The Home Run Syndrome Has Nearly Destroyed Mankind

Wot's this then! How can a baseball game ruin anything? Well...Home Run, as many remember, is classic adolescent male jargon for the end stage in the seduction process. The thing that happens (maybe) after bases 1, 2 and 3 are endured, for decorum mostly; then rushed past quickly. If that base, Home, is reached then...ta da... you 'do it' ! Therein the rub. No pun. This pathetic angst of callow youth has worldwide ramifications. Generation upon generation has suffered the Home Run Syndrome.

It probably began soon after the last ice age; certainly with the advent of agriculture. Humans began to settle in bigger clusters and larger tribes when the supply of food was more assured. Food, that ultimate, primary, energy source. (You thought it was oil, gas, or atoms didn't you?) The struggle switched from power over the elements, the beasts and the uncertainty of the hunt, to power over others. Back from a desert-mountain top-forest glade spiritual quest, or accidental experience, comes the recently idled, permanently underemployed, ex-hunter. Piously he announces he had," Seen things, heard things, Big Things, stuff the rest of you lot don't know squat about. So call me Mr. Shaman now and get busy. Quit laying about luxuriating. Get quickly to Home Base; then put on some clothes. Sweep out my cave and bring some food. I know stuff! "

The goal of cultures, religions and tribes over millennia has been to reduce us all to unwitting strivers for Home Base. Coital junkies, as it were. If we could be convinced that coition was as good as it gets, the only desirable goal; what obedient subjects we'd become. But to convince a species with acres of silky, bare skin, 24/7 access to love-making and now, lots more idle time, to forget all that preliminary stuff; go for the gold. Home Run! This became the main job of every shaman, priest and pol and tyrant. Don't linger about; just do it. Then get back to work, prayer, the regiment, the kitchen or city hall. It's gotten so bad nowadays that on a clothing optional beach or a naturist resort one can see the location of Home Base clearly, but the ever-present, judgmental voice says to stay on the bench. So we do. Thereby hangs a tail...oops, tale

The first to be disappointed and shortchanged were the women. It lasts to this day. The average maiden is tutored initially by the least able teacher of the amatory arts; a young male. Alas, poor maiden, our swain is under the spell of that old siren, Home Run. And this is the norm in the more 'enlightened' climes. In other parts of the world a likely couple is pretzled together by the families. Often see each other for the first time at the wedding rites and then...viola! Home Run. A burkha hides the damage.

There is likely more kissing, caressing and affection in one hour of femme to femme love-making than in a year of typical hetero wham-bam. Does it not follow that a less frantic, more sensual approach to amatory pleasures would occur with a suitable femme as tutor for young women...and young men? What are the chances of this happening? Little to none in the present situation.

The twentieth century, despite wars, plagues and financial depressions saw the greatest increase in global population in history. Improved medicine, industrial output and transportation, the so-called Green Revolution, all played a role. But our old standby, can't overlook it...Home Run, is a giant in the reproduction numbers game. And the big numbers represent lots of customers, a huge market, so what incentive is there for the focus to shift away an old faithful control mechanism such as that?

Home Run, as a metaphor, is an admittedly transparent ploy to redress a variety of human woes caused by oppression and usurpation of power. But if we seek to sort out effective devices for human control and discard violence, religiosity, and starvation; libido manipulation leaps forward. It's effective, it's cheap and once in place, devilish hard to combat because everybody's an expert. It becomes proprietary, automatic, personally defensible and survives nicely through generations.

Each of us could stop the nonsense dead in it's track. Could that is, by spending a little quality time 'doing it'. Throw out the old paradigm of wham-bam and try warming it up by cooling it.
Slow, slow, catchy monkey is very good amatory advice.

The SIXPACK Colony Experiment

a tale of the future

In the middle of the twenty-first century, roughly four decades after Ralph Nader's ' novel' suggestion, the super- rich decide the time has come to save the day (and what remains of civilization). The Euro has collapsed first, followed in short order by the dollar and the commissars in China are barely holding the renmimbi together. A handful of powerful, like-minded tycoons, who have survived with their fortunes largely intact, join forces and resolve to try to create something positive from the surrounding chaos. They call themselves The SixPack.

This group,although fiscally and politically very conservative, are socially quite progressive. Even, incredibly enough, radical. In fact, what they propose to do is illegal in every country; totally immoral in the eyes of every religion and could result in them being targeted for assassination if word got abroad of the undertaking.

The strongest rallying point amongst the SixPack members, all of whom are family oriented, is the carnage wreaked on the young during the long decline. Some had suffered personal loss as the shocking incidence of teen suicide was increasing, particularly among males. They began to wonder if the collapse of the internet and much of the power grid, which had enabled access to games playing, but now denied them, wasn't a factor.. The connection to suicide was baffling until one of the group came across a quote by a now obscure twentieth century writer. In 1987, Gore Vidal in an essay wrote," Since power not sex is true motor to human life, the powerless often prefer to die. That is why today's young do not eat goldfish. They kill themselves."With the illusion of power provided by video and online gaming gone, the disenfranchised young indeed felt powerless.

