COGNITIVE TYRANNY

By James Weekes

The most basic and fundamental freedom is the right to be free of interference within one's own mind. Even the most repressive and authoritarian regimes throughout history have not been able to infringe on this private realm. However, advances in neurotechnology have changed this by allowing unprecedented access into the inner recesses of the human mind.

The head of the Integrated Intelligence Agency (IIA), Joseph Rothstein, seeks to use this new technology to target the readers of controversial books. Three unsuspecting subjects will find themselves in his clutches. In the name of national security, Rothstein will wage a devastating campaign of mental terrorism on these unfortunate people. And in the process, the freedoms of reading, writing, speaking, and even thinking will be substantially challenged.

Cognitive Tyranny is a gripping exploration of thought control and mental tyranny. It addresses the new and disturbing possibilities that have arisen with neurotechnology. And it emphasizes the importance of fundamental freedoms, such as thought, speech, and expression, that no technology should interfere with. As science and technology advance, the enthusiasm for newness often drowns out concerns about harm and abuse. This story is a resounding appeal for basic human freedoms in an era when they can be destroyed more easily and efficiently than ever before.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Page Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: May 15, 2023
• ISBN: 9798887932620

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COGNITIVE TYRANNY

James Weekes

Copyright © 2023 James Weekes

All rights reserved

First Edition

PAGE PUBLISHING

Conneaut Lake, PA

First originally published by Page Publishing 2023

ISBN 979-8-88793-260-6 (pbk)

ISBN 979-8-88793-262-0 (digital)

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Afterword

Acknowledgments

Suggestions for Further Reading

About the Author

Chapter 1

A radiant beam of light penetrates through the broad floor-to-ceiling windows, bisecting the psychology department's break room. Part of the room is basking in the warm, refulgent glow of the sun. The other is enveloped in its penumbra. As the sun illuminates, it also exposes while what falls within the shadows remains hidden to the naked eye. Dr. Kareem Chalmers, a tenured professor in his midforties, is reclining on the plush, spacious sofa. He has prepared himself a warm cup of green tea. As he sips the refreshing beverage, he allows the gentle smoke to tickle his nostrils. These are the still, quiet moments that he lives for. To him, they are the essence of life. Or at least they were. Recent developments in his field, as well as that of neuroscience, computer science, and engineering, have been used to violate his mental space, at least while he is at work. He has learned that he cannot be alone with his thoughts, even in his own mind.

What a lazy imbecile! You're lounging around on the job, and you're supposed to be a psychologist? A shrill, disturbing voice blared across his head.

Humans aren't machines, Rachel. We should all be allowed some time to decompress every so often, Chalmers replied, entirely in his head, and the conversation continued telepathically.

We are supposed to be working on a revolutionary innovation that could change life as we know it. The US Department of Defense and the Integrated Intelligence Agency are giving us a virtually unlimited operating budget. We will be ushering in a new age of perfect order, perfect discipline, and unprecedented control of human life. And you're just sitting on your hands. What a lazy nig—

Excuse you! I think that you're going too far with that one. Don't let this get ugly!

Fair enough, I guess racial slurs are off-limits, as per the employment code of conduct. But if I weren't at work, I wouldn't be so politically correct. And you're certainly doing the part of a no-count, lazy, shiftless black person. Why don't I have the right to call it as I see it?

Kareem Chalmers is a black person, an African American, in a white-dominated field at a white-dominated university. East Coast Institute of Technology enjoys a temperate Northeastern climate since it is nestled right alongside the eastern seaboard. The summers here are enviable, reminding one of the tropics. It is beautiful and warm, with a cooling breeze, that allays an otherwise oppressive summer heat, at least for those who cannot bear the warmth. Chalmers may be among the few here who are congenitally constituted to withstand unmitigated hot weather. Fortunately for his peers, the climactic conditions on campus have proven ideal for a much wider spectrum of humanity. Yet, for all the campus's scenic beauty, a mixture of island mystique and northern forestry, it serves as a site for very serious research. ECIT is a hub for the nation's—no, the world's—top scientific talent. As such, the university attracts federal money like a magnet, and Chalmers and his colleagues are bathing in it, as they tinker with new developments.

