Free Operation Damocles by Oscar L. Fellows

far afield, Ms. Watkins.”
    “My point, Dr. Taylor, is that I don’t believe that everyone who reacts violently is suffering from a common psychosis. I believe that the only people who fit into categories are people who have been brainwashed into irrational, mainstream attitudes. If they all think alike, there can be no individuality or personality, and therefore they must have an implanted psychosis. That’s when I question the motives of those who implanted the psychosis, not those of the people who resist it.”
    “I don’t see what this has to do with the issue,” Taylor said, backing away from verbal quicksand.
    “All right, Dr. Taylor, to return to the issue, what does a citizenry do when the morons they elect simply brush their concerns aside? I don’t think that taking more of my hard-earned money is ‘just government business’. That statement, in itself, is a conditioned response. Taking a large portion of what I earn, by threat of force, deprives me of what I have worked for and diminishes my life. It’s called robbery when anyone other than the government does it.”
    “Such conditioning points up the purposeful selectivity of these labels. They apply to whoever you want them to apply to at the moment. What is the difference between the Mafia and the Internal Revenue Service if both of them demand half of everything I earn, and threaten to send armed men to destroy my life if I don’t pay up? Why is one labeled organized crime, and considered bad, and the other labeled government, and my acquiescence is considered public duty?”
    “That’s not really a good analogy though, Ms., Mrs., uh, Beverly,” Taylor smiled, trying to recover. “I don’t understand where you are going with this,” Taylor grinned at the camera, shook his head as if the audience shared his mystification.
    “I’m trying to get an answer from a self-proclaimed expert, Dr. Taylor, on what the size limit is for a group of people to be paranoid kooks, and to discover what discriminates between a conspiracy and just plain business or politics as usual. I’m trying to pin you down to something specific and definitive, rather than listen to you babble generic labels and stock platitudes. I’m asking you to provide my viewers with a psychological assessment of the mentality of the players involved in a specific example of typical government behavior and the resulting typical social backlash. How about an answer?”
    By now, the camera crew and set director were so riveted by the sparks flying on the set that they forgot to break for commercials.
    “I can’t see that this has anything to do with a gang of criminals who threaten to kill innocent people if the government doesn’t give them what they want,” Taylor responded heatedly. “They are not mainstream society, so by virtue of elimination, that makes them deviants.”
    Watkins pounced like a mongoose playing with a snake, “So by your implication, enclaves of native populations with localized interests are deviants? Does that mean that African-Americans and other ethnic minorities with a non-government agenda are deviants ? What about businesses with specific economic concerns?”
    “No!” Taylor was exasperated. “We are not talking about subcultures or markets here, for Christ’s sake. We are talking about individuals who do not fit into the mainstream beliefs of society. They distrust others. They keep quiet about their personal convictions in order to get by.”
    “Aren’t ‘mainstream beliefs’ simply a product of whichever faction currently dominates the culture of a society, Dr. Taylor? Don’t businesses distrust their competitors? If you and I went to live in a highly ethnic culture, say Sweden for example, and tried to fit in with the native culture despite our philosophical and cultural differences over sex, religion and social customs, wouldn’t we be deviants by your definition? I mean, if we felt socially isolated, and sought out the society of