WEBVTT - Ben Fountain: Rules of Special Measures 0:00:15.130 --> 0:00:22.410 Pushkin. Customers come to expect fast delivery of anything on 0:00:22.490 --> 0:00:25.530 Earth from Amazon, and our jobs continue to make that happen. 0:00:27.210 --> 0:00:29.730 Other big retailers are also spending a lot to keep 0:00:29.810 --> 0:00:33.330 up with the fast shipping expectations Amazon has created in 0:00:33.370 --> 0:00:37.410 a world gone haywire. Sometimes art is the only thing 0:00:37.490 --> 0:00:40.050 that can make sense of it all. Let me put 0:00:40.090 --> 0:00:43.850 it this way. We want what we want, and we 0:00:43.970 --> 0:00:47.130 want it when we want it, and usually we want 0:00:47.170 --> 0:00:51.530 it now. That's been Fountain, the award winning author of 0:00:51.610 --> 0:00:56.370 Billy Flynn's Long Halftime Walk and most recently, Beautiful Country 0:00:56.490 --> 0:01:01.610 Burn Again, a reported narrative of the twenty sixteen presidential election. 0:01:02.530 --> 0:01:05.770 And this is the Chronicles of Now, where we ask 0:01:05.850 --> 0:01:08.930 writers to dream up short stories inspired by the news. 0:01:09.410 --> 0:01:13.290 I'm Ashley Forward. People's consumer behavior is going through a 0:01:13.370 --> 0:01:16.410 lot of changes. While some head to the stores to 0:01:16.530 --> 0:01:20.210 stock up on groceries and household items, others preferred to 0:01:20.250 --> 0:01:23.290 stay in the safety of their homes. Amazon seeing a 0:01:23.330 --> 0:01:26.490 surge in demand as many people turn to online ordering 0:01:26.530 --> 0:01:31.050 to get supplies. During this outbreak in the COVID nineteen era, 0:01:31.370 --> 0:01:36.930 online shopping has accelerated, and that means convoys of vans 0:01:37.250 --> 0:01:41.810 fed x ups usps have been sneaking through our neighborhoods, 0:01:41.930 --> 0:01:45.570 leaving packages to pile up on our doorsteps, mirroring our 0:01:45.730 --> 0:01:51.050 mounting fears over what's coming next, what the country, our lives, 0:01:51.090 --> 0:01:54.010 our families might look like in the years to come, 0:01:54.770 --> 0:01:59.730 what sacrifices will be asked to make for would be 0:01:59.770 --> 0:02:02.770 autocrats around the world. Any chance to secure evermore iron 0:02:02.810 --> 0:02:05.170 fisted control of their country is a good thing, and 0:02:05.290 --> 0:02:10.010 the coronavirus pandemic is quite an opportunity. We feel like 0:02:10.090 --> 0:02:14.450 we have no control over these things. Corporate decisions, government decisions, 0:02:14.970 --> 0:02:18.090 these things that affect us on the local level and 0:02:18.290 --> 0:02:22.850 individual level, They are decided far away about powerful people 0:02:23.410 --> 0:02:27.770 who do not answer to us. And so this moment 0:02:27.810 --> 0:02:32.130 of crisis and all those delivery vans gave Bim Fountain 0:02:32.210 --> 0:02:45.490 an idea for this week's story. There were as many 0:02:45.530 --> 0:02:53.730 trucks as ever, but now they took things away FedEx 0:02:54.410 --> 0:03:00.090 Amazon ups. They all did their part, but more often 0:03:00.090 --> 0:03:02.570 it was the boxy white Mercedes vans with the high 0:03:02.610 --> 0:03:04.930 roofs that had started showing up in the latter years 0:03:04.970 --> 0:03:09.770 of the boom. Plain white, no company name, no snappy 0:03:09.810 --> 0:03:13.250 logo on the side, which in our hyperbranded times might 0:03:13.290 --> 0:03:16.650 have briefly struck us as odd, and then they blended 0:03:16.690 --> 0:03:21.210 into the landscape of everything else. We didn't know how 0:03:21.250 --> 0:03:28.730 good we had it, did we? It was so easy, 0:03:29.330 --> 0:03:32.770 and how quickly we became used to it. The couple 0:03:32.770 --> 0:03:35.890 of keystrokes that produced the modern miracle of that package 0:03:35.930 --> 0:03:39.410 on our doorstep in three to five days been two 0:03:40.130 --> 0:03:42.490 the next day if we were willing to pay for it. 0:03:42.770 --> 0:03:49.170 And ultimately, how did they do it? Same day packages packages, 0:03:49.690 --> 0:03:53.370 thousands and millions of packages pouring out from what were 0:03:53.410 --> 0:03:57.890 once called warehouses but now went by the name Fulfillment Center, 0:03:58.330 --> 0:04:01.570 a neat sleight of hand that appealed to our higher nature. 