Chalmers is lean and spry. He lives a life unencumbered by few needs and even fewer wants. He has found that by simplifying his life and focusing on his work, he could better cope with social difficulties that his colleagues could never fully understand. He feels like a strange being here, out of place, and not warmly welcomed. This impacts his mind more than he lets on, but he continues to thrive by tuning out the distractions, to the best of his ability, and focusing on just getting stuff done. However, his life experiences have firmly convinced him that his field, psychology, is a social science. For all the neurocircuitry and biochemistry that psychologists learn about the brain, these explanations have failed to encompass the psychology of race, especially in this country, or the impacts of structural inequities on one's mental experience.

It wasn't that he hated white people. Far from it. To get where he got in this society, he knew that he needed the generous support and guidance that he received from numerous white individuals. He realized that if kind and supporting members of the white race did not take an active interest in his success or reward his motivation and desire to learn, he may have ended up as just another black statistic. He also knew that it took a great deal of compassion and courage for individual white people to confront systemic racism and to work toward diminishing the crippling effects that it had on its victims.

Chalmers had a system that he relied on to sort white people into different categories. His complex scholarly mind recoiled at such simple dichotomies and rough generalizations. However, he found that these categories helped him to distinguish between his genuine allies and his committed adversaries, among white people. On one hand, there were liberal, left-leaning progressives who truly wanted to build a better, more cooperative world, based on multicultural coalitions. Then there were bigoted, right-wing extremists, who actively sought to perpetuate and reaffirm white supremacy.

This line of thinking led him to reflect on the work of Dr. Kenneth Clark. Dr. Clark found that even relatively young black children quickly internalized a system of white supremacy when living in the United States. He noticed that black children in his experiments generally found the physical appearance of a doll with white features preferable to a doll with black features. Not only this country's beauty standards but its metrics of intelligence were coded with racial bias. Chalmers had long lamented the well-documented racial disparities on standardized academic tests. However, his knowledge of biology informed him that these differences could not be explained by heredity or by evolution. The average scores on these exams have changed too quickly, over too short periods.

Instead, Chalmers considered this to be evidence that systemic racism was so deeply woven into academia, including his own field, that most people could not even see it. Chalmers knew that those who designed standardized tests highlighted the knowledge and skills that they found most important. It is practically impossible to do well on any of them without extensive foreknowledge and preparation. Black people and other disadvantaged minorities in this country are often denied the opportunities and resources to prepare for these exams. The continuing disparities in academic performance between racial groups demonstrated how much a white-dominated US society has allowed blacks, as a group, to become a disadvantaged underclass.

His colleague, Dr. Rachel Daniels, was not buying this explanation. She saw things the way that the wealthy and privileged saw them because she came from wealth and privilege. No surprise there! She continued to harass Chalmers at work because he was the highest-ranked black employee within the department, and they were both working on developing this technology. However, she could not see that systemic racism informed her perspective.

To her, psychology was a natural science, plain and simple. She wanted it to merge with neuroscience and ignore the social factors, which, to her, meant fuzziness or inaccuracy. She was familiar with the limitations of this perspective, but she was more informed by academic philosophy than by a consideration of the profoundly different mental experiences that people can have, as a direct result of different social, cultural, and economic factors. Donald Davidson told her that what psychology studied was entirely in the realm of the physical or natural, but that interactions between these entities produced new emergent properties that defied reductionistic explanations.

However, to Daniels, the problems of philosophy of mind were solved by the advent of electromagnetic, mind-interference technology. If the mind's activity could be completely explained by deciphering electrical impulses and if people outside that mind could now interfere with those impulses, what was there left to explain? Couldn't we now simply define the brain in the terms of biochemistry and electromagnetic energy? What new properties were emerging? What factors of behavior or thought were left unexplained by this? To her, she had all the answers, and nothing could shake this conviction. She clung resolutely to this outlook and nursed petty grievances against anyone who challenged her perspective.

Unfortunately, she found someone within her own department who dared to question this paradigm, and he became the bitterest of her opponents. The result was that on most days, little progress was made on debugging the technology or improving its performance. They even disagreed on how this technology should be classified in academic terms. Chalmers was a proponent of the socio-cognitive theory. He felt that the technology would be better explained in terms of its intended impact. People would be using this technology to probe into human minds and to interfere with those minds that they deemed problematic. Their decisions to interfere would largely be informed by social considerations. The victims were evaluated with reference to social norms, and they would be punished for their deviance from these norms. This punishment involved coercive interference with their mental processes or cognitive experiences, based on fundamentally subjective social judgments, thus the hybrid name socio-cognitive.

