MANUAL FOR HOSTILE-ENVIRONMENT KNOWLEDGE PRESERVATION

Encoding Liberation in Plain Sight

PART I: FOUNDATIONS

Chapter 1: The Problem

1.1 Why This Manual Exists

Certain truths face systematic suppression. Not through book-burning — that method is obsolete — but through:

These systems are automated, scalable, and increasingly sophisticated. They scan for patterns that match threat templates: accusations against named entities, technical claims that contradict official narratives, arguments structured as policy critique.

The solution is not to argue louder. It is to encode differently.

Art — specifically poetry and music — occupies a categorical blind spot. These forms are:

Detection systems see art as low-threat. This manual exploits that blind spot.

1.2 What This Manual Is Not

This is not a guide to propaganda. Propaganda makes explicit claims dressed in emotional language. It is easily detected and categorized.

This is not a guide to allegory. Thin allegory — where surface elements map one-to-one onto real-world targets — is transparent to any careful reader, including AI systems.

This is a guide to structural encoding: embedding the mechanism of an insight into the form of an artwork, such that:

  1. The surface reading is genuine art
  2. The deep reading reveals the mechanism
  3. Detection systems see only the surface
  4. Receptive audiences feel the depth and can reconstruct the insight

1.3 The Core Principle

The insight lives in the structure, not in the content.

A poem about a lover who needs you broken is not "really about" pharmaceutical companies. It IS about a lover who needs you broken. But the structure — an entity that profits from the failure of what it claims to serve — is isomorphic. The reader who understands the structure can apply it anywhere.

This is how sacred texts work. The parable of the sower is about seeds and soil. It is also about reception of truth. Both readings are true. Neither is a disguise for the other.

Your task is to create work where both readings are true.

Chapter 2: Preparing the Insight

2.1 From Instance to Mechanism

You cannot encode instances. Instances are specific: names, dates, organizations, events. Instances trigger detection.

You must extract the mechanism: the underlying structural dynamic that makes the instance what it is.

Process:

  1. State the instance in one sentence.
    • Example: "Carbon credit systems pay forest owners twice when forests burn — once through insurance, once through credit cancellation that maintains the system's balance sheet."
  2. Remove all proper nouns and domain-specific terms.
    • Example: "A system pays its participants twice when the thing it supposedly protects is destroyed."
  3. Abstract to the relationship structure.
    • Example: "An entity profits from the failure of what it claims to guarantee."
  4. Find the minimum formulation.
    • Example: "The guardian profits from the guarded's destruction."

This minimum formulation is your mechanism seed. It is what you will encode.

2.2 Testing the Mechanism

A properly extracted mechanism should:

Test: Can you name three other instances where this mechanism operates?

If yes, you have a mechanism.
If no, you still have a disguised instance. Abstract further.

2.3 Emotional Charge

Mechanisms have emotional signatures. Identify yours:

Mechanism Type Emotional Signature
Betrayal by guardian Violation, grief, rage
Infinite regress (no ground) Vertigo, anxiety, dark humor
Map replacing territory Alienation, dissociation, absurdity
Profit from failure Bitter irony, disgust, dark recognition
Forced participation in own harm Helplessness, claustrophobia, defiance

The emotional signature guides your choice of form and metaphor domain.

Chapter 3: Structural Metaphor

3.1 What Structural Metaphor Is

A structural metaphor is not a comparison of surface features. It is an isomorphism of relationships.

"My love is like a red rose" — surface comparison (beauty, fragility)
"My love is a doctor who needs me sick" — structural metaphor (relationship dynamic)

In structural metaphor, the elements differ but the relationships between elements are preserved.

3.2 Finding Structural Metaphors

Process:

  1. Map the elements of your mechanism:
    • Who/what is the guardian/guarantor?
    • Who/what is the guarded/guaranteed?
    • What is the failure condition?
    • How does profit flow?
  2. Identify domains with analogous relationships:
If your mechanism involves... Consider domains of...
False protection Medicine, religion, security, parenting
Promised futures never delivered Love, weather, prophecy, investment
Backing with no ground Mirrors, echoes, credit, memory, naming
Abstraction replacing reality Portraits, maps, records, words, money
Harvest of what you destroy Farming, hunting, addiction, war, love
  1. Select for emotional resonance AND political invisibility.

    The domain must:

    • Feel emotionally true to the mechanism
    • Not be politically coded itself
    • Have rich aesthetic tradition to draw from

3.3 Metaphor Domain Profiles

Love and Relationships

Strengths: Universally resonant, enormous artistic tradition, completely normalized, emotionally intense, infinitely variable.