0:04:03.250 --> 0:04:07.770 Supply chain magic was about so much more than crass materialism, 0:04:07.770 --> 0:04:12.850 and honestly, that's often how we felt fulfilled. In a 0:04:12.930 --> 0:04:18.050 not negligible way. I made the NonStop sales job of 0:04:18.090 --> 0:04:21.610 modern life. We were constantly being admonished not to put 0:04:21.610 --> 0:04:25.170 our faith in material things, and we tried, most of us, 0:04:25.490 --> 0:04:32.330 and mostly we succeeded. We were not shallow people. The 0:04:32.450 --> 0:04:37.290 things in our packages weren't just well things, They were 0:04:38.250 --> 0:04:47.250 how to put this content, structure, emotion, part of the 0:04:47.290 --> 0:05:06.570 necessary human fabric of our lives. Emerging economic crisis in America. 0:05:06.770 --> 0:05:10.090 The legalities were never made entirely clear to us, but 0:05:10.210 --> 0:05:15.330 that was true of many things. Life changed so fast, 0:05:15.650 --> 0:05:19.650 so drastically, that not everything about special measures could be 0:05:19.690 --> 0:05:24.850 adequately explained in anyway. We were too frazzled and generally 0:05:24.890 --> 0:05:31.890 panicky to process more than the general drift recovery it 0:05:31.970 --> 0:05:37.290 was called, or recovery operations. The country was in crisis, 0:05:37.770 --> 0:05:42.570 the economy imperiled, historic losses. Doubt somehow the country and 0:05:42.650 --> 0:05:48.210 the economy had become one and the same. The whole 0:05:48.210 --> 0:05:56.090 thing was really quite astonishing. The white van would pull 0:05:56.170 --> 0:05:58.850 up in front of our house at the most inconvenient time, 0:05:59.370 --> 0:06:01.610 early morning when we were hustling to get the kids 0:06:01.650 --> 0:06:04.610 off to school, or evening when we were cooking dinner 0:06:04.690 --> 0:06:07.290 or checking homework, where it's settled in at the kitchen 0:06:07.330 --> 0:06:10.410 table to grind our teeth over the ever rising stack 0:06:10.450 --> 0:06:13.490 of bills. And there they'd be at the front door, 0:06:14.650 --> 0:06:18.970 two burly recovery techs in their dark uniforms, pants and 0:06:19.050 --> 0:06:22.290 jackets if it was winter, shorts and short sleeved shirts 0:06:22.290 --> 0:06:25.690 in summer, and always a third tech standing out by 0:06:25.690 --> 0:06:33.170 the van, watching unfailingly polite. They were soft spoken, sympathetic, 0:06:33.530 --> 0:06:38.050 and huge. The entire cadre seemingly recruited from the ranks 0:06:38.050 --> 0:06:42.690 of former college and professional football players. They had clipboards, 0:06:42.930 --> 0:06:46.010 reams of fine print paperwork, and boy did they know 0:06:46.090 --> 0:06:50.890 their business. It was always quite specific what they'd come for, 0:06:51.290 --> 0:06:57.490 always one particular thing, a lamp, the gas grill, electronics, cookware. 