Tom, Dick and Harry’s car closed in on a white Porsche. As the traffic signal turned red, Tom’s eye caught a dog’s head popping over the beauty's rear windscreen. Tom, who was behind the wheel of a 2001 model truck that made visits to the garage every month, remarked, ‘O, wow!! How lucky is the dog that it gets to travel in a Porsche! To that, Dick remarked, “You don’t get it… this is all karma. This dog must have been a rich man in his past life who must have done some bad karma to be born as a dog, but some really good deeds as well to be still driven around in a Porsche.” Harry became visibly upset over Dick’s comment: ‘How dare you be condescending towards dogs! Are you suggesting that dogs are inferior to humans, that you are linking their birth as dogs to bad karma?”
Harry’s angry reaction triggered Dick as well, and a heated exchange between them ensued. Tom continued to drive, trying not to get distracted by the loud altercations between Dick and Harry. But it was becoming increasingly difficult for Tom to drive, as the intensity of the altercation between Dick and Harry continually intensified. So, he decided to take a detour off the motorway, and as he hit the muddy track, a pack of street dogs started chasing the car, barking angrily with a visible frown. The scene inside and outside the car didn’t feel much different to Tom. His thoughts were rudely jolted by the sudden sound of a tyre bursting - and obviously, the car came to a screeching halt.
The sudden noise and halt silenced both Dick and Harry, both of whom were understandably shocked. The detour had proved to be costly, and both the front tyres had met their match. Tom called up a mobile tyre repair company, and help was on the way. Meanwhile, after a brief pause, Dick and Harry resumed their heated arguments - this time in a more animated fashion than before. Tom interrupted this very important argument and asked Dick how his Karma theory explained the street dogs. This added salt to Harry’s wound, and now he started shouting expletives at Tom as well. Tom retreated quietly and turned to the tyres, which needed to be replaced.
Meanwhile, the mobile van of ‘Patchwork Tire Repairs’ arrived - “What a fitting name”, thought Tom. Bob arrived with his two assistants, Rob and Job. Bob watched over Job while he got the work done and Rob collected the money.
Meanwhile, the continued battle between Dick and Harry reached their ears, and they asked what the hullabaloo was all about. After knowing what had ensued, Bob remarked, “You guys have got it all wrong, it not about the dog, it’s about the owner of the dog. He may seem like a dog lover but he actually uses the dog and the Porsche as his trophies - an emblem of his success. Rob, his assistant, quipped, “ A cat would have been better!” Job was not one to remain silent. He added philosophically, “I feel all of you are overthinking it; it’s just a dog and a Porsche and nothing more.”
Bob wasn’t happy to see his assistants expressing divergent opinions and asked them to find their own transport options back to the city. Meanwhile, Dick and Harry, disillusioned with each other as much as with Tom, left on their own as well. Tom, watching his ‘friends’ depart, drove off, not sure whether the dog and the Porsche owner would ever know how much commotion they had caused unknowingly.
Sadly, all of them chose their beliefs and respective narratives over each other. I guess our beliefs and intentions shape our narratives, and narratives in turn shape our beliefs and actions. That then becomes our ‘construction’ of reality. In the modern world, Tom, Dick, Harry, Bob, Rob and Job all represent the AI algorithms who are ‘motivated’, ‘trained ’, and on a mission to spread their narrative to grow their tribe of like-minded individuals. Did you meet any of them in this story?