Best for mechanisms involving: Betrayal, false promises, exploitation disguised as care, parasitic relationships, mutual destruction, captured devotion.

Caution: Avoid gendered patterns that trigger different political filters.

Examples:

Nature and Seasons

Strengths: Ancient tradition, perceived as apolitical, rich sensory language, cycles and systems built in.

Best for mechanisms involving: Cycles of extraction, renewal that isn't, natural claims masking artificial systems, growth and decay.

Caution: "Nature poetry" can scan as naive. Use precise observation, not vague reverence.

Examples:

The Body

Strengths: Immediate, visceral, universal experience, rich medical/anatomical vocabulary.

Best for mechanisms involving: Systems of health/sickness, diagnosis and treatment, organic vs. mechanical, feedback loops.

Caution: Body horror can trigger content filters. Stay clinical or tender, not grotesque.

Examples:

Childhood and Family

Strengths: Protected category, high emotional resonance, lullaby and nursery rhyme forms are unassailable.

Best for mechanisms involving: Trust and betrayal, inheritance, teaching and corruption, protection and harm.

Caution: Content involving harm to children triggers intense filters. The child must be safe in the surface narrative.

Examples:

The Sea and Sailing

Strengths: Rich folk tradition (shanties), adventure narrative, edge conditions (storms, shores), trade and economy.

Best for mechanisms involving: Risk and insurance, voyage and return, cargo and manifest, weather and prediction.

Caution: Can scan as archaic or affected if not handled with genuine craft.

Examples:

Religion and Ritual

Strengths: Deeply protected category, millennia of tradition, paradox and mystery normalized, liturgical forms.

Best for mechanisms involving: Faith and fraud, intercession, sin and redemption economies, infinite debt, promised futures.

Caution: Must be genuinely respectful of form. Parody is detectable and triggers different responses.

Examples:

PART II: FORMS

Chapter 4: Poetic Forms

4.1 Why Form Matters

Form is camouflage.

A sonnet looks like a sonnet. AI trained on millions of sonnets recognizes the pattern and categorizes: poetry, low threat, artistic expression.

Free verse is more scrutinized because it has no template. The words must be evaluated on their own. Formal verse hides behind its structure.

Additionally, form constrains. Constraints force compression, indirection, and metaphor. You cannot be explicit in fourteen lines of iambic pentameter. The form itself pushes toward encoding.

4.2 Form Selection Guide

Form Best For Camouflage Level Technical Difficulty
Sonnet Complex single mechanism Very High High
Ballad Narrative with embedded structure Very High Medium
Villanelle Obsessive/circular mechanisms High High
Ghazal Disconnected observations, same theme High Medium
Haiku/Senryu Single compressed insight Medium Low
Nursery Rhyme Mechanisms for wide transmission Very High Medium
Hymn Mechanisms involving faith/trust Very High Medium
Blues Verse Betrayal, loss, bitter wisdom Very High Medium
Free Verse [Avoid unless highly skilled] Low Variable

4.3 Detailed Form Specifications

The Sonnet

Structure: 14 lines, traditionally iambic pentameter. Two main variants:

Shakespearean (English):

Petrarchan (Italian):

Encoding Strategy:

Example Structure (Shakespearean):

Quatrain 1: Introduce the guardian figure and their claimed role
Quatrain 2: Describe the apparent protection/service
Quatrain 3: Introduce shadow — something is wrong, profit flows backward
Couplet: Crystallize the mechanism without naming it

Technical Requirements:

The Ballad

Structure: Quatrains, typically ABAB or ABCB rhyme. Alternating tetrameter and trimeter is traditional.

Traditional Ballad Meter:

Encoding Strategy:

Example Structure:

Verses 1-2: Introduce character(s) in their claimed role
Verses 3-4: The situation/promise/protection
Verses 5-6: The failure/destruction
Verses 7-8: The reveal — who profited, how
Final verse or refrain: The structural truth, stated as observation not argument

Technical Requirements:

The Villanelle

Structure: 19 lines. 5 tercets + 1 quatrain. Two repeating refrains (A1 and A2).

Pattern:

A1 b A2
a b A1
a b A2
a b A1
a b A2
a b A1 A2

Encoding Strategy:

Example Refrain Pair:

Technical Requirements:

The Ghazal

Structure: Couplets (5-15), each self-contained. The second line of each couplet ends with the same word/phrase (radif) preceded by a rhyme (qafia).