0:06:57.730 --> 0:07:02.650 And this was the truly unnerving part. They knew exactly 0:07:02.690 --> 0:07:10.330 where it was. The cycle logical effect of that should 0:07:10.330 --> 0:07:15.370 not be underestimated. A giant standing in your doorway describing 0:07:15.410 --> 0:07:18.290 the color, make and model of an item in your house, 0:07:18.730 --> 0:07:21.810 and when you'd bought it from whom and for how much, 0:07:22.090 --> 0:07:26.930 and its precise location. Shock and awe call it, And 0:07:27.090 --> 0:07:29.850 naturally we'd be standing there wondering what else they knew 0:07:29.850 --> 0:07:33.290 about us. Meanwhile, they'd gotten past the door without us 0:07:33.290 --> 0:07:39.370 really knowing. How well they'd been trained. Obviously, posture, demeanor, 0:07:39.570 --> 0:07:42.570 tone of voice. They all worked a kind of syncope 0:07:42.690 --> 0:07:46.090 or hypnosis on us. No doubt, the great advances in 0:07:46.170 --> 0:07:48.930 data collection and behavioral science that had been used so 0:07:49.050 --> 0:07:52.210 deftly to get us to buy were now being deployed 0:07:52.210 --> 0:07:56.410 for the opposite to get us to relinquish, not covet 0:07:57.050 --> 0:08:05.650 to want less except less. We quickly learned that calling 0:08:05.690 --> 0:08:08.690 the cops was futile. They wouldn't come except to detain 0:08:08.770 --> 0:08:13.210 us as we'd resisted, become hysterical or even physical. There 0:08:13.210 --> 0:08:16.330 were rumors of occasional shootouts, but look, most of us 0:08:16.370 --> 0:08:18.370 just wanted to get on with our normal lives as 0:08:18.450 --> 0:08:21.930 much as possible. Across the country, already struggling and out 0:08:21.930 --> 0:08:25.970 of the pain was everywhere those who could least afford it, 0:08:26.690 --> 0:08:31.850 real hardship, real suffering. The weeks and months ahead. It 0:08:32.010 --> 0:08:35.130 was there every night on the news, bendered by the government. 0:08:37.890 --> 0:08:41.490 So was it really so terrible living without those eight 0:08:41.570 --> 0:08:46.250 hundred threadcount sheets that lovely Danish modern chest of drawers. 0:08:47.170 --> 0:08:50.610 A few activists kicked up a fuss about consumer rights, 0:08:50.650 --> 0:08:53.770 but rights, as it turned out, existed only in politics. 0:08:54.690 --> 0:08:57.770 As consumers, we were in the realm of commerce and markets, 0:08:57.930 --> 0:09:01.090 and markets, we were told, had their own immutable laws. 0:09:03.050 --> 0:09:06.690 At night, lying in bed, they hardly ever took beds, 0:09:07.250 --> 0:09:09.810 we reflected that we'd done everything that country had asked 0:09:09.810 --> 0:09:14.570 of us, but it had not been enough. We worked, 0:09:14.610 --> 0:09:18.970 paid our taxes, obeyed the laws, raised and educated our 0:09:19.010 --> 0:09:21.610 children the best we knew how, and always paid at 0:09:21.690 --> 0:09:26.370 least the minimum on our credit cards. All this, and 0:09:26.530 --> 0:09:32.610 still it had not been enough. Sacrifice and self discipline 0:09:32.810 --> 0:09:35.690 were now the order of the day. For how long 0:09:36.690 --> 0:09:42.930 no one knew we did miss our things. Of course, 0:09:43.930 --> 0:09:47.530 some we genuinely grieved for, those few precious things that 0:09:47.570 --> 0:09:52.170 were keyed to our souls, our truest selves. Others we 0:09:52.210 --> 0:09:55.650 missed for a while, and maybe we'd rage silently at 0:09:55.650 --> 0:09:58.530 the invasion of our homes and the humiliating injustice of 0:09:58.570 --> 0:10:03.530 it all. But in time the memories faded and we 0:10:03.650 --> 0:10:09.650 forgot them. These minor things, though even these could surface 0:10:09.650 --> 0:10:13.770 in our minds at random moments, a favorite plaid sweater 0:10:13.850 --> 0:10:18.410 they'd taken away, a classic cocktail set, and we'd feel 0:10:18.410 --> 0:10:22.370 a pang, as if these things were parts of ourselves 0:10:22.370 --> 0:10:27.530 we'd lost, not the main part. Surely weren't we bigger 0:10:27.530 --> 0:10:48.250 than that? And yet the loss that was Rules of 0:10:48.290 --> 0:10:54.530 Special