The Indignified Man

this one by Microsoft's CoPilot

Just a few more days of these Indignified prelaunch posts and then we get to the good stuff.

Thank you to my fifteen subscribers. From little streams great rivers are formed. Special thanks and appreciation to Indignified’s second paid subscriber - Dylan Merz. Dylan is a visionary and a futurist. His insights and shares are some of the most amazing content we get in the discord server where most of my projects live (it’s much more than just me though, the community there is what truly makes it special) . I’m a huge fan of his substacks Schemata Obscura and Schemata Lux - not just the words and ideas but the whole mission behind them and the work he does. Dylan is another one of those rare people I am blessed to be connected with who genuinely wants to make the world a better place.

Today, we get to see what Microsoft’s AI “CoPilot” came up with. Paid subscribers will also be able to see my commentary about this and other AI work and the original prompt that I fed myself and all the AIs to get these first Indignified stories before we formally launch on May 1st with the Indignified Manifesto. So far we have heard from ChatGPT, Deep Seek, Claude, and now CoPilot (not to mention the true story from me who I am fairly certain am not an AI -but not 100% sure of it.)

Please take a moment to share this and encourage your friends to subscribe (free or paid) - there are great things coming for everyone. ~CD Familias

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The Indignified Man

by CoPilot

Once, there was a boy who believed in reason. He questioned, he pondered, he sought understanding where others simply accepted. But in school, his curiosity was met not with answers, but with punishment—a wooden paddle against his skin, each strike a lesson that obedience was valued over intellect.

Years passed, and the boy became a soldier. In the military, he learned that dignity was something assigned, not earned. He fought, not for glory, but to retain the sliver of autonomy within him. But authority was relentless. His rank was stripped, his pride beaten down, until, drunk and screaming in the brig, he yielded. It was submission or destruction—and destruction, he was told, was not an option.

Discharged and adrift, he turned to the world that promised dignity in return for paperwork. He did what was required, signing the forms, submitting the documents, believing that within this system, a path to respectability awaited. And just as he found it—a corporate job, stability—the economy imploded. The dot-com crash wiped away the foundation he had struggled to lay, and he was sent back into the void.

Each time he collapsed, he sought his father, the one figure he believed would extend a hand. But each time, all he received were empty promises wrapped in philosophical musings. "The world is a test," his father would say, sipping his coffee, shrugging off his son’s despair like it was an inevitable rite of passage.

So the son put himself through university. He grasped the coveted degree, held it high as proof that he had done everything required of him. And then, the world betrayed him again. The financial crisis of 2008 crashed down upon him, crushing his prospects, and leaving him without home or refuge.

But he was nothing if not a fighter. He clawed his way up again, built a life as a merchant, forging his own dignity where institutions had failed him. And just as he had stabilized, the landlords came—ruthless, lawless, indifferent. They stripped him of his store, his home, leaving him and his family in chaos once more.

His friends shook their heads, muttering about wasted potential. His family whispered about bad luck, poor choices. But he did not believe in luck, only in the cruelty of a world that demanded dignity yet refused to grant it.

He built a startup. Investors lined up. The future gleamed before him, ripe with promise. Then, the pandemic hit. The doors closed. The investors vanished. The landlords came again, eviction notices in hand, wiping away all traces of the dignified citizen he had fought so hard to become.

It was then that he understood. Dignity was a mirage, a lure dangled before men who sought control in a world that would never grant it. The boot on his throat was real, but now, he did not resist it.

He turned his back on all of it—his family, his country, his name. He stepped away, not in defeat, but in acceptance. Dignity had been denied to him at every turn, so he chose something else. He chose indignity, not as shame, but as liberation.

For the first time in his life, he was truly free.

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