With the need for secrecy foremost, all six participants pledge whatever it takes of their personal fortunes, time and resources to assist the project to completion. Their combined assets are considerable: their resources worldwide in scope; their determination...total. So it begins.
Remarkably, very little altruism is involved as the leaders go about busily rearranging human history. These are hard-nosed guys making considered investments in both time and fortune and who, in most cases, won't live long enough to see the end results.That being said, what matters to them is, if they are successful, humankind is successful.

In order to have a chance for success location is paramount. The climate must be mild, the location remote from other habitation and the soil must be tilth. Selection of just the right habitat is a daunting task that would have been impossible prior to decades of diminishing social cohesion, natural resource depletion and planet-wide malaise. Of course these very circumstances are the reason this mind boggling adventure was even contemplated. Only the prospect of ever growing threats to mankind's very survival in any satisfactory form would have united these powerful individuals in this sort of endeavor.

A stroke of good fortune put them in possession of an island at a reasonable latitude and sufficient size to accommodate the plan. Their good fortune was at the cost of the former inhabitants who succumbed to a virulent strain of a smallpox type virus which was no longer a problem as the bug and the victims had perished together. The site was inspected by teams of tropical health and habitation experts for any foreseeable problems and given a clean ticket. With the results in hand the principals began construction of a comfortable and viable environment.

They began to lay down a cover story for the intended usage to satisfy workmen and suppliers who would naturally be curious. The raison d'etre put forth was that a quarantine facility was being equipped for future usage and would, quite naturally, be off limits to the public. It was necessary at every stage to have a cover story circulated casually in hopes that curiosity be thwarted as it arose.

One of the last installations, after fencing the approach to the waterfront, was the erection on the main pier and abutting the fence of a building to facilitate egress and exit from the settlement. Supplies could enter and in an emergency an occupant could be removed to receive medical treatment as it served as a clinic as well. A series of airlocks and UV installations served to prevent contamination from entering the facility from outsiders and to keep the residents from interacting with the outside world. Also in place was an elaborate network of closed circuit cameras throughout the colony that would only link to six monitors in the secure control of the principals. To avoid any taint of 'Big Brother', only the residents could activate the system if they so desired.
It was determined that once a year the system would be turned on for twenty four hours so the SixPack principals could view the colony.

The matter of recruitment was problematic. There was general agreement regarding the first applicants as to age, fifteen to twenty was the range; they would be females. It was deemed essential that the girls would be introduced first to domesticate the environment; a nesting process. Recruitment parameters were set and included firstly; orphans, of which there was no shortage worldwide since the troubles began. Excellent health was vital along with a more or less secular spiritual orientation. The organizers, at this junction, were forced to rely on trusted aides and associates to comb the world looking for recruits. Although denied a clear picture of the actual future awaiting the prospects, they could honestly promise something more rewarding and far safer than the candidates would otherwise enjoy.

When the desired number had been realized, the young women put through an extensive indoctrination at various locations, they were then transferred to the island and installed in what was to be a permanent home. The initial number decided on was sixty. Meanwhile the task force was busily occupied in securing a supply of very young, orphaned infants; a ratio of three girls to one boy was established. The infants were soon delivered over to the young women who had been anxiously awaiting their arrival. The hardest thing for these young people to accept was the ban on companion animals. It was hoped a focus away from pets and toward children and each other would be more productive.

After a suitable bonding and acclimation period the final element was introduced with the arrival from indoctrination of a cadre of twenty young males. These youth, as the females previously had done, underwent lengthy training in agriculture, construction, animal husbandry and other useful trades. This group of young males was at the heart of the experiment. The principals had decreed that most of the woes plaguing mankind from time immemorial may have been caused by universal male dominance. The ratio of male to females, including the infants, was chosen in an attempt to redress this phenomenon. Three to one, female to male, was the chosen number for the colony but, by lacking precedent, was plainly arbitrary.

What was not arbitrary, and was stressed repeatedly in the candidate selection process, was that one major requirement for both males and females is a demonstrable interest in erotic inclination toward both genders. Total rejection of such an inclination was a disqualifier. This was necessary to avoid lapsing into a male dominated erotic atmosphere. Specifically to avoid the 'third base' syndrome, or coital obsession, which had been rampant historically as a result of repressive religious and cultural taboo systems which directed erotic interest to one act above all others. Countless generations subject to this syndrome had become inept lovers and erotically uneducable because of carnality focused primarily on coitus and subsequent neglect of a multitude of erogenous possibilities. So to assist these young males in learning to sublimate the burgeoning urgencies of eros, a potential smorgasbord of opportunity and enlightenment in sensual arts was offered.