Measures by Ben Fountain. The narrator was Eduardo Ballerini. Ben. 0:10:55.130 --> 0:10:58.490 One of the things that stood out to me the 0:10:58.890 --> 0:11:05.130 conspicuously unbranded white van. It's one of those things that's 0:11:05.170 --> 0:11:09.170 creepy because it's too clean, like a Stepford wife. I 0:11:09.250 --> 0:11:12.450 like that a lot. The Stepford van, you know, come 0:11:12.490 --> 0:11:14.330 to think of it, I've never seen a dirty one, 0:11:14.650 --> 0:11:19.050 and purposely designed not to draw attention to themselves. It's like, oh, 0:11:19.170 --> 0:11:22.130 don't mind us. We don't even have a flashy logo 0:11:22.250 --> 0:11:26.290 to draw attention to ourselves. It's so terrifying you don't 0:11:26.330 --> 0:11:28.450 ask about the white van and just hope the white 0:11:28.530 --> 0:11:31.770 van's not coming for your things. So it's almost like 0:11:31.850 --> 0:11:35.490 Russian roulette. Is the van going to stop at my house? 0:11:36.050 --> 0:11:38.170 And is it going to take away? Or is it 0:11:38.210 --> 0:11:40.890 going to deliver? And by the way, that's a great 0:11:40.930 --> 0:11:44.690 way to divide people. If it was an entire block 0:11:45.130 --> 0:11:49.010 or an entire city, people might get the notion that, hey, 0:11:49.050 --> 0:11:52.970 we can stand together and put up some meaningful resistance. 0:11:53.410 --> 0:11:56.850 But it's when it's just piecemeal that's when we're weak. 0:11:57.890 --> 0:12:00.290 The spookiest part of the story is that they know 0:12:00.570 --> 0:12:04.810 precisely where our stuff is. Like we're talking to each 0:12:04.810 --> 0:12:08.610 other on zoom right now, and if someone was eavesdropping 0:12:08.810 --> 0:12:12.850 on this stream, they'll see precisely where some of my 0:12:12.930 --> 0:12:16.690 stuff is. Are we just stupid to let companies know 0:12:16.810 --> 0:12:20.970 so much about us? Yes, we've given too much of 0:12:21.010 --> 0:12:26.410 ourselves away in the pursuit of convenience and pleasure and 0:12:27.170 --> 0:12:32.810 instant gratification. I grew up when Sears Roebuck was the 0:12:32.850 --> 0:12:35.290 only place you sent away to get stuff and it 0:12:35.370 --> 0:12:39.210 took six to eight weeks to arrive at your house. 0:12:39.690 --> 0:12:43.730 And talk about delayed gratification. It just seems to me, 0:12:43.850 --> 0:12:48.130 in my little moral universe, all this convenience will have 0:12:48.210 --> 0:12:52.770 to be paid for at some point. The narrator of 0:12:52.810 --> 0:12:56.970 the story is making a concerted effort to just live 0:12:57.050 --> 0:13:00.250 their life, even though strange people are showing up carting 0:13:00.290 --> 0:13:03.970 away their things. They're making accommodations to the new normal, 0:13:04.210 --> 0:13:07.410 which is a phrase we are hearing a lot these days. 0:13:07.530 --> 0:13:11.170 I feel like every day someone's talking about the new normal. 0:13:11.930 --> 0:13:16.970 What is your story telling us about the human propensity 0:13:17.090 --> 0:13:23.330 for adaptation. Well, in this particular story, the adaptation is, Oh, 0:13:23.530 --> 0:13:26.130 just don't bother me too much, don't take too much 0:13:26.170 --> 0:13:28.810 from me, and I won't make a fuss. And I 0:13:28.890 --> 0:13:31.850 know so many people have it worse than me, you know, 0:13:31.970 --> 0:13:34.330 just don't be too hard on me, and I'll go 0:13:34.410 --> 0:13:38.490 along peacefully. And I think American society in the last 0:13:38.490 --> 0:13:43.850 forty years has become a very obedience oriented society, and 0:13:43.970 --> 0:13:48.330 it punishes you financially and in all other kinds of 0:13:48.370 --> 0:13:51.770 ways if you don't go along. I have to say, 0:13:51.810 --> 0:13:54.530 one of the things