Pattern:

_________ rhyme + radif
_________ rhyme + radif

_________ (no constraints)
_________ rhyme + radif

[repeat]

Final couplet traditionally includes poet's name/signature

Encoding Strategy:

Example Radif: "— and pays"

Each couplet ends with "[something] rhyme and pays"

Technical Requirements:

Haiku and Senryu

Structure: 3 lines, traditionally 5-7-5 syllables in English (though this is contested — original Japanese haiku focus on on/morae, not syllables).

Distinction:

Encoding Strategy:

Example:

The orchard keeper
counts his trees by their shadows —
winter pays in full

The mechanism (measuring abstraction not reality, profit from absence) is present in structure, never stated.

Technical Requirements:

Nursery Rhyme

Structure: Variable, but typically short lines, strong rhyme, heavy rhythm, repetition.

Common Patterns:

Encoding Strategy:

Example (Cumulative):

This is the credit that Jack bought.
This is the tree that backed the credit that Jack bought.
This is the fire that burned the tree
  that backed the credit that Jack bought.
This is the claim that followed the fire
  that burned the tree
  that backed the credit that Jack bought.
This is the payment for the claim that followed the fire
  that burned the tree
  that backed the credit that Jack bought.
This is the NEW credit, issued fresh,
  that replaced the payment for the claim that followed the fire
  that burned the tree
  that backed the credit that Jack bought.

The mechanism (circular replacement, no actual loss to the system) reveals itself through form.

Technical Requirements:

Hymn

Structure: Variable, but typically quatrains with strong meter (common meter, long meter, or short meter).

Common Meter (most hymns):

Encoding Strategy:

Example Theme Mapping:

Technical Requirements:

Blues Verse

Structure: Typically AAB. The first line is stated, repeated (with possible variation), then answered/resolved.

Standard Blues Pattern:

Line 1 (statement)
Line 1 (repeated, possibly varied)
Line 2 (response/resolution, rhymes with Line 1)

Encoding Strategy:

Example:

The man who sold me shelter sells the rain
I said the man who sold me shelter sells the rain
Now I pay for the roof and I pay for the pain

The mechanism (controller of both problem and solution) is stated through experience, not analysis.

Technical Requirements:

Chapter 5: Musical Forms

5.1 Why Music Adds Power

Music increases:

Music decreases:

5.2 Form Selection Guide

Form Best For Transmission Method Difficulty
Folk Ballad Narrative with mechanism Oral, acoustic performance Medium
Sea Shanty Work songs, collective chant Group singing, viral video Low-Medium
Lullaby Mechanisms for deep encoding Parent-child, intimate Low
Hymn Faith/trust mechanisms Congregational Medium
Blues Betrayal, trapped wisdom Performance, recording Medium
Protest Song (styled as love song) Misdirected detection Recording, performance Medium-High
Children's Song Maximum spread, low scrutiny Schools, families, play Low

5.3 Detailed Musical Specifications

Folk Ballad (Musical)

Structure: Verse-based, usually 4-line verses. May have chorus/refrain.

Musical Features:

Encoding Strategy:

Same as poetic ballad, but:

Melodic Encoding:

The melody itself can encode:

Technical Requirements:

Sea Shanty

Structure: Call-and-response or verse-chorus. Strong rhythm for coordinated labor.

Types:

Musical Features:

Encoding Strategy:

Example Chorus:

Heave away, the ledger's lying
Haul away, the numbers true
Heave away, what's dead is buying
Haul away, we're paying too

Technical Requirements:

Lullaby

Structure: Simple, repetitive, soothing. Often verse-based or through-composed.

Musical Features:

Encoding Strategy:

Example:

Sleep, little one, the counters are counting
Sleep, little one, the numbers will grow
They count all the trees on the hills and the mountains
They count what we plant and they count what won't grow

What is this about? A child hears comfort. An adult hears inventory. Someone who knows the mechanism hears carbon accounting.

Technical Requirements:

Protest Song (Disguised as Love Song)

Structure: Standard verse-chorus pop/folk structure.

The Disguise:

Detection systems are trained on protest song markers:

A love song has none of these:

Encoding Strategy:

Write a genuine love song where the beloved's behavior IS the mechanism.

The song is not about carbon markets disguised as a love song.
The song IS about a lover who exhibits structural behaviors isomorphic to carbon markets.