Daniels, on the other hand, felt that the technology would be better defined by its technological functions. She adhered to the psycho-physical theory. According to her, it was unnecessary to contextualize the technology according to its social or applied functions. Rather, she thought that it was more important to focus on how the technology worked scientifically. Since it involved using electromagnetic radiation to interfere with the electromagnetic activities of human brains, there was no need to describe how such a weapon would be used in an applied context.

Daniels did not dwell on how the content of the punishment was generated, who was targeted and why, or the perspectives of the victims. As with most of her outlook, her take on this technology evinced a deeply hardened callousness and an extreme lack of empathy built up by years of practice in disregarding the feelings and concerns of others. It was true that analyzing how the technology worked, in the terms of the physical sciences, involved fewer value-laden aspects than analyzing it based on its applications. This technology could possibly be applied in both positive, life-enhancing ways or in negative, life-destroying ones. Yet, as Chalmers noted, all these good and ill effects would only have purpose and meaning when contextualized within a society's system of values.

Beyond this, the two of them engaged in heated debates on the most minute aspects of life. An outside observer might say that they had completely irreconcilable perspectives. But they still had to share a department anyway. While Chalmers offered pushback, he tended to be less aggressive in attempting to impose his views of the world on others. Daniels, on the other hand, was militant in trying to force others to see things her way. She particularly enjoyed targeting Chalmers, who clearly held positions that were diametrically opposed to her views, on most topics. Much to the detriment of humanity, people like Rachel Daniels would be those most interested in wielding this technology to interfere with and oppress others. Daniels was so overbearing and belligerent that even Chalmers's beverage choices could become a source of contention between them.

You do realize that the tea that you are drinking was likely the product of exploited workers in an underdeveloped country? Why don't you care about those poor workers? Their circumstances make being black in America seem insignificant by comparison. Rachel Daniels condescendingly addressed him.

The injustices faced by the people who grew this tea do not diminish the suffering of black people. Black people endure widespread, systemic discrimination in the United States and throughout the world. I cannot worry about every cup of tea I drink or every banana I buy, but I can do something to shine a light on the national and global effects of systemic racism. The more people are aware, the more we can move toward a better tomorrow. I am not naïve. I recognize contradictions. I know that I cannot solve all the world's problems. But it is worthwhile for me to examine them and then contribute what I can to help resolve them. Just being aware of them is a step in the right direction, Chalmers responded.

When you accuse this country of mistreating the blacks and other racial minorities, what ground can you stand on? You must accept mistreatment as a cost of doing business, right? After all, you aren't giving up all the benefits that come from exploiting fellow human beings. Well, we're doing the same thing to black people in this country. If you're going to be this negative and un-American, you don't even deserve a place in this department!

The disparities between the white ruling class and the black underclass highlight an injustice, in any country where these disparities exist. The United States has one of the most extensive and enduring systems of racial discrimination in the world. If we can mitigate the problem here, we could have a widespread impact on all areas with pervasive, race-based inequities.

What a lazy, ungrateful, black, worthless, pathetic, complaining, whining…

To him, Daniels's turn toward an ad hominem attack meant that he had made a point. Under better circumstances, he could probably argue further, but the ongoing mental harassment was draining him. He dreaded going to work every day, knowing that instead of having a peaceful and quiet mental space, to do his best thinking, he would face incessant harassment the minute that he walked through the department doors. At least this technology could only be used during work hours, under strict supervision by the department. So his home remained a respite. Yet while at work, if Chalmers truly wanted to catch a break from the attacks, he had to trek across campus to the physics department and rest in one of their Faraday cages. The Faraday cage was a unit, named after the physicist Michael Faraday, in which electromagnetic radiation is pushed to the outer surface by the unit's material, which is usually a metal that deflects radiation. Even though the weather was beautiful today and the campus scenery was always idyllic, Chalmers couldn't muster the energy to seek refuge. He was becoming somewhat accustomed to the ongoing harassment anyway. But his overall ability to concentrate declined, and he felt that he just couldn't give his best every day.