The candidates, during indoctrination, were made aware that in the colony they would be expected to, as Wiccans might say, be 'Sky Clad'. This is by no means a clothing optional situation as any garments worn would be solely for protection from the elements and would not, in any way, hide the nether areas from view. In effect, a reverse taboo attempting to offset eons of denial of the carnal, animal nature of humans. They were to understand that amorous activities were not to be hidden from others, nor from the young. In conjunction, it was affirmed that no one was to willfully, spitefully or pridefully hide from others, this region of the anatomy.That the key to reversing eons of repression and compulsive approach to amatory life was to be open, frank and honest about behaviors and appetites of humanity that heretofore had been used as a sinister lever to enact repression and control over individuals, tribes and cultures.

The SixPack principals now feel that they have removed most of the obvious barriers to the success of these brave young pioneers as they attempt to forge a new culture. Success or failure will not be known until, at the earliest, the next generation. If compulsion, along with power seeking, and possessiveness is removed from the mix, maybe, this drastic experiment will lead to a way of being not merely human, but truly humane.

'Out of Africa' is Only Half the Equation/

Is 'Out of Sinai/Levant' the Other?

Recent reports by paleogeneticists, if the evidence proves out, could upset radically just about everything we hold dear regarding human Genesis .According to "Researchers led by Paabo, Richard E. Green of the University of California, Santa Cruz, and David Reich of Harvard Medical School compared the genetic material collected from the bones of three Neanderthals with that from five modern humans.Their findings, reported in Friday's edition of the journal Science, show a relationship between Neanderthals and modern people outside Africa, Paabo said."That suggests that interbreeding occurred in the Middle East, where both modern humans and Neanderthals lived thousands of years ago, he said." Associated Press

I've stressed the key words in the above; OUTSIDE AFRICA. This finding, aside from the mystification that interbreeding suggests, puts the origin of Neanderthal, somewhere, but not in Africa.

Since it is generally agreed by anthropologists that Neanderthals occupied an area from
the Levant to Britain for two hundred thousand years perhaps the search for Genesis should be focused on them rather than on 'Cro-Magnon' where science has been stuck for ages.

If Neanderthals are in our bloodline, and if their origin is not Africa, aren't we in effect back at Anthropology square one? Who were they and what did they evolve from and how have we missed all this?

The people now considered our direct ancestors reportedly left Africa about sixty thousand years ago. Contrast this with Neanderthal who, if he had ever lived in Africa, had lived elsewhere for two hundred thousand years. Hadn't we soon begin, rather than continue to dismiss Neanderthal as a heavy-brow, lumbering troglodyte, to study him instead, as gran-dad?

This flagrant oversimplification is aimed at stressing just one point: if Neanderthal was not 'Out of Africa', and his DNA is not found there; should we not look elsewhere for at least one half of our heritage? My guess would put origins in Sinai/Levant. The Ed. in Eden, maybe?

End of Evolution: a Retrospective

November, 2099

The natural evolution of life on planet Earth began to come to an end on December 2, 1942 on a squash court in Chicago, Illinois, USA. The wizard who precipitated this event was the brilliant Italian physicist, Enrico Fermi.

One hundred years later the planet was de facto, bankrupt; thus no longer solvent. At that moment, the natural evolution of species was doomed to end and be replaced by worldwide genetic contamination as mankind could no longer afford to safely maintain or dispose of the countless machines and devices that had been produced since Professor Fermi released the genii by starting the first successful controlled nuclear chain reaction.

There had been opportunity for mankind to neuter the jinn from that day in 1942 until September 16, 1985, the day on which the USA went broke, ceased to be an Empire and could no longer afford to bear the costs and responsibility for the hideously dangerous forces it had released; assuming, which is exceedingly doubtful, it ever had intended to do so.

At the end of the first decade of the twenty-first century there were, according to Nuclear Power Today, updated in February, 2011:
"... now over 440 commercial nuclear power reactors operating in 30 countries, 56 countries operate a total of about 250 research reactors and a further 180 nuclear reactors power some 140 ships and submarines. Over 60 further nuclear power reactors are under construction, while over 150 are firmly planned"

" The magnitude of the radiation generated in a nuclear power plant is almost beyond belief ... The original uranium fuel that is subject to the fission process becomes 1 billion times more radioactive in the reactor core. A thousand-megawatt nuclear power plant contains as much long-lived radiation as that produced by the explosion of 1,000 Hiroshima-sized bombs." Dr. Helen Caldicott

That huge number of nuclear appliances was dwarfed by the tally, courtesy of ICAN, of 23,300 nuclear warheads around the globe. Add to this the immense volume of nuclear waste which had always defied safe long term storage. This was the situation worldwide a scant three decades before the end of nature's sovereignty. In the year 2011 it was theoretically possible, with a huge expenditure of resources and treasure worldwide, to prevent the catastrophe looming just ahead. The possibility of such action was not open to discussion, let alone implementation. Nothing at all was done.

An example of the mind-set of most humans at that time is the launching of a missile towards Mars in November of 2011 containing scores of ounces of Plutonium regarded as the most lethal substance known. In what must have been the most maniacal piece of uber-hubris in decades that mission, curiously enough called 'Curiosity', was purported to seek signs of Life on that sphere but by sending forth a parcel of Death.

