Tired of wearing other people’s shoes, Alias decides to get his own. He pays a visit to his old friend, the shoemaker and saddler ‘Ralph Lederhosen’.
Ralph is one of the ‘old sort’; a man of honesty, integrity and a sound work ethic. The shoes he makes for Alias fit perfectly. Unbeknown to Alias, his new shoes give him the ability to see through the smokescreen of lies, deceit, and ridicule which engulfs the world.
He checks the news on his phone only to be bombarded with Media terminology crash news, such as: You should be worried! Worse than you think! You won’t believe this! And he thinks: ‘What arrogance’? Who are you to tell us that we should be worried? How do you know what we think or believe? What’s happened to media ethics and integrity?
Pondering about the state of the publishing industry, Alias realizes that: A positive review from the editor of the New York Times means, in real terms, that the book is crap, the same goes for news reports by al Jazeera, Hindustan times and all the other rouge channels.
Alias soon realizes that AI created images are domineering the internet.
Villain propagandist General Douglas Mc Gregor for example, is he real?
Alias watches distorted, poorly photoshopped pictures of Putin, Xi, Biden, Netanyahu and other heads of state, designed to deceive the gullible masses, when suddenly, Alias’ guts are calling for a toilet break; ‘Shit luck’, the screen on the public toilet door nearby requires him to open an account and log-in, then to enter a username, a password and a pin, all to be verified of course. One ‘error’ plus an ‘invalid password later’, Alias finally gets it right and is asked: How do you want to open this door? Push, Pull or Slide? He makes his choice, only to find the door jammed. Alias runs home in desperation holding up his pants. Home save, and cleaned up, he turns on the TV, only to watch our ‘Dear Leader’ ‘Anthony Albatross’ and his evil sidekick ‘Penny Wrong’ trying to deceive the unsuspecting masses. Alias concludes: Buddy Holly was right when he sang: “I was lost in a fool’s paradise.”