WE JUST WANT TO TAKE THE PAIN AWAY

“A technology that will change philanthropy.” “Revolutionary technology with its heart in the right place.” “What true allyship looks like.” The latest creation of Orange Enterprise, a tech company known for its inventions that combine science and philanthropy, was the only thing anyone could talk about.

Just six months ago, Pain No More was launched – a machine which allowed people to voluntarily take away the emotional and traumatic pain from another human being for a few hours. Orange Enterprise opened the volunteer sign-up for the gadget one week before its launch, publicizing how philanthropic individuals can now volunteer to take away the pain from various marginalized groups and give them relief for two hours at a time.

The number of volunteers who showed up was off the charts, and many had to be put on a wait list. It mostly consisted of white, cis gendered, middle to upper middle-class individuals who wanted to help immigrants, black, transgender, queer, disabled, and other members of various marginalized groups. Social media was flooded with clips of volunteers standing in line for hours and the joy they shared to be able to help their less privileged community members. Pain No More, even before its launch, was hailed as a form of reparation which could revolutionize what allyship can do to dismantle the institution of power and privilege.

The launch day of the tech was touted as the event of the decade. No expense was spared in publicizing it and every major company wanted to be a sponsor. Orange technology used its famous ethical selection method to select who would be the sponsor based on the companies’ civic responsibility and contribution to the community data. Select billionaires, celebrities, politicians, reporters, and influencers were given VIP access to experience in-person viewing of this technology on day one. These individuals were selected based on their philanthropic works over years and their dedication to being a voice of marginalized communities. These ambassadors were all over the news and they used their respective platforms to highlight how privileged they were to be able to experience this modern-day miracle. Data suggested a huge spike in their social media followers and their brand values spiked in millions.

People from all over the world were given access to watch the launch live as part of various OTT platform subscriptions. The launch event was held at a huge amphitheater where one hundred lucky volunteers were selected to use Pain No More to take away the pain of one hundred randomly selected members of various marginalized groups for two hours. This event was beyond party politics, be it Democrats or Republicans, everyone wanted to help reduce the pain of their neighbors. It was a message from God, the teaching of the holy scriptures, a part of allyship with marginalized groups. Everyone wanted to be the best and save the soul of America.

The gadget was simple where each volunteer was connected by a few wires to a person who suffered from extreme trauma. The volunteers were given the option to select the type of trauma they would like to volunteer to take away – racial, sexual identity, immigrant, sexual violence, war, or a mixture of one or more of these. After the countdown, the gadget did its job, and the observers could see an instant change in the behavior of the volunteer group. Meanwhile, members of the alleviated groups showed minor change.

There were various researchers present to take data from both groups of participants. The volunteer group reported experiencing extreme pain, a feeling of instability, fear, darkness, anger, helplessness, paranoia, screams, terror, and other dark emotions. They were left in tears as they expressed gratitude for the technology which allowed them to completely experience what the other groups experienced all their lives. Clips of these were played millions of times and social media threads were flooded with comments of people wanting to be part of this philanthropic volunteer group.

The marginalized groups reported that they experienced a sense of silence in their mind and heart which allowed them to experience the world around them better. Their muted reaction got buried under the loud experience summary of the volunteer group. The experiment was hailed as a major success, and the volunteers were anointed as modern day miracle workers. It turned them into overnight sensations, and everyone wanted to be them and to be a part of the Pain No More project and help the community.

The world changed that day. Pain No More made being good cool for everyone – from boomers to Gen Alpha, everyone wanted to have this experience. Richer governments wanted to invest in Orange Enterprise while poorer nations volunteered members of the communities to be part of the marginalized groups as part of helping their citizens to experience happiness. Every millionaire and billionaire wanted to be part of this movement. Overnight, Orange Enterprise’s stock price became competitive with those of the biggest companies in the world. But profit was not their goal. Their vision was doing good. They shared an immediate statement after the launch that despite the success of the technology, their focus remains on helping various marginalized communities. With that focus in mind, they partnered with various governments and rich individuals so that this technology can reach each and everyone who was experiencing traumatic pain.

The overflow of investment into Pain No More allowed for the rapid expansion of the technology and expanded the ways in which it could be used. It started being sold as a pair of wrist watches which allowed individuals wearing a watch to take the pain away from a person experiencing trauma wearing the companion watch. Orange Enterprise also expanded the kind of traumas one could take away. The tech giant, however, could not increase the number of hours that this transfer could last despite pressure from all around the world to increase. But that was only a minor hiccup as there were Pain No More themed parties, vigils, and various public events held for people to take away the pain of marginalized groups. Within a few months, the number of individuals experiencing pain from trauma rapidly decreased as more individuals took part in being part of this technology.

In its third month of launching Pain No More, Orange Enterprise noticed a flatline in its sales despite the popularity of the product. Next month, there was a rapid decline in sales, so much so that its investors started putting extreme pressure on fixing the issue or threatening to back out of their investment. The tech giant initially focused on the popularity of this technology to calm down its investors. However, even the popularity declined soon as people were finding Pain No More harder to use because they could not find the level of trauma they wanted to experience to feel good about themselves. Reports of individuals from marginalized groups being forcibly made to use the product on streets by masked teenagers, home break-ins my masked individuals who forced residents to use the technology against their will and multiple underground markets where members of poorer marginalized groups were allegedly paid to come and use Pain No More started making rounds. Orange Enterprise initially tried to underplay these reports by claiming these to be minor lapse of judgement by good people who just wanted to give their marginalized neighbors some relief. But thereafter the situation only escalated, and something had to be done immediately. For the stakeholders, Pain No More could not be associated with any negative emotions and publicity - it was meant to be everything that was good with the world and it must remain that.

In a drastic measure, Orange Enterprise had a meeting with all their lead researchers, and they all identified that everyone just wanted to do good and take pain away but suddenly there was a shortage of pain. A well thought out plan was drafted which was to be shared with the major stakeholders. At a closed-door meeting with its 100 top investors which included representatives from richer and poorer nations, billionaires, top philanthropists and NGO leaders – they shared how trauma was the source of all their wealth, literally for the billionaires, and figuratively in the form of good will and investments for the philanthropists and NGO leaders respectively. Without pain and trauma, who would the richer nations save, and governments of poorer nations could not sustain their vote bank without promises to end the sufferings of the voters, Philanthropists and NGOs could not save anyone and would mostly shut down. And that was extremely unfair because all these stakeholders ever want to do is help take the pain away from the less privileged.

In that closed door meeting, the fate of the world was decided – pain was the winner. All major stakeholders agreed that pain and suffering kept people grateful for what they have and it would be a disservice to them to take away all of it. Governments decided to introduce policies to further the pain of marginalized groups, it promised to include policies which would even hurt members of communities who were previously part of the privileged groups if they did not make a particular income. The NGOs were promised additional funding for their work to save the people after their trauma increases from these policies. Philanthropists were promised a series of future trauma options to invest their wealth in and do good work. A never-ending bank of sensationalized trauma and pain stories were promised to the influencers and media houses.

Tausif Sanzum is a Bangladeshi writer, journalist and communications professional based in Washington D.C. His literary work is driven and influenced by his journey as a queer immigrant navigating a mostly homophobic society. Through his work, he wants to shed light on issues often overlooked by mainstream media and literary spaces.