The pinging
A friend left her phone near me. Over the next half hour, it pinged and chirped.
I felt myself getting anxious and a little antsy…
These were not pings for me, not on my phone. They weren’t sounds that my phone even makes.
It doesn’t matter.
The training has been going on for years. We’re caught in a Pavlovian game in which we’re the product, not the organizers.
Someone else is ringing the bell, and it’s been happening for so long we don’t even realize how deeply the hooks have been set.