Shell Shocked Silence
I was in a consultation with Dr E. We had been discussing the various methods by which I obtained fuel and the conversation had largely been given over to the question of the methods of obtaining negative fuel from those that I had ensnared.
“Tell me,” continued Dr E, ” about one of your favoured states to place a victim in.”
“Tough call that Dr E, I have several.”
“Select one then and tell me about it.”
“Why?”
“I am interested to ascertain what one the states is and in particular what you get from that.”
“Haven’t you been listening? I told you that it is the fuel that I obtain from their emotional reactions, especially the negative ones. That is what I get from these situations.”
“I recognise that but I have seen, through our consultations, that everything you do serves a multiplicity of purposes. Everything of course leads to the harvesting of your fuel but I have seen you gain other things beside your fuel.”
“Such as?”
“I have made notes but I do not want to prime you, I want you to describe the situation and then explain to me what you get from it,” pressed Dr E. I sat and regarded him for a moment. I tried to ascertain if he was getting something else from asking me about this. You see, I have worked out that Dr E is a rascal for projecting. He cannot help himself. He will suggest a methodology applicable to me when in fact what he is talking about is a methodology he wishes to apply. In this instance he was trying to get me to talk about the multiple benefits of a given scenario whereas what I knew was that he was getting more from this discussion than just receiving an answer to that question. I know your game Dr E. You think you are smarter than me but you are not. Still, I decided to indulge him. There was no need to let him know that I was on to his method.
“Okay. One of the situations that I like to create is one of a shell shocked silence.” Dr E began to write. I waited for his reaction before proceeding.
“I see. Please explain more to me.”
“Well, we have discussed at length the various manipulative methods that I apply to get fuel which bring about control and the diminution in my target’s capability to resist me. I lower their critical thinking, maximise their isolation and increase their reliance on me. The sustained and repeated application of these techniques often leads down the road to my target being left in a state of shell shock.”
I waited as Dr E continued to make his notes. He scratched his nose and then spoke.
“Do you do anything in particular that brings about this shell shocked state?” he asked.
“It is the culmination of a variety of manipulative techniques but there needs to be a final flourish, something that will tip this person over the edge into their numbed silence.”
“Such as?” he queried.
“Well, I find that a sudden escalation of a certain act or behaviour tends to tip the balance. It might be the violent destruction of something that they love right in front of them that causes them to stand shaking unable to speak. On another occasion I may reveal that I have been engaged in an affair with someone they trusted and felt close to, say a best friend or a family member. I do recall that once I was having sex with Alex and part way through I told her ‘By God Joanne you are so much better at this than Alex’. Truth be told it is really about the build up, the campaign has to be such that any resistance and ability to fight back must be totally eroded so that when this coup de grace is applied they are just plunged into a broken silence.”
“I see but how does silence provide you with fuel?”
“Easily. It is the tortured look on their face that provides me with the fuel, the strangled sob, the look of total and utter defeat in their eyes. Those tears which trickle down their face as they look at me in a mixture of horror and disbelief. I have told you before about how a wildebeest has that strange expression on its face, something between terror and confusion as a lion eats it alive. It is the same there. Bringing about such an expression combined with this silence produces premium fuel.”
I stretch as I savour the memories which flood my mind at the mention of this technique.
“What is it about that reducing this person to such a state that appeals to you beyond this level of fuel that you obtain?” asked Dr E.
“The fact that is demonstrates that I have total hegemonic control over them.”
“Leaving you able to do what?”
“Anything I like. After all, nobody prevents me from doing what I want.”
“By rendering them into this state you remove their capacity to object to whatever you do?” he queried.
I nod.
“But surely that makes them little more than an automaton and if that is the case how can they be of use to you in such a state? I should have thought that they would now be devoid of providing you with the reaction that you require?”
“But this state is a reaction in itself Dr E, it is a pinnacle of the campaign and represents triumph on my part, it exemplifies my supremacy and my power and the desolate eyes, trembling mouth and forlorn expression all amount to a reaction and a satisfying one at that.”
“I see,” said Dr E and he continued to write. I waited for him to finish the sentence in his notebook before he looked at me.
