact same message no matter where they go.

Platform C involves a basic daily structure. This keeps the people working hard building the country while ensuring that between the hours of 8-11pm- the reinforcement period- all will be at attention watching their respective channel, or at a performance by a sponsored artist, or at a sporting event (all are fully attended whenever available nowadays).

The different channels are for different personalities. The majority use Channel 1, which is the mainstream, the one that has the most loyal and devoted watchers. Channel 1 has no segmentation; it is meant to convey the message verbatim, straight up, no luring. These are the dedicated and the most enthusiastic Americans. Channel 1 is the only channel which has its non-news programming not syndicated internationally. The other channels are targeted and are aimed at slowly converting the others to the mainstream. There are 10 basic channels, all in English:

It is a main principle of this system that differences must be acknowledged and catered to, even if they are different or targeted for elimination.

All the channels use the BRITNEY supercomputer as its main icon. The image of a young blonde who men want to be with and women want to be, is the great rewarding image that is used for Channel 1. The other stations may adjust the age, color, or style of dress, but the form and hair color is always the same.

Throughout the next 18 years, Richardson and the corporations worked to forge a totalitarian government controlled through the BRITNEY supercomputer. Over the next decade, the BRITNEY led government gained more and more support and now owns 95% of the population (65% of that is on channel 1) and the US and its controlled territories (known as "democratic states" and including Iraq, Afghanistan, and Kosovo) have walled themselves off from the world but are intent on expanding those walls to the rest of the world. The corporations, thanks to international syndication to gain wealth, control 78% of the wealth of the world. The Americans still have the best military, because all men and women at 18-25 who are converted to a Channel 1 personality (about 50%) join, keeping them well armed, technologically advanced and ready to take over any country they want. In 2020 Richardson has finally become confident of his control and is ready to exercise his power across the world. He previously declared the New York City area (where almost all of the 5% of the uncontrolled population resides) an asylum state, still reeling from the tragic effects of 9/11. 85% of New York City opposes Richardson and live in a completely different culture than anyone else in America. Their only tie to BRITNEY is through their sports teams. Richardson has become aggressive in his message after incubating it in the people for 12 years. He has called for an invasion of all Arab land to liberate it from the rule of terrorists who still rule that land and will strike if not destroyed. He has also called for death to all homosexuals who do not give themselves up to normalcy and straighten up. (Almost all homosexuals have fled to NYC over the past decade. Those who aren't in NYC live secretly. Almost none of them have been able to be controlled, mainly since their orientation flies in the face of the message.)

One man has taken charge of trying to destroy this government and its control. From his home in New York he has led one last bastion of freedom. Todd Carter has waited and seen the evil rise up. He is a great hero, so he cannot be touched or it would upset the balance, since he is considered to be the man who destroyed the terror that haunted them for so long. For the past 14 years he has struggled to cope with what has happened to him, so he stayed silent after his capture, letting himself live in the asylum state. Now he teams up with others who remember the real land of the free and home of the brave and work to free the country from the evil that has held them captive. He is the Mighty Mighty Blue Jay.

Todd is a large man, his military days erased by years of self-pity and breaking out of the control that took away the best years of his life. His blonde hair and beard show his rebellion but any brainwashed being who sees him knows him and loves him. This is his weapon, his recourse, and why he only works alone. He can be his own force, because no one would harm him except for the 500 corporate and government masters who know his secret. Therefore he leads two lives: he gains the trust of the soldiers meant to raise hell, then uses them to put himself in a position to help destroy BRITNEY and the globalization machine that threatens the world. He cannot just speak out publicly, nor can the government just try him as a traitor. BRITNEY is protected from unintended messages by ASHLEE (Anti System Human Locator, Extractor, and Eliminator), a system that monitors every word and automatically lip synchs every word said to meet the party line if anything even slightly deviates. The government would risk demise by killing, capturing, or trying Todd as a traitor. To do so would be recognition of a flaw of an icon- the same thing that broke the brainwashing imposed on Todd. O'Reilly has stridently warned all the 500 not to touch Todd, instead to find him and bring him to them alive. The plan is to hide him, most likely in exile so he cannot interfere, yet so that no one can see his treason, lest the possibility for any debate or uprising occur. So he runs- but in his course, he frees gays to Canada, he tries to expose BRITNEY as much as possible, and he works to confront BRITNEY and destroy her, once and for all.

He wears the colors of the Toronto Blue Jays, the lone international baseball team. Baseball is the hub of Britney's control. Not a single person misses a baseball game when they are there. Even New York turns out and sells out every Yankee and Met game. The Blue Jays still draw, namely as a turnout against Britney's control in the States on the other side of the wall. The only free place that plays baseball is Toronto. Their stadium is the drop point and home base for Todd, who uses it as a path to freedom for people he is leading out of America. He has his assistants there, scouting the landscape and showing him where to go next to help further his battle against Britney. As he does, he learns more about what he is up against... and who he was.