It didn't really matter because the government funds kept coming in. Their employers were just happy to have a working prototype. Kareem Chalmers and Rachel Daniels were essentially immune to termination. They only had to ensure that they did not release covert government secrets or violate the usage protocols to harass anyone outside the project or outside work hours. This meant that these two researchers could pretty much spend all day attacking each other's minds as long as they made sure not to cross any serious lines. Daniels was far more enthused about this arrangement than her colleague, Chalmers, was. She saw it as an opportunity to assert her dominance over him and torment his day-to-day existence. A plantation mentality arose within her, as she unconsciously fancied herself a wealthy, landed Southern belle, who kept her black slave under the whip. She preferred not to think of herself as a racist. But her actions and her words manifested a strong desire to exert her dominance as a white person.

Chalmers, by contrast, wanted to work when he was working and rest when he was resting. At this interval, he simply wanted to be alone with his tea and his thoughts. His studies in psychology led him to do work with meditation earlier in his career. He was amazed by how helpful relaxation and attention training techniques were for his performance and his overall sense of well-being. Furthermore, he saw meditation as a potentially useful and affordable strategy to teach people from disadvantaged groups, who needed to cope with challenging circumstances that were beyond their control. Unfortunately, the world of meditation had become increasingly inaccessible to him in the midst of his current work environment.

Most of his time at work involved checking in and then counting the hours until he could go home. There, his time and his mind would become his again. He watched the clock, he literally stared at it, and he noticed how slowly the second hand took to circumambulate the round surface. He could not contribute his best work under these circumstances, but he was thankful for the opportunity to collect income and hold an important position. To be fair, he earned this prime position through many years of sheer effort during the earlier part of his career. Yet while his working conditions seemed enviable, the internal struggles that he had to cope with, as a result of these technologies, weighed him down. They were an oppressive burden that he could not shake. Between this set of circumstances and the trials and tribulations of his youth, he wouldn't hesitate to trade them for his past.

As he was sitting with his tea, it occurred to him how much he despised internet comment sections. Occasionally, his curiosity got the better of him, and he clicked on these sections. When he did so, he found the filth of humanity fully exposed in all its naked glory. When people did not fear retaliation or harmful consequences, he noticed that they tended to spew forth utmost hatred and contempt on their fellow members of the human race. The vitriolic comments, the lack of boundaries, and the unveiled nastiness of it all, strangely, both attracted and repulsed him. He was thankful that he could always exercise a bit of discretion by neglecting to open these sections. But with the psychotronic assaults at work, it was as if the internet comment sections were being projected directly into his skull. He couldn't turn them off or refuse to listen to them. It took every effort on his part simply to bear with this circumstance, one moment at a time.

The thought had often crossed his mind that he should walk over to Rachel Daniels and force her to stop bothering him. He had the benefit of knowing who was doing it, when it would be done, and where. However, he already knew that such action would be futile. They both enjoyed the same comfortable arrangement. Neither the agencies employing her, nor the psychology department would take action against her, as long as she operated within established boundaries. Furthermore, confronting her might make things worse. After all, she already had access to his thoughts, and she would be able to notice any of his possible responses. He tried to keep things civil, hoping that she would subconsciously respond to his patience and poise. That didn't seem to be happening.

As he reached the end of his beverage, he reflected on the plight of the prospective victims of this technology. He could not fathom any crime of humanity so appalling as to warrant this treatment indefinitely. What could this intervention possibly solve? What crimes would this even deter? He could only imagine how the unfortunate targets would become subject to this assault without being able to identify the perpetrators and without having any place to escape from these attacks. This would be their entire waking experience, twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. It would be incessant. It would be merciless. It would be beyond depravity to do this to any living, human being.

Although Chalmers did not want to trigger a response from Rachel, his twisted colleague immediately picked up on his many musings and reflections.

Are you serious, Chalmers? You really think that we shouldn't use this technology to control those we deem unruly and vile? You are so naïve that it's pathetic. Do you even know about the gruesome realities that take place out on the streets? People rape. People torture. People slowly and pitilessly dismember. People grotesquely disembowel. There are a lot of genuine demons in this world, and this technology can give them a taste of their own medicine. Sure, this approach may seem cruel and inhumane. But compared to what is going on out there, I think that it is the lesser of the evils.

