The sun comes up over the city. Cars start to thicken in the streets. People are seen coming out of their houses and apartments, filing into the 7-11, Einstein’s Bagels, Starbucks, lining up their cars at the McDonald’s drive thru. People start to gather in urban parks, the lights in the offices come on, men and women carry briefcases through the streets downtown. Red lights make cars stop; yellow lights speed them along; horns honk. Everyone is blind to the systematic nature of his movements, of her every expenditure of energy, though it is the most obvious fact in this city. Everyone falls into his proper action, her proper motion. They are forced to by a pressure they do not know; they do not see this force or know it’s there, though everything they do, every motion they make is guided by this force; it prescribes the movements of their feet, eyes, hands, heads. Each man, each woman has his entire day prescribed for him, for her; each man, each woman falls into harmony with the System, and thus is rewarded by the System. The homeless do not get any benefit from the System, in fact the System torments them; if we still lived in caves with no System they would be better off. To all who serve the System a home is given, machines that give a dull and constant pleasure are given—internet, cell phones, cable TV—all this is given as a reward for serving the System. But those who do not serve the System are punished by it unless they comply. There are those who early on said, "Certainly this System is a terror to the earth; certainly I would like to be free." These ones never fell into their proper spheres of toil for the System, either they wanted to be free or they were unable to work and were no use to the System—and so they were punished by It, for the System punishes those who do not serve, and rewards those who do, until we are all serving the System, and there is nothing else for us but service. Presidents and prime ministers are servants of the System; Supreme Court justices and Congress are servants of the System—they do not control the System, no one controls it, it is beyond the control of every nation and group—and everyone on the earth is controlled by It. The entire human race is controlled by the System, and no one is in charge of the System—it has arisen spontaneously, from neither germ nor seed, and It is in charge of the whole human race, of every human being in the world. The human race does not determine the System; the System determines the human race—it is more powerful than any group of human beings, than the most powerful nation. And so you see why our only hope is in those who refuse to serve the System, who suffer at the hands of the System for this refusal, who do battle with the System in the war between sleep and wakefulness. These homeless wanderers ought to be our most honored heroes; but because the System has given us illusions and dreams, we despise them. We despise the ones who don’t have Things, and adore those who have many Things—and so the System shapes our very psychology, our very hearts. The men and women we most honor are the lowest slaves of the System—and the ones who are freest of it we despise. And the sun climbs and climbs over the city, then descends and descends. Watches are glanced at, traffic thickens in the streets, offices and shops begin to close. And one man, sitting in traffic, looks forward to going home, eating dinner, watching TV, going to sleep, then waking again to go through the same formula all over—and he says, "Certainly there is a System; certainly the human race is no longer master of the human race."