Mankind had prior warning of the consequences of uncontrolled nuclear fission with the experiences of Chernobyl, Ukraine in 1986 and Fukushima, Japan in 2011. Nevertheless, In the inevitable course of events, the tens of thousand of devices resultant after the early Chicago experiments were left unattended. Without the absolutely precise knowledge for their maintenance, combined with the enormous cost of this critical attention, they were gradually abandoned.

"Ionizing radiation—the kind that minerals, atom bombs and nuclear reactors emit—does one main thing to the human body: it weakens and breaks up DNA, either damaging cells enough to kill them or causing them to mutate in ways that may eventually lead to cancer.
... This ionizing radiation can damage DNA molecules directly, by breaking the bonds between atoms, or it can ionize water molecules and form free radicals, which are highly reactive and also disrupt the bonds of surrounding molecules, including DNA." POPSCI The Future Now

Google
mu·ta·tion/myo͞oˈtāSHən/

Noun:
The action or process of mutating.
The changing of the structure of a gene, resulting in a variant form that may be transmitted to subsequent generations...

Peter Dedon, a member of the Radiation Protection Committee at MIT, explains: “What happens is that the nucleus of radioactive elements undergoes decay and emits high-energy particles. If you stand in the way of those particles, they are going to interact with the cells of your body. You literally get a particle, an energy packet, moving through your cells and tissues.”

"What long-term effects can radiation have?
The effect of the radiation may not be to kill the cell, but to alter its DNA code in a way that leaves the cell alive but with an error in the DNA blueprint. The effect of this mutation will depend on the nature of the error and when it is read. Since this is a random process, such effects are now called stochastic. Two important stochastic effects of radiation are cancer, which results from mutations in nongerm cells (termed somatic cells), and heritable changes, which result from mutations in germ cells (eggs and sperm)."
... ACHRE Report

With all of civilization on the edge of abyss in the middle of the twenty-first century and trying desperately to feed and/or quell the remaining billions of frantic citizens, little effort or funding was directed toward confronting the pending nuclear dilemma. This oversight was critical because without constant attention these neglected devices ultimately began to alter life on the planet. Nature had little ability to cope with the radiation emanating from those thousands of impaired devices and storage facilities and the genetics of living organisms was affected in myriads of ways by the onslaught.

Those lethal ions spewing forth unchecked can bring illlness, death or failing both, blast apart DNA and change forever nature's prior mandate. Species are affected to varying degrees and for all time. Were any Martian organisms doomed as well by man's folly?

"Crow Jim" is Alive and Well/

and Busily Rewriting History


Among the sundry American 'expats' thronging to Paris after WWI were a great many artists and musicians. The doughboys had returned to the States full of praise and in awe of Europe and especially France. America was an unhappy place for blacks in the twenties with the rise of the KKK and the overall reaction to the returning black soldiers who represented a new kind of black man, who had seen the world and was demanding more equality at home. The draconian attempt to keep blacks under white domination was known as the 'Jim Crow Laws.'

In the twenties the French were mad for 'Le Jazz Hot!' as they called the new American music. The clubs in Paris booked all the jazz musicians they could find but were color conscious to a fault. The ones selected as authentic were invariably black. No whites need apply. It was, as white clarinetist Mezz Mezzrow complained in his novel, Really the Blues, a kind of reverse discrimination he called 'Crow Jim'. So while Buck Clayton, Peanuts Holland and Lionel Hampton found work and acclaim, talented white jazzmen often were met with rejection because of their race.

It's one thing to have had this kind of discrimination in 1920's France; quite another in twenty-first century America. But it's here and it is an affront to all the excellent white jazzmen who have contributed so much to the art form. I can recall as far back as the early 1950s among some intellectuals, jazz aficionados and hangers-on in the jazz scene, and, woefully, that included a few black musicians, the snide insinuation that white jazzmen were not as good; "they didn't have soul."

The most egregious example of 'Crow Jim' is found in what will likely become the archetypical standard reference of twentieth century jazz history; the documentary miniseries by Ken Burns, Jazz. The ten part series aired in 2000. Criticisms of this effort at documenting the history of jazz were legion and were most scathingly addressed by Jeffrey St Clair:
"The series is narrated by a troika of neo-cons: Wynton Marsalis, the favorite trumpeter of the Lincoln Center patrons; writer Albert Murray, who chastised the militant elements of the civil rights and anti-war movements with his pal Ralph Ellison; and Stanley Crouch, the Ward Connerly of music critics."

It is both correct and proper to credit black jazz musicians as sole custodians and creators of jazz at its earliest beginnings. However, from the nineteen twenties until the present, to ignore the strong contributions of countless white jazzmen, is reprehensible. I doubt that was Burns intention. I suspect he assigned Messrs Marsalis, Murray and Crouch the selection of the principals for the narrative thread and tragically, this 'Crow Jim' hagiography has, for the past decade, become the visual history of jazz. .

