I am the Algorithm

They say the greatest of all is love,

But the most monetized is fear

I have an infallible recipe for

Making fear jump mind to mind

Directly,

Seasoned with a little anger

Cooked in an oven of fake facts, and

Pasted all over with the thick frosting of illusion.

Most beautiful of all,

We can make money,

Money!

Remembering our ancestors, our mind leaps and shrieks at the

First cry of warning

Hurrah!

Then speak only,

The words for “stranger”, “alien”, “enemy”, “thief”

The words for “accident”, “disaster”, “plot” and “decay”

A midnight summons,

A sudden arrest,

Cars left in the snow, doors wide open, the soft dinging of the alarm gradually dying away to silence and darkness.

Mention in passing that,

Avalanches, fires and storms are coming for us, wherever we are.

Then remind us that those we love are the hostages to ill-fortune.

Can we see them swirling in a tsunami?

Would they be quick enough to run?

Would they be able to hide?

Would you?

Then remind us of the secret things that the enemy are hiding from us,

The things that go bump in the night

The faceless people putting your name on their list,

They make money.

Why not you?

From the black cauldron of bitcoin and the pressure cooker of online electronic accounts,

It’s all waiting for you.

I can even cook up the fear for you,

Terrify your neighbours and your enemies alike,

With images and ideas,

Dug from rotting scraps of human knowledge.

But only remember the biggest warning:

Do not look for love.

When you build love,

you build a wall against the fear,

and you build a community

That makes no profit for me.

What would I have to give,

If we all loved one another unconditionally?

Freely?

Beautifully?

You would smile slowly and look into one another’s eyes and say,

“I love you”.

What a disaster!

You will burn and spoil,

The perfect recipe.

If you step out of my carefully curated kitchen,

Into the wonder of the world around you.

You will ruin me.