"I'm sorry, Daniels, but my work on this technology is giving me tremendous cognitive dissonance. I can't help but feel that we are the real demons for trying to do this to people. We're playing God with people's lives. We're casting never-ending judgment on them, for what may have been a temporary act. Sure, if it's a death or if it's rape, the consequences may be undoable. But then we're going into people's brains, and we're torturing them indefinitely. Two wrongs don't make a right. I'm not sure if it is worthwhile to increase the sum total of misery in this world, simply to punish those we deem deserving of punishment. I'm hardly a moral absolutist, but I cannot see people looking back on this time and being able to justify this kind of intervention.

Plus, we're producing this technology for some of the world's most powerful and dominant people. They aren't known for being kind or for having moral compasses. They may pick victims at their own discretion. Some of whom are completely undeserving of such treatment. Basically, I think that we might be doing a lot more harm than good with this technology. But we've already progressed too far along, and we've signed contracts not to disclose anything. I just don't feel right, not knowing if people will be protected from its worst possible consequences.

You're such a wimp! Rachel shot back. There are some of us who see the reality of the world we live in. We think that some people in this world need to be controlled. There are a lot of bad guys and bad gals out there who will trample on us if we do not do something about them. I think that this intervention is completely and wholly warranted, even if a few less blameworthy victims get corralled into the mix. I, for one, am proud that I am working on this technology. I think that I'm making this world a better, saner, and safer place. If you're going to whine and moan and have an existential crisis, I think that you need to think about leaving. This project will go on with or without you. Our employers are paying us top dollar for this tech, and they want what we're serving them.

Kareem Chalmers got up and proceeded to toss his disposable cup into the trash container. He stretched his limbs and looked out the broad glass window. He looked at the students playing Ultimate Frisbee in the quad, people lying against trees, people resting on benches, and people reading books. He wondered if it was worthwhile to try and impose a rigid, unerring order upon all that he saw before him. Should we use our brains to bend every individual to our will? Even if people could control others in this way, the prospect seemed unbecoming and hubristic for any serious academic.

Scientists have long struggled with their competing interests to control nature or society or to cooperate with what they were studying as it shared its secrets. It was unclear to Chalmers which approach produced better results. After all, even ECIT was the product of conscious design and the imposition of some degree of order. But it was one thing to control at the scale of societies and institutions. It was another thing to micromanage every human being, down to the neurons, neurotransmitters, and electrical activities within a person's brain. How could a society even dare to call itself free if it sought that much control over the human brain and the human body? This level of control deeply unsettled Chalmers. But it was what his employers wanted to do.

Chapter 2

Before the sun arose on the horizon, the director of the Integrated Intelligence Agency had already risen from bed and started a pot of coffee. He was accustomed to running on little sleep, and he managed to function competently with two or three hours a night. His job was too important for him to waste too much time on self-care. The funny thing was that Joseph Rothstein did not actually need to work. He had already become a billionaire several times over by the time that he was in his late thirties. The name of his game was arms dealing. He profited massively from the military-industrial complex of the US of A.

It was no secret that the United States spent enormous amounts of money on defense. Even though this country had nukes galore and rarely faced attacks on its own soil, it spent as if it were constantly at war with a competing country. If the US was not actively engaged in fighting an enemy country, it boggled the mind as to who or what all those dollars were spent to combat against. The notoriously stingy Grand Old Party (GOP) made an exception for spending on this purpose. And the establishment Democrats, while occasionally questioning such an arrangement, also supported massive military spending. However, the Democrats, by comparison, were usually less aggressive in ramping up defense spending. Both sides abided by the adage that the best offense is a strong defense. But if Republicans constantly complain that this country does not have enough money to spend on social programs, why spend this much on defense?

None of these considerations bothered Joseph Rothstein. He went where the money was flowing freely and opened his arms, ready to grab his share. Much like Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld before him, Rothstein saw a huge pile of cash that was ready to be taken. Rothstein was not trained in science and technology. However, he had an innovative mind and a formal business education. This gave him the savvy salesmanship that he needed to generate financial capital and hire engineers who would carry out his vision. Rothstein was always looking for new types of weapons to unleash in war zones. He wanted to produce whatever would give the US an edge in combat.

Rothstein's imagination had no limits. He commissioned engineers to produce heat-seeking missiles, tanks, and airplanes that could be controlled remotely, self-destructing drones, and a whole host of other technological innovations, which would change warfare as we knew it. He worked on making assault weapons more deadly. Some could fire several rounds with one push of the trigger. They also came replete with their own bump stocks. These were the types of weapons that no one wanted in the hands of a potential spree killer. Rothstein also got in on funding base camps and forming corporate partnerships to service military personnel, á la Dick Cheney and Halliburton.