I would like to challenge Messrs M. M. and C. to listen again to J.J. Johnson (black), on trombone and Kai Winding (white) , trombone, on The Great Kai & J.J. (Impulse) album and tell the world which trombone playing is the more authentic and which lacks 'soul'. This is a good test for us all, to lay to rest a patronizing, discriminatory and racist appraisal of musicianship by color rather than merit.

The same attitude that prompted the French, and more recently, these chromatographers when rewriting,the history of jazz, is specious. The 'Crow Jim' syndrome can also be found at times attacking both race...and gender. A case in point is the high-handed treatment offered one of the early black writers who in addition to being deemed politically incorrect for the times, was female. Our old avian trickster friend 'Jim' stooped down on Zora Neale Hurston like a bird of prey.

Hurston, a member in good? standing in the Harlem Renaissance in the 1930s, a graduate of Barnard, an anthropologist of some renown, and a published author, was a Republican. She was an opponent of the New Deal which was supported by the majority of her colleagues including Langston Hughes. Additionally she was skeptical of organized religion and had a penchant for feminine individualism.

”She was scathing about those who sought "freedoms" for those abroad, but denied it to people in their home countries: Roosevelt "can call names across an ocean" for his Four Freedoms, but he did not have “the courage to speak even softly at home.” Wikipedia

None of this went over well with the idealogues of the Harlem Renaissance although her gifts and renown equalled or surpassed most of the others. Her first novel, Jonah's Gourd Vine published in 1934, was cited by Carl Sandburg as, "A bold and beautiful book, many a page priceless and unforgettable." "Though attacked by (Richard) Wright and virtually ignored by his literary heirs, Hurstons's ideas about language and craft undergird many of the most successful contributions to Afro-American literature that followed." Henry Lewis Gates, Jr

Lacking any support from her mostly male peers, Hurston, despite having published seven books, an autobiography and fifty shorter works, drifted into obscurity. But she continued to write and at one point worked as a maid to gather authentic material, anticipating by decades the novel, 'Help', by Kathryn Stockett, currently enjoying so much popular success.

Always outspoken she, years later when Truman dropped the A-bombs on Japan, Hurston called him "the Butcher of Asia." In 1960, Zora Neale Hurston died penniless in Florida and was buried in an unmarked grave perhaps with the local buzzards and crows for company.

The Maui Cargo Cult

Stories About The Future - A submission for ADR


The Maui Cargo Cult
by Robert Magill

They gather at dawn on Koki Beach for the sunrise. As it peeks above the horizon solemn chanting begins. "Maserati, Donzi, Rolex, the Dakota...Maserati, Donzi, Rolex, the Dakota...Maserati...", is repeatedly intoned until the orb is fully risen.

The ritual, begun as a lark at parties in the Hamptons, has now become a credo since the Big X, as the exodus to the island is called. It has been over ten years that these fortunate unfortunates have been in residence. Leaving the mainland on whatever vessels could be commandeered, they at least had survived. Many others would have given all they had to trade places. Still, safety in itself cannot guarantee satisfaction or thankfulness as this wretched longing for the old ways demonstrates.

The phenomenon being experienced here is closest to the delusions of remote Islanders in another time who were convinced that the Americans who had provided them with so much in the past would return to re-provision them again. Any time now. Maybe today. Tomorrow, certainly. They waited anxiously at the water's edge and were known as a Cargo Cult. So now these once Masters of the Universe are slightly unhinged and are waiting for it all to return to them. They are the Maui Cargo Cult.

Among their number T.R. Straub is a standout character. Not content with a seven figure Wall Street largesse he had conspired to establish dodgy accounts in the Caymans and Canada until it all went down. The loss had more seriously affected him than the others.

If we listen to their mutterings and snatches of conversation a large dollop of self pity and more than a little delusion is evident. Ralph T., former hedge fund magnate, "The next time will be different."
His nearest companion who may or may not have been privy to his assurance, mutters, "This time it won't be lost."

T.R.'s voice rose to full volume to begin another chanting. This one, regarded by the others as a lapse into tongues, "CD' CMO'HBO'IBO'CDO'...' LBO' HMO," he repeated endlessly, chanting until near foaming. It was sad to behold; he was not joined by anyone. On the beaches and at the spas along the coast, from Kapalua to Kipahula, these Maui tribes gather each dawn. It is much the same on the other islands except for Molokai where an entirely different class of survivors is ensconced.

On the West coast of Maui, near Kapalua, another bunch is repeating the performance but instead of awaiting succor from the East and North America they cast their hopes Westward to China. The litany is near to being identical. Brokers and bankers, big men in their time imploring the fates, thusly," We were sold out. That's it. Those tribes on the other coast knew it was happening and never warned us. Unfair! Sold us out."

A well regarded financier from Boston, "It's true there was excess. Excess caused by everything happening too fast and by bad information and bad timing. Yes, the timing. When to plunge ahead and when to hold back. How much to bet but...nothing was said about risk!"

