“In the country of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.” So goes the old saying.
In Intellectual Takeout contributor Walker Larson’s fantasy novel Hologram, however, Aaron Castillian becomes a king of sorts precisely because he is blind, at least in a particular way.
After his people’s enemy, the Voturans, devastate Aaron’s hometown and kill or enslave his family members, Aaron flees, but he is pursued and hunted down.
Astonishingly, the Voturans are careful to capture rather than kill him. They drag him before the Brigadier General, who asks Aaron to identify a series of objects. Finally, the general leads him to a window, points toward the city outside, and asks Aaron if he can see the aqueduct, the statues, the exotic birds. Aaron cries out:
‘I don’t see it. None of it. Am I blind?’ His voice rang forlorn in his own ear.
A long slow smile—slow as silt—spread across the general’s face, and his eyes grew distant and dangerous, and hungry. ‘No. You are not blind. It is we who are blind.’
Observing Aaron’s escape from his hometown, the Voturans realize that Aaron is a man with a unique gift. He is the one known human who cannot see holograms. The Voturan elites not only use these 3D creations of light to enhance their capital city and to oppress the common people, they also employ holograms as military weapons to deceive their enemies about the position and number of their troops. Because their primary enemy does the same, and because Aaron can distinguish reality from the artificially projected images of soldiers and weapons, he becomes an invaluable one-man Voturan war machine.
For the rest of the novel, we follow Aaron as he attains influence and high rank in the Voturan military, seeks to free his surviving enslaved family members, and nurses ambitions of retribution against those who have destroyed all that he loved, a revenge that may cost him his own humanity.
In one special way, however, Hologram offers a biting commentary on our world today.
This tale about the power of illusion was published in 2023, a year when citizens of the United States were emerging from a long period of deception and fantasies created by their country’s elites. COVID-19 had allowed the government, assisted by Big Tech and corporate media, to assume dictatorial powers; to close businesses, schools, and churches; to restrict citizens to their homes; to micromanage the health care system; and to foist off on the public an experimental vaccine. Deploying fear, deceit, and isolation as its weapons, this powerful alliance sought to squash the free speech of all who protested its policies.
Like all good magicians, these authorities have continued to practice sleight of hand and diversion to distract their audience—their citizens—from reality. Marriage, family, sex, gender, race: The elites wave their magic wands and seek to redefine these terms, to alter the very meaning of reality. When these tactics fail, they simply lie outright, contending, for example, that inflation existed only in the mind and not in the pocketbook, saying that violent riots in our cities were peaceful protests, and acting as though the flood of illegal aliens into the United States is under control.
And now AI has popped out of the magician’s hat, with its infinite possibilities for chicanery.
To battle against such deceptions, our chief weapon must be a healthy skepticism. It shouldn’t be enough for the government to tell us what to believe, as it did during the COVID fiasco or the elections of 2020. Instead, the government must be forced to make its case, as best it can and as circumstances allow, before asking for sacrifices by its citizens.
A case in point—and there are many such cases—is the recent destruction of Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge by a cargo ship carrying hazardous materials. So far, all we really know is that the ship lost power and crashed into the bridge. What caused the sudden power loss? Was it some malfunction in the machinery, some neglect by the crew, or a cyberattack? And if the cause becomes known, will the government then share that information with voters?
The cause of death for public figures like Jeffrey Epstein and George Floyd, the machinations of the Chinese Communist Party in American politics and culture, the stream of misinformation, deliberate or otherwise, flowing through our news sources: These and so many more circumstances demand, at the least, scrutiny that is then shared with the public.
Given this grab bag of artifice, Larson’s Hologram serves as a timely reminder that all of us need to stay alert and keep our eyes open if we are to detect the deceits of the conjurers who would lead us into the land of lies.
—
Image credit: Unsplash