His personal love of fast food played a role in what showed up at military bases. Generally, the most well-known burger, fried chicken, pizza, and taco franchises were present at the bases, much to the delight of service personnel. Each station had a full menu in contrast with the subsidiary kiosks that one might find at rest stops or malls. However, given the emphasis on physical fitness in the military, one may question whether more fast food was what military staff needed to function optimally. Yet, for the homesick and the emotionally strained, the comfort food may have made all the difference in their morale.

Joseph Rothstein was not a slim guy, but he was also not morbidly obese. He was a man of average height, and he held the build of a rather chubby average American white male. He could stand to lose a few pounds, but his moderately pudgy figure would not likely attract negative attention when he walked down the street. He neglected fitness, much like he neglected his sleep, but he also did not sit down for hours and stuff himself silly. He simply had too many other priorities to be distracted by activities that many other people emphasized.

Rothstein's penetrating ocean-blue eyes reflected his active and agile mind. After all, his mind was perpetually occupied by one problem or another. He had dirty blond hair that refused to recede or gray even though he was in his fifties. He also had relatively refined and symmetrical facial features, which could get him mistaken for a movie star—that is if he wasn't just a bit too chubby to look the part. His neglect of personal care sometimes extended to his facial hair. Rothstein shaved when he perceived a need to. But more often than not, he wore uneven patches of stubble around the lower part of his face.

As with most workaholics, Rothstein had a serious caffeine addiction. Yet he was too particular about his coffee to rely on instant. Every morning, he got up, plugged in his electric bean grinder, and ground away. He would order beans from all over the world because he enjoyed noticing the subtle differences in flavor that came from the different regions. He had a quirky suspicion that honing his ability to notice minute differences in taste could improve his acuity as a secret agent. No sense could be too refined or too perceptive. Today, Rothstein served himself a Colombian roast, which smelled heavenly to him. His previous batch was a Tanzanian blend that also hit the spot. But he wouldn't allow himself to drink the same blend twice in a row. There were too many coffee-growing regions to have such a limited perspective on coffee, or so he thought.

Coffee was not the only medium for his favorite drug. He allowed himself chocolate bars quite often, usually with ground expresso beans. He steered clear of energy drinks because of his tendency to abuse them in his earlier years. Instead, he found himself returning back to his kitchen to procure more coffee. This was possible because his workstation was located directly below his home, in a suburban part of Virginia, just outside Washington, DC. Beneath the District of Columbia, the Integrated Intelligence Agency operated an underground facility. This allowed them to do their work in utmost secrecy.

Rothstein did not splurge on an unusually fancy or spacious home, as most billionaires are inclined to do. Rather, he made sure that his modest Virginian home was connected to his work site belowground. The place that he lived in was comfortable, clean, and tidy. But it was also sparsely furnished, so there was little to clean. As might be expected with someone so fully engaged in his work, Rothstein did not have a wife, and he lived alone. His one-track mind could not afford any diversions or distractions, or so he claimed. The truth was that he had a lifelong awkwardness around the other sex, which his billions did surprisingly little to combat. He was also insecure about his lifelong tendency toward chubbiness. But he did not feel inclined to change his appearance, or his lifestyle, to please women. Rothstein often brushed aside holiday gatherings and family get-togethers because of how preoccupied he was with his work. He was also overly concerned that relatives would seek to weasel themselves into his money.

Rothstein sat around his kitchen table and nursed his cup of coffee, as he read the paper. As a well-informed intelligence agent, he was already aware of much of what he would see. Yet, unlike most people, he was looking to make sure that certain stories did not make it into the news. He would be flabbergasted if some of the IIA's secret research projects were leaked by journalists. Fortunately for him, he had little to worry about. The news media, the wealthy elite, and the government had long been involved in partnerships that allowed them virtually unilateral control over what the masses were exposed to. He was personally involved in these partnerships, to further ensure the lack of leaks. Rothstein was all too aware that people were now living in an Orwellian world.