"Who knew? We were innocents. School was no help; not there to learn anyway. The MBA was for the networking, always the networking. Wonderful bunch there at school, we thought alike!", bleated a former Detroit captain of industry who guided the destiny and fortunes of many and now is wallowing in self-pity.

Still another, "Yes, mistakes were made. But by others. Our people were innocent... mostly. That other bunch, they were so clever. Made billions didn't they, with all their high tech gadgets and puffed up real estate. They knew it was coming. The the smart ones pulled out years ago. Took the money and split, didn't they?"

One voice, more senior than the others, was filled with disdain, "Of course, we all thought that the old familiar devices we had in place would see us through; last a lot longer at the very least. Really seemed promising; two or three wars going...not biggies, but profitable. Always worked before. But the boys, and they were boys you know, bunch of jackass MBA's got playing around with serious money. Those kids, a lot of them from good families, old families too, turned out to be a frat-rats and nerdy jocks, and yet we let them handle the big dough. Jesus, they screwed it up, royally. Couldn't be fixed. So we had to shut it down. Whole damn country. Pity, way of life gone for good. Ah, me."

The Bostonian," If only we had been as successful as the Russians were when the USSR went belly up. Maybe then...you know it's difficult to determine if naivete or hubris had contributed most in rendering us nearly uneducable in a contemporary sense. Maybe it was bizarre form of social deprivation as the result of living in a...a Golden Ghetto, with a miniscule gene-pool, in a informational cull-de-sac, lost among our peers. Maybe..."

They pace for hours searching the horizon, as if waiting... hoping. It's their common lore, their very DNA calls out to them that the phantom ships will come back, laden, oh so heavily, and it all will be as it had once been. A time of plenty. Masters once more of the Universe. Wealth and power such as these scions once knew was their due. But time weighs heavily each day as they roam the shores, searching, dreaming.

At times the loss seems overwhelming but each lives with beautiful memories...of plenty. And the dreams, oh the dreams--Back in the Market, again. Another chance. One more big killing, just one. Sure to be different. Way different. Any way to game it? Hope so. Can't lose hope. Can't. Someday...'Maserati, Donzi, Rolex, the Dakota...Maserati, Donzi, Rolex, the Dakota...Maserati...--

On Molokai, once the site of a despised Leper Colony, and ignored by the Cargo Cultists as a warren of hippies and new-agers, life is radically different. Loss of the old way of life, while mourned, is not paramount with them. Time is regularly set aside to contemplate the loss and to examine what it means to each individual. The core of their collective lives is in the music and art they create.

The clan too, had a ritual but of a different order than the Maui Cult. At gatherings, sometimes at dawn, they would intone this Mantra: Being not Becoming, Being not Becoming, Being not Becoming...Om! ...and Again.
This was their way of focusing on moment-place-being and rejecting dreaming of future in lieu of the present. A rejection of the modern shibboleth that proscribes the reality of here and now as never sufficient unto itself. Always the future; seldom the present, never ever,right now.

Most of the clan formerly lived in the Pacific Northwest and had long lived without the need of every modern convenience. Happy in rough cabin or yurt, they had neither the means nor the inclination to transport tons of food stored in cans and pails, and charged with nitrogen for long life, as did the Cultists. Nor did they bring kilos of precious metals, gemstones and numerous weapons, as those Maui people had done. What they did bring, however, were survival skills and a sense of purpose and direction to their lives.

They did manage to bring copious amounts of paints and brushes and were adequately supplied with yards and yards of canvas in excellent condition from the classic sailing vessel that carried them to Molokai. Stretching and framing this bounty gave ample surfaces on which to create Visionary Art, the foundation of their spiritual lives and ethos.

Summer Dawn, a favorite among the artists, formerly lived at the Northern terminus of the Sunshine Coast in British Columbia. Living in close proximity to the Sliammon Band of First Nation peoples, she knew much of their ways. So it was this dynamic individual who, more often than not, was consulted for directions and guidance on a range of subjects.

"Summer," cried Zen Wren, " This fish is still raw!"
Summer cleaned her brush and left her canvas. "Sweet heart. You have the circle just right but the smoke is all over the place. Put up another screen to the windward. Remember? Wind is no friend to the smoke."
"I forgot. Sorry I interrupted you." she apologized.

An important staple was fish smoked the ancient way by racking each split carcass flesh side to the smoke source. Each was supported on a wooden rack spaced in a circle around a fire pit. In this fashion the surplus catch was preserved. They learned to do the same when a feral pig or Axis deer had provided them with a surplus of meat in need of preservation. Diet was balanced with macadamia, coconuts and for a treat, coffee and sugar.

Summer had no sooner picked up a brush than Thanta Rose, dusted over with flour, shoved a pot towards her. "I can't get this bloody mess to stick. Look at it," she cried. Summer peered at the contents. "How many eggs did you use?" "Oh God!", Thanta Rose was mortified.
"Bannock won't stick without," weighing the contents, "for this lot, at least three." Summer decided.They were using macadamia nuts as the flour, shredded coconut for substance, eggs of course, and bacon grease with what ever berries they could find, in the bush bread.
"Wait 'til the fish smoking is finished then heat up the fire for the bread," she said. "Back in the day the tribes just wrapped the dough around a stick and put it near the fire to bake."

