Thus spake the greatest romantic poet and writer of the nineteenth century. Victor Hugo; author of Les Miserables and The Hunchback of Notre Dame; works of such political and emotional depth and certitude of man’s unchanging genetic condition, that for the better part of two centuries the sale of his books and tickets to mounted plays have made many men rich.

I do not doubt the accuracy of Hugo’s statement.

However, from this writer’s standpoint, there is a lot of voluntary servitude by those who are fearful, thus allowing others to enslave their minds. And that voluntary servitude leaves willing enslavers in control of lives not their own. Wearing my “probing reporter” hat, I asked myself why voluntary servitude exists in spirituality, politics, marriages, or anything that requires thinking and action. Therefore, what are the facts? I’ve identified five.

Fact #1: Making a conscious decision implies taking responsibility for your own life.

Fact #2: Acting on a conscious decision means family, friends, bosses, and others in the community will not like it that you changed the steps to their dance.

Fact #3: Continuing to dance to another tune, march to another drummer, even transform the dance itself, implies revolution.

Fact #4: In revolution, ideas collide in flesh, steel, and bone.

Fact #5: People don’t like pain and will go to great lengths to avoid it…unless they like that sort of thing; that’s another column for another day.

I was led to one conclusion: Believing all opportunities for those to be injurious, people avoid collisions. I personally have confidence in collisions as destroyers of inefficient systems – and the placer of building blocks for better ones. Need I reference the biggest collision ever: The Big Bang?

Pun intended for you romantics out there.

Comments are always appreciated: GordonUnplugged@outlook.com

Excerpt from the third novel in The Dance Floor Wars series: Collisions