141|14|3274. 9 19 15 12 1 20 5/Isolate: Ever since the plague broke out, the police, first started by replacing the street names with numbers, based on which, check points were set up every few blocks alternating between odd and even numbers. Within a relatively short period as the epidemic continued to worsen, the block structure was replaced with seven rings around a cylindrical observation tower from where the entire city could be observed by a few watchmen. The residents whose information had been carefully collected were screened through a strict monitoring system of having to step out into view, they were further instructed to indiscriminately report suspicious cases; The individual thought to have been inflicted with the terrible disease would then be removed by a special task force and taken to a ward outside of town. This was the beginning of a seamless pact between the police and the ordinary citizen, recruited as reluctant informers deemed imperative for the overall good of the community, which through time would include eavesdropping and reporting the slightest deviations from the law enacted by the state. And a society was born with long coats and glances, full of tics, where every individual was implicated, singled out as a potential suspect, subject to scrutiny, interrogations, court proceedings, persecutions. And yet no one, neither the informants, nor the police, nor the judiciary, know the nature of the charge. The accused, both, anonymous and identified- for here everyone is known as suspect- subjected to the machinery of law, stands as accused (as [Joseph K]) without an accusation; ∑Isolate= i
Anti referent #497 L16: Latiose