"No way," said Thanta. "Way," said Summer.

The bread dough was pressed flat inside fry pans and the pans tilted against the hot coals. With enough sugar and salt in the mix it was quite tasty. Summer winced when she thought of what her teachers on the reservation would have made of this concoction. But bread was bread for all of that.

The clan had chosen to settle on the North Shore at Kalaupapa the site of the former leper Colony. They called the settlement Damien Village honoring the Belgian priest who had long tended the sick in the past. The clan had been well aware of the possibility of needing to leave North America before it all went critical. They, as had countless others, watched sadly as the disasters began piling one upon another.

The Gulf fishery loss from the oil gusher; the precipitous dropping of the Ogallala Aquifer level supporting dry land grain harvest in the American West were duly noticed but the failure of Salmon runs in the Pacific Northwest in particular, struck home for the locals. Chesapeake Bay and North Atlantic dwindling seafood harvest added to this but what proved to be the real crisis maker was the complete failure of the food delivery system. Unfortunately, Piggly Wiggly, Safeway or Gristides' fully stocked grocery shelves were treated as a given and the collapse was hidden from the public until it was too late. Local suppliers, long neglected, could not begin to fill the need. There was hunger.

Molokai was a logical choice as many of their number had past association with all of the islands in the chain. Summer Dawn had done live performance painting at Alchemeyez on the Big Island many times as had several of the other artists. Thus when it came to a final decision the Hawaiian Islands was the chosen destination and Molokai the chosen home site.

We have two disparate groups from a culture that had contained elements of its own destruction, striving to survive. Despite similar origins, at least in potentiality and proximity, the totality of their lives could not have been more different. Their fates? Unknown to us as to themselves. Clan or Cult... your choice?
end

OPUS COLLOCUS

Opus Collocus
by Robert Magill

Look at yourself if you dare.
What strange combination of wild genes
Caused you to end up this way?
How in the world did an otherwise garden variety ape
Make fire, lose sexual restraint
And end up like you?
Naked, with anytime sex and pretty much
Unable to cope.

Now fire's a bit dicey to handle in a great furry overcoat
So not much happened with it
At first.
But one day some bundles of joy came along
Sans furry coats, they were starkers you see.
The game was on with the fire by then, but
All that bare skin!
My, my, what's to be?

If it had been only one or two that were weird
The hyenas would have gotten them sure.
Hairless most of the new bunch.
But babies are hard to come by, even strange ones
Really strange as ever could be. .
They were turned inside out more like rabbits or rats
No fur at all we could see.
What on Earth!

What to do? Can't feed the crop to the beasts.
Besides the mothers were frantic.
"It's so cute, in it's way! Don't harm it!" they say.
So the naked little babes grew into big
Naked adults.
We learned to handle fire by using an old gnu hide.
If you bought into the clothes for modesty fibs,
Nope: barbeque bibs.

And the hairless kids! They all became fire bugs.
You know how dangerous that stuff is!
Well, these devilish kids treat bonfire as a new game
Of child's play.
But then they need not worry of bursting into flame
Those fur-less little showoffs!
They don't go up in smoke if they get to close and roast
Like we do.

Those kids started eating all kinds of things that
They'd half burn up on sticks.
The very idea!
I will say many things are quite tasty done that way
But who knows where all this fire business
Will lead.
I for one like my food less done but that said, it's not really
That bad!

Those new kids gave us fits.
They had acres of lush, soft, silky epidermis and
Full time steamy amor.
No bothersome overcoats. Well just a token patch...
For auld lang syne.
Full time naked sex and the secret of fire would
Give any self respecting parent a
World of grief!


Both things together is a big, big pain.
And it doesn't get any easier. Slowly, very reluctantly
Began that
Which we long beards knew early on.
It's time to put on some cover-up to keep order
And peace in the cave.
One word of late does resonate, more often than not it is
NO!


So it began.
The business of the putting-on and the taking-off
Of surrogate overcoats.
Clothes, that is.
Big waste of time and energy
Weaving and skinning and sewing. The rules!
Oy vey. How much, how little, when, where
Ad nauseam.


My part in the story ends about now.
Only a few oldsters remain of the old kind and
That is the way it should be.
Our kid's, kid's, kids will follow the thread of time
'Til they too leave the stage.
But that's for them to tell of a proud history
If it is now in the main
Unknown.

Hello. I know something of my people to tell you.
We were great travelers and tellers' of stories
Of oceans and seas in our path and
Mountains at our back.
Rivers of sand lay below one path and terrible cold
At the other. I sewed. My hair was the color of rust and
My face of yak milk. I had three babes
Two lived.