that's really heartened me in the 0:13:54.610 --> 0:13:58.250 course of the last six weeks is the fact that 0:13:58.370 --> 0:14:02.770 a lot of people aren't going along. They're kicking up 0:14:02.770 --> 0:14:07.890 a fuss about, you know, most notably George Floyd's murder, 0:14:08.290 --> 0:14:12.210 and that is, in a appropriate fuss, an appropriate example 0:14:12.410 --> 0:14:16.090 of disobedience, and I think we need more of that 0:14:16.210 --> 0:14:19.850 spirit in our society. I'm inclined to agree with you. 0:14:20.450 --> 0:14:24.610 One line that really struck me is somehow the country 0:14:24.730 --> 0:14:28.650 and the economy had become one and the same. Do 0:14:28.730 --> 0:14:32.330 you think that that's where we are or closer and 0:14:32.370 --> 0:14:35.170 closer to where we are in the United States? Oh, 0:14:35.250 --> 0:14:39.370 I think it's absolutely where we are. Yes, we have government, 0:14:39.410 --> 0:14:42.850 and we have neighbors who we care for, and there's 0:14:42.930 --> 0:14:46.410 love and there's altruism and all that, but ultimately it's 0:14:46.450 --> 0:14:52.050 really all about economics. You saw this demonstrated when the 0:14:52.090 --> 0:14:56.130 closing started to happen, and people like my lieutenant governor 0:14:56.210 --> 0:15:01.090 here in Texas was basically willing to sacrifice human lives 0:15:01.570 --> 0:15:04.850 on the altar of the economy. You know, we aren't 0:15:04.850 --> 0:15:07.610 so much a country anymore in the minds of a 0:15:07.850 --> 0:15:11.890 critical mass of our city. We're an economy that happens 0:15:11.930 --> 0:15:15.290 to have a country attached, and we are taxpayers and 0:15:15.370 --> 0:15:19.930 consumers as opposed to citizens and neighbors. And so there's 0:15:19.930 --> 0:15:24.450 been a paradigm shift in our collective thinking, and I 0:15:24.450 --> 0:15:27.530 think it's very dangerous. Do you think we can go back? Yes, 0:15:28.490 --> 0:15:32.170 I do think we can go back. I think shifting 0:15:32.210 --> 0:15:36.970 from that paradigm to a more humane and open minded 0:15:37.050 --> 0:15:42.770 and generous spirited paradigm it will probably take a massive 0:15:42.890 --> 0:15:46.170 shock to the collective system. Is this not enough? I 0:15:46.210 --> 0:15:48.530 thought two thousand and eight was going to be it, 0:15:49.010 --> 0:15:52.290 But it certainly seems like we have the ingredients of 0:15:52.330 --> 0:15:56.530 a perfect storm for an existential crisis. That's probably what 0:15:56.690 --> 0:16:01.250 it would take for us to shake up our thinking. Ben, 0:16:01.490 --> 0:16:04.410 thank you so much for your time here today. I 0:16:04.690 --> 0:16:09.610 really really enjoyed this conversation and I've loved your story you, Ashley, 0:16:09.650 --> 0:16:13.370 has been a pleasure. You can read my full interview 0:16:13.370 --> 0:16:16.130 with Ben Fountain on our website and Chronicles dot f 0:16:16.890 --> 0:16:19.890 where you can also read Rules of Special Measures and 0:16:20.050 --> 0:16:24.210 other short fiction torn from today's headlines. The sound designer 0:16:24.210 --> 0:16:28.250 and composer is Art Warshop, The producer is Curtis Box. 0:16:28.770 --> 0:16:33.130 The associate producer is Emily Rostick. Tyler Cabott is the 0:16:33.170 --> 0:16:38.050 executive producer and founder of Chronicles of Now for Pushkin Industries. 0:16:38.290 --> 0:16:42.610 Special thanks to Leeta Mulaud and Jacob Weisberg for the 0:16:42.690 --> 0:16:45.850 Chronicles of Now podcast. I'm Ashley Ford. Thank you so 0:16:45.930 --> 0:16:55.210 much for listening. Yeah, I'm I almost wonder if traffic's being, 0:16:55.290 --> 0:17:03.330 for some reason rerouted onto my street because it's a lot. Oh, 0:17:05.050 --> 0:17:06.250 it's a big white van.