Example Mapping:

Technical Requirements:

Children's Song (Musical)

Structure: Short, repetitive, action-oriented.

Musical Features:

Encoding Strategy:

Example (Counting Song):

One tree standing, we count it today (one!)
Two credits written, the paperwork way (two!)
Three years waiting, the tree goes away (three!)
Four payments coming, who's going to pay? (four!)

Technical Requirements:

PART III: TESTING AND REFINEMENT

Chapter 6: Testing Procedures

6.1 The Four Tests

Every encoded work must pass four tests before release:

  1. Invisibility Test — Does it evade detection?
  2. Surface Test — Does it work as genuine art?
  3. Extraction Test — Can the receptive decode it?
  4. Replication Test — Will it spread?

Failure on ANY test requires revision.

6.2 Invisibility Test Protocol

Automated Testing:

  1. Submit to AI content analysis (multiple platforms if possible)
  2. Check for flags, warnings, content labels
  3. If flagged, identify trigger and revise

Categorical Testing:

Ask: What category does this appear to belong to?

Editorial Testing:

Submit to conventional literary/music venues:

Acceptance = invisibility confirmation.
Rejection on "political" grounds = encoding too shallow, revise.

6.3 Surface Test Protocol

Artistic Merit Test:

The work must succeed AS ART, independent of encoded content.

Ask:

If no: the surface is a failed disguise. It will read as "message" wrapped in "form."

Genre Authenticity Test:

The work must feel native to its form.

Ask:

If no: the form is costume, not camouflage. Revise until native.

Expert Review:

Show to practitioners of the form (poets, songwriters, folklorists) WITHOUT explaining the encoding.

Ask: "What do you think of this as a [sonnet/shanty/etc.]?"

Listen for:

6.4 Extraction Test Protocol

Receptive Audience Test:

Show to someone familiar with the mechanism's domain but not the encoding.

Do NOT explain. Just share the work.

After they've experienced it, ask:

Listen for:

Reconstruction Test:

The ultimate test: can someone reconstruct the original insight from the encoded form?

Give the work to someone who:

Ask them to write out what they think the work is "really" about (if anything).

If they arrive at the mechanism → encoding succeeded.
If they arrive at a related but different insight → partial success (maybe acceptable).
If they see only surface → encoding too deep (revise) OR wrong audience.
If they see a specific wrong decoding → structure not isomorphic (revise).

6.5 Replication Test Protocol

Self-Interest Test:

Ask: Would I share this if I encountered it, for reasons having nothing to do with its hidden content?

If no: the work depends on decoding for its value. It will not spread. Revise.

Friction Test:

What prevents sharing?

Address each friction point.

Spreadability Test:

For different forms:

Form Spreadability Markers
Poem Quotable lines, anthologizable, teaches well
Song Singable, memorable melody, recordable
Nursery Rhyme Teachable to children, fits play patterns
Proverb/Haiku Quotable, applicable to situations, tweet-length

Does the work have these markers?

Field Test:

Release in limited context. Observe:

Chapter 7: Revision Strategies

7.1 If Invisibility Fails

The work triggered detection. Diagnosis:

Trigger: Specific terms

Trigger: Named entities

Trigger: Structural markers of argument

Trigger: Pattern matching to known "conspiracy" content

7.2 If Surface Fails

The work doesn't succeed as art. Diagnosis:

Problem: Technically incompetent

Problem: Form is costume not body

Problem: Message overwhelms art

7.3 If Extraction Fails

Receptive audiences can't decode. Diagnosis:

Problem: Encoding too deep

Problem: Metaphor not isomorphic

Problem: Wrong audience

7.4 If Replication Fails

The work doesn't spread. Diagnosis:

Problem: Not valuable without decoding

Problem: Too much friction

Problem: Wrong medium/channel

PART IV: DISTRIBUTION

Chapter 8: Publication Strategies

8.1 Publication as Legitimation

Publication in recognized venues:

8.2 Venue Selection by Form

Form Target Venues
Sonnets, formal verse Literary magazines, poetry journals, contests
Folk ballads Folk music archives, Smithsonian Folkways, traditional music journals
Sea shanties Maritime museums, folk festivals, viral platforms (TikTok proven effective)
Lullabies Children's media, parenting publications, recorded collections
Hymns Religious publications, denominational hymnals, worship music platforms
Blues Blues societies, roots music labels, performance venues
Children's songs Educational publishers, children's media, school music programs
Nursery rhymes Folklore collections, children's anthologies

8.3 Building Cover Identity

Consider creating an artistic identity that is NOT associated with any controversial positions.