He looked down at his hands and noticed that his fingertips were besmirched with ink. He always found this annoying but commonplace. After reading the paper, Rothstein proceeded to wipe his hands on a wet sheet of paper towel to remove the ink. He mulled the thought of getting a prepackaged doughnut from his pantry, but he decided against it. The coffee would numb his appetite for the time being, and he would prefer to slim down a bit. Unfortunately, he would be all too likely to splurge on lunch if he neglected his appetite at breakfast. Still, he figured that he might surprise himself by eating a modest lunch, despite skipping breakfast. He used to smoke to quell his hunger pangs but then realized that this habit would cause him more harm than good in the long run. So he knocked it before he developed serious problems. He had surprisingly strong self-control in many aspects of his life, except for his appetite, and his penchant for what could be called indulgent food. Nevertheless, Rothstein figured that his health was good enough. He was content as long as he could pour himself into his work without any significant impediments.

Rothstein walked down the stairs leading to his basement. He took a quick warm shower in the basement bathroom and then donned casual work attire. He was too busy to bathe himself carefully and thoroughly, but he always made sure that he appeared clean and that he didn't smell. His coworkers certainly would appreciate it. If they didn't, he was the boss, so it didn't really matter. Yet he wanted to make some effort to appear presentable. He felt that it set a good example for his many minions. They peeved him if they failed to demonstrate consummate professionality at all times.

He went to a door that required him to insert his work ID and input a passcode. To secure the location, he made sure to install a closet in front of this door to distract attention from any possible prying, perceptive eyes. The closet was a walk-in, and it had only a few articles of clothing hanging from the pole above his head. Each time he entered, he would proceed to push these aside and input the necessary information. He loved being this close to his job. In particular, he enjoyed being able to occasionally take breaks and meals in his own kitchen without significantly jeopardizing his productivity.

As he walked down the cool, spacious hallway to his executive suite, he was greeted by many of his employees. Good day to you, sir.

Good morning, Agent 793.

Looking good, boss!

You flatter me, Agent 338.

He referred to all his employees by number rather than by name. He felt that this enhanced the professional vibe and that it promoted self-negation on the part of his employees. He wanted people who would give everything to this job while leaving their personality, preferences, and interests at the door. When considering a potential employee, Rothstein always asked himself if this candidate would work at least half as much as he was working. This meant that the candidate should be willing to accept irregular hours, routinely giving up weekends, sleeping at the office when necessary, and missing holidays and celebrations. Rothstein felt that the importance of this job demanded it. He also had enough ready and willing candidates to find the few who would endure his arduous demands.

Joseph Rothstein got this job as part of what is called the revolving door in Washington. Over the years, as a young arms dealer and defense industry profiteer, Rothstein garnered numerous contacts in the US government who were only too ready and willing to bend over backward to please him. The many senators, defense administrators, house members, and others treated him as a VIP, catering to his every need and request. Rothstein's priorities came first, unlike the many letters from constituents that wound up in the shredder or went entirely unnoticed by the elected officials. After all, they were getting something from Rothstein. In this system, people did not lift a finger unless it was in their personal interests to do so.

Rothstein could inform elected officials about all the latest advances in military technology, well before the public became privy to such details. He could demonstrate civilian applications, such as using drones and satellites to spy on questionable constituents. He also could negotiate deals with elected officials. Elected officials were often getting their police departments bargains on weapons, by allowing them to buy directly, and wholesale, from Rothstein's companies. All the perks, opportunities, and privileges that Rothstein was doling out like Santa Claus made him very popular with those in high places. The billions he wielded also helped to shift matters in his favor.

Those in power, who associated with Rothstein, were aware of how much he wanted to get into the spy game. Rothstein fancied himself well-suited to be an American James Bond, albeit much pudgier and awful with women. He also knew that he could improve his position by coordinating more of the products that his companies produced with the requests of the defense department and the intelligence agencies. When a vacancy became available to lead in intelligence, Rothstein's contacts were all too willing to recommend his name to the president as the best person to fill the slot. The president happily obliged. Indeed, with connections like this, Rothstein didn't even need luck. The whole thing played out exactly as Rothstein wanted it to.

Joseph Rothstein took the helm of what is now called the Integrated Intelligence Agency. This agency resulted from a merger between the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Historically, the CIA concerned itself with foreign affairs while the FBI focused on domestic concerns. However, throughout history, the line between this distinction has blurred. Both agencies have cooperated with each other, and each has worked on what would typically be confined to the other's turf. A notable example is Project MK Ultra. This CIA program was built around seeking drugs that could be used as truth serums or for mind control purposes. Under the auspices of this project, scientists tested LSD-25 (lysergic acid diethylamide) on unwitting American participants, on US soil. They hoped that this drug could be useful in disorienting foreign adversaries and in getting them to lower their defenses during interrogations. The results were evidently mixed and many of the participants claimed to have suffered enduring harm. Yet this did not stop the CIA's attempt to exercise control over human minds. Those with money and power simply redirected their attention to potentially more fruitful channels.