“And of course ultimately there is something else that arises from this shell shocked silence.”
“What is that?” he asked.
“Silence gives consent.”
8 thoughts on “Shell Shocked Silence”
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I guess I’d better stick to asking questions of the kind of which shoe do you put on first then.
This question is obviously rooted in my impression that you have a tendency to shy away from discussing my thoughts in that regard – happy to be convinced otherwise, of course – but why are you so reluctant to entertain any idea that goes against this image of yourself as, for want of a better word, evil? I mean not so much in deeds, you seem content enough to accept, or at least resigned to the fact that many of your actions will be seen as good, even when you are not aiming for that, but regarding what goes on in your mind.
(Mustn’t forget the invisible conditional asterisk at the end of “Silence gives consent.”)
If you have total hegemonic control, do you really need the consent for anything besides blame shifting?
The fact that you seek to remove their capacity to object demonstrates that their consent still has value. Only someone who recognises another person’s right to object and accepts their objection as a barrier, however small, would need to remove their capacity to object. What does that say about you?
So you’re not even going to think about it? Nice.
Hello Anna:
In my experience the silent treatment is about control. Like a toddler holding their breath until you give in. They want what they want and will be silent until they get it. It’s punishment yes but underlying it is control. Sometimes it’s about their need to feel superior which they think they get by saying “ I am not going to talk to you.” Of course what they are doing is ineffective as in an IPSS case, he or she will find someone she or he can talk to who says can do. She will open her mind, her heart , her legs to another. And if not an IPSS, their limited world just gets tinier. It’s a losing choice really but a narc only has so many tools in his tool chest.
Hello Contagious,
you are absolutely right on the silent treatment being about control, as always, plus the fuel.
I was actually after something else here. HG talks about how he creates a state of shell-shocked silence in his victims, so here it is the victims who fall silent in shock as the pinnacle of his campaign to bring them under total control and lose the capacity to object to anything he does. What I read from this is that the victim’s consent or lack of consent actually still has meaning and value, because if it did not, HG would not need to take away this capacity. But apparently he does not want to talk about it (looking at you, Mr. Strong-And-Silent!), so I am out of luck.
Hello Anna,
I hope you don’t mind if I give my view on that as an alternative, since Mr Tudor hasn’t replied to you and it seems you got upset by that.
“What I read from this is that the victim’s consent or lack of consent actually still has meaning and value, because if it did not, HG would not need to take away this capacity.”
Her consent doesn’t have any value to him. He doesn’t need her permission to treat her whatever he likes. What he actually wants to achieve by doing this “shell shocked” brutal act is to show her and to make her realize that she doesn’t have any right to object him in the first place. He knows already that he has a total hegemonic control over her, but she still doesn’t. She still thinks if he goes too far, she would able to leave him. That he is afraid to lose her, so she has some power over him. She doesn’t. He wants to show her that. She has a hope that he needs her consent. By this act he performs in this article, I bet while smirking, he kills this hope for her.
She is also shocked, because she finally realizes by looking at him, that he knew it all along, that she won’t be able to leave him regardless of his treatment. At this moment her self respect gets crushed completely to zero level. It’s cruel and sadistic.
She gave him consent to his claim that her consent has never had any value or meaning to him. She has no rights and she has never had. She has been under his total control all this time. And she finally acknowledges/realizes that. Her consent was an illusion, not a barrier. She has never had a choice, once he picked her – it was already over.
That’s why this act creates a silence. There is nothing to say there. She is utterly defeated. It might break a person completely mentally, actually. Hard to recover from that later.
Hello Arya,
I do not mind at all! Thank you for giving your perspective, I find it very valuable. There is a good chance that you are correct. It is not exactly what I get from this text alone, and after rereading I am not wholly convinced one way or the other. I notice that HG has not confirmed anything, which may or may not have meaning. He does like to keep us guessing and speculating about him.
The reason for my disappointment over his refusal to answer is only very loosely related to the actual question. It is probably the final piece of evidence in a chain which confirms a suspicion I have had for some time now, a rather unedifying prospect.