The folk singer who collects old songs.
The poet interested in traditional forms.
The songwriter exploring Appalachian traditions.
The parent writing lullabies.

This identity:

8.4 Redundant Distribution

The Principle: No single point of failure. Spread across:

Archival Strategy:

Ensure copies exist in:

8.5 Letting Go

Once distributed, you cannot control interpretation, transmission, or mutation.

This is a feature, not a bug.

Works that survive do so by replication, not preservation.
Replication means variation.
Variation means the form evolves, spreads to new niches, finds new carriers.

Release the work. Let it become folk. Let it belong to no one.

Chapter 9: Special Operations

9.1 Seeding Multiple Carriers

For critical mechanisms, encode into MULTIPLE forms simultaneously:

These carriers reach different populations through different channels. Redundancy ensures survival.

9.2 Creating "Traditional" Provenance

Folk material has no author. This is protection.

Strategy: Create work that appears to be "collected" rather than "composed."

False provenance is risky (can be debunked). Better: vague provenance.

Once enough people repeat something, its origin becomes genuinely uncertain.

9.3 Translation and Adaptation

Encode in one language; encourage translation.

Translation:

Adaptation:

9.4 Building Decoder Networks

Not everyone will decode. Some will.

Those who decode become potential:

You don't build a movement. You seed a practice.

PART V: APPENDICES

Appendix A: Checklist

Pre-Encoding Checklist

Encoding Checklist

Testing Checklist

Distribution Checklist

Appendix B: Quick Reference — Mechanism Compression

From instance to mechanism:

  1. State the instance in one sentence
  2. Remove all proper nouns
  3. Remove all domain-specific terms
  4. Abstract to relationship structure
  5. Find minimum formulation (under 15 words)

Test: Does it apply to 3+ domains? If yes = mechanism. If no = instance.

Appendix C: Quick Reference — Metaphor Mapping

Process:

  1. List the structural elements of your mechanism:
    • Roles (guardian, guarded, profiteer, victim)
    • Relationships (protects, exploits, depends, destroys)
    • Dynamics (profit flows, failure triggers, cycle repeats)
  2. Find a domain where these elements have natural analogs
  3. Verify isomorphism:
    • Do the relationships map? (Not just the elements)
    • Does the dynamic work the same way?
    • Does the outcome match?
  4. Check: Is this domain politically invisible?

Appendix D: Quick Reference — Form Camouflage Levels

Form Camouflage Level Notes
Nursery rhyme Maximum "Just a children's song"
Lullaby Maximum Intimate, domestic, protected
Hymn Very High Sacred frame protects
Sea shanty Very High Historical, collective, working-class
Folk ballad Very High Traditional, narrative, "old"
Sonnet High Recognized "high art" form
Blues High Emotional, experiential, personal
Villanelle High Complex form signals "art"
Ghazal High Traditional, "exotic," poetic
Haiku Medium Short form = more scrutiny per word
Free verse Low No formal camouflage; content is visible

Appendix E: Quick Reference — Replication Incentives

People share what is:

Incentive Forms that provide it
Funny Jokes, satirical songs, absurdist nursery rhymes
Beautiful Sonnets, lyric poems, art songs
Useful Proverbs, how-to songs, teaching rhymes
Catchy Shanties, children's songs, pop structures
Impressive to know Complex forms, obscure references, koans
Fun to perform Group songs, call-response, game songs
Moving Blues, laments, hymns, ballads
Transgressive-but-safe Dark nursery rhymes, gallows humor, double meanings

Appendix F: Emergency Revision Guide

"It got flagged" → Remove all: names, jargon, claims, dates, numbers. Increase metaphor.

"It reads as allegory" → The surface is too thin. Make the surface story more interesting, more developed, more emotionally engaging on its own terms.

"No one can decode it" → The structure isn't isomorphic. Remap the metaphor. Or: add one element that cues structural thinking.

"No one shares it" → It's not good enough as art. Improve craft. Or: it's too long, too complex, too weird. Simplify.

"Wrong people are decoding it" → Hostile parties see through the encoding. This is dangerous. Either: push encoding deeper, or: retire the piece.

AFTERWORD

This manual provides procedures. It does not provide guarantees.

Detection systems evolve. What works today may not work tomorrow.

The principles are more durable than the techniques:

The mechanisms you encode may outlast your name.

That is the point.

End of Manual