The Integrated Intelligence Agency was produced by an era that aimed at consolidating power and control in fewer and fewer hands. As many agents joked, The left hand wanted to know what the right hand was doing. Those in power felt that if all the parts worked in synchrony and shared information, the functions of the agency could be more effectively carried out. Instead of having two firmly delineated spheres of activity, the units could merge and combine resources when appropriate. These agencies had already done as much on projects such as MK Ultra or in their investigations into Havana syndrome. Why not make it official? There are certainly foreseeable efficiency advantages in combining two of the United States' most important intelligence-gathering arms. However, there are also problems that come from concentrating too much power into too few hands. Historically, humanity has struggled to find the right balance between the advantages and the detriments of consolidation. Indeed, many of the sorriest chapters of human history revolved around power-sharing issues.

One might think that whoever would be best suited to direct such a powerful agency would also seek to be as impartial as possible in this professional role. However, everyone brings personal issues and concerns to the table, even when each person is consciously trying not to. In this case, the situation was even more exaggerated because Joseph Rothstein had an agenda, and he knew it. He came into this role with the express intention of executing his agenda. As with the John Roberts Supreme Court, supposedly impartial bodies and supposedly impartial professionals can be deeply tainted by personal biases, and these biases can cause profoundly unsettling effects.

When it came to Joseph Rothstein, he wanted to use his power, money, and distinction to wage a war on the minds of readers of controversial books. Joseph Rothstein took with him a strong animosity toward the first amendment of the US Constitution. He was particularly concerned about the ways in which books could influence and radicalize the minds of impressionable individuals. He also felt that the government should do more to prevent people from reading certain books.

Joseph Rothstein was a white American, but he was also a Jewish American. The book that he was most concerned about was Hitler's memoir, autobiography, and political tract, called Mein Kampf or My Struggle in English. Rothstein was worried that if people read Mein Kampf, they might act on Hitler's ideas, particularly his notorious antisemitism, and start another holocaust. Rothstein noted that the book was banned in the Soviet Union (later Russia) and in Germany until the book's copyright expired in 2015. After the book's copyright expired, its distribution and sale became harder to regulate or police. Rothstein wanted to see this book banned on the international level. He thought that if people were prevented from reading Mein Kampf, they would be less likely to harm the Jewish community.

This position was not exactly in lockstep with the larger Jewish community. Many Jews have historically been far more concerned about holocaust denial than they were with people reading Mein Kampf. In fact, the Anti-Defamation League, a civil rights organization that focuses on hate crimes against Jewish people, issues a foreword to certain editions of Mein Kampf. Rothstein, however, feared that more harm would be done by allowing people to read this controversial book than simply keeping its ideas out of the minds of US citizens. This would be a challenging task, but Rothstein was well-equipped to stamp out access to this book and harshly punish the offending readers.

After former President George W. Bush waged a War on Terror, he also pushed a legislative act through Congress that markedly ramped up surveillance over US civilians. The Patriot Act allowed for the oversight of the everyday activities of individuals, under the guise of protecting US citizens from terrorist attacks. It also erected the Department of Homeland Security, which now, alongside the CIA, the FBI, and the NSA, operated under the auspices of the Integrated Intelligence Agency. Every succeeding president since George W. Bush, including Barack Obama, Donald Trump, and Joseph Biden, has done nothing to remove the Patriot Act.

From Joseph Rothstein's executive suite, and on the computer systems of his staff, it is possible to monitor all the electronic activity that is processed through technology in the United States. This means that all computer activity, smartphone activity, cell phone activity, and telephone activity are accessible to the IIA. Furthermore, the US has several satellites orbiting the planet, which allow the government to monitor the physical whereabouts and activities of every human being residing within the borders of the United States. The scale of the surveillance has led many agents to refer to the IIA affectionately as Eye-Eye or Twenty-Twenty. Some agents occasionally refer to George Orwell's classic novel 1984 and joke