Many of us are already only too well aware of how our world has transformed into a kind of matrix- a gilded cage were the shelves are full of merchandise and an alarm material needs are met, but our freedom has been taken from us. It is so insidious, that like a fog that creeps of Congress, beating us in a warm bath of complacency.

Over time we have become so accustomed to captivity, like a tamed animal we can no longer exist in the wild on our own. We're all scared: scared of the future, scared of the thugs, scared of authority and scared of not fitting in. Most of all, we're scared of looking in the mirror and seeing the reflection of our own frightened face.

We need to distract ourselves from this fear by whatever means we can find. This can be television, food, alcohol or sex. When these no longer work we need to turn up the volume and we go for depravity and narcosis. The more addicted we become, the worse the withdrawal, which draws us further into the abyss. As a society, we have been reduced to a cult of addicts exchanging one addiction for another.

When you scratch the surface much of what we would ordinarily think of as normal behaviour is actually veiled addiction. A health nut is no less an addict then the obese junk food couch potato. One is sanctioned while the other is not. Addictions which are based on self-denial seem to be esteemed by our culture. These addictions are not so much choice as a reflection of the character of the addict. Those who are addicted to withholding gratification, the control freaks, pose a far greater threat to the rest of us than does the garden-variety glutton. A glutton only harms themselves and those who depend on them. The control freak can impact an entire society.

Trotsky was more virtuous than Stalin, but his brand of pure communism may have created a society far worse than Stalin's gulag. For proof, we need only recall the hell created by Hitler and Himmler was much worst than that created by Stalin. One was driven by an aesthetic ideal while the latter by expediency.

Ironically, we are society which favors minimalism and restriction. Our tastes in electronic accessories run to the smooth and the sleek. We all seem to share the same aesthetic ideal - cool and elegant. Yet our lifestyles very much dependant upon excess. We need people to keep buying those shirts and those jeans and those ice creams, otherwise the entire bubble economy that supports us would collapse. We may lament this state of the world but it has gained so much momentum, and it is so deeply entrenched, that it cannot be stopped until it plays itself out.

Once the game is entrenched, the players will never surrender control. Even if it means dragging themselves down with it, they will not budge from their positions of power and status.

What then, if anything, are we to do about it? Our getting angry does little good. Trying to get even is like charging at windmills.

The more mechanized the system, the more dependent we have become. Speaking from experience as a writer, when the Internet goes down I feel like someone on a boat which has been cut adrift in the sea. It is like a great poison pill built into the system. If anyone wishing to take down the system cannot do so without taking themselves, and those they care about, down with it.

The truth lies elsewhere, in a third path, as the Buddhists refer to it. It has not revealed itself completely, but one clue I can offer is that it involves turning the game back upon itself.