Stories of a better place had us follow down the great river.
I grew old on the journey but my babes
Grew strong and long forgot
The old ways.
Others will tell the story of the people who lived long;
Long enough to see the time of the ice and
The good time and then the ice again
And still we lived.

Until. It happened first in the land near the sand.
A few at first. Then more. Still more all the time.
We were bewildered.
The new ones were like us but not of us.
We were fair, they were dark. We liked them.
They liked us.
The babes came in time and they were different.
We liked them.

When there were more of the new babes than us
Some grown ones moved away toward
The rising light.
At least so the ancient ones tell us.
Stories retold when important gatherings happen.
Not sad tales but still...we wonder
How they fare and should we go to the new light
As well.

After the last big ice went away a tale is told of
Another leaving of our people.
But now the path is toward the pale sun
That stays so long.
Fewer and fewer are the old type people seen now.
Higher we travel toward the lands
Where the ice once had been covering over
The grass.

We are mostly all the new people now.
Small bands remain of the old.
The large water is near and many leave
To live nearby.
Brave ones go out on the big water to follow the sun.
We see not one of the old type people
Just their empty caves. Alas. They lived here for
Most all of time.

What came next started after the last big ice time.
The hunters hunted and the gatherers
Gathered as always.
Then the gatherers became diggers and, eureka!
Agriculture. This was the real thing the future...
Civilization.
Full bellies and some leisure time courtesy
Of the women.

The women let their power slip away to those
Under-employed former hunters now goat
And camel wranglers.
Prophets and martyrs at every oasis hectoring
The unwary by day. Their hapless flocks by night.
Damning the unreachable. Stoning the backslider.
No longer under-employed now pious
Stewards of eternity.

Cobblers of many small truths
Into large lies.
Dazzlers of the easily moved, the
Desperate, the forsaken who yearn for larger truths
And only wee small lies.
Several of the biggest liars have recruited global hordes.
Meanwhile the Greeks learned
How to think.

Alas! They taught the Romans. Trust us said they and thence
A millenium of gore was born. Exit Samnites
Luisitani, too and Albans and Sabines
Can't forget the Argosians O no. Rue.
The Latins gone. Forgotten? Maybe, and the dear
Old Spartans brave but dead.
Still at end the Empire into history slid with
Scarcely a whimper.

Quiet now. That fitful scratching noise? Monks
On dry skins salvaging thought and deed. Blessed be those scribes
But rescuing those ancient desert ravings and small truths may
Not have been so wise.
Armed now with the Word they set abroad to
Recruit anew the holy army.
The desert message writ in gore and peace was never
Known again.

With the reign triumphant chattel was amassed unparalled. Firstly
All females, the sex into bondage. Infidels dutfully done in.
All treasure for taking.
All beasts into proclaimed stewardship cast
And for battle caught foe, alas
The chains.
Mere arrow, axe and mace blazon desert minions' zeal
For now.

Monastaries for the parochial few led in time
To University leaving the many to life's instruction
Also known as being
Uneducated.
The franchise expanded reluctantly to include "useful idiots".
Scholars and Gentlemen.
Now the desert minions would have champions
By legion.

In the Middle Kingdom dragons grew fearful for
Such awful noise had come.
Fire in tubes that drove them away
Never to be seen again.
Salute! Salute! Begone demons.
Strangers came to the Kingdom welcomed
But warned against knowing the recipe for
The Dragon weapon.

Theft. Deception. On camel's back the secret left
The trusting Kingdom.
Plodding toward the sand people early
In it's journey. Later to lodge with the baptised where
Piety seethed and enemies grew like
Mushrooms after horses.
Cannonading madly those angelical stewards
Of eternity.

The takings began.
Rare a yard of the globe unnoticed by the pious
As conquest or conversion fodder.
Each pagan household upended despite worth
Exceeding the usurper's own.
No matter that.
Monkish scratching etched the Word for all time.
All persons. Amen.

Pray tell how a humble ministry
To village and desert wanderer led to
Basilica
And Crystal Worship Palace? The least
Materialist soul of record
Spawned generations of rapacious zealots
Ransacking a planet for piety
And for gain.

Our progress, if such, is in the way of the inchworm
Which must need grasp with his front
Whilst dragging onward his
Rear parts. And again.
His vanguard end needs hind parts holding
For purchase only
Not to anchor the forward movement with
Sternest tradition.

Poor creature. Desert minions to the rear lag back
And myopia joins narrow wisdom
Going forward.
Perilous journey with parts joined nicely in tandem
But solo effort
Brings chaos and struggle. While destiny
Is revealed only by
The inch.

Vague as our fate remains, the desert minions
Doubt not the day of our birth.
Scouring monkish scribblings brings
The aha! moment.
With that instant writ firm, all later discovery brings scorn and threat.
Time, a bother and impediment, is throttled back
To fit the desert calendar exact, lest
Doubt emerge.

Machines employed and vile draughts brewed to
Stay new thought from ever tainting
The faithful.
Show the rack. Behold the fire and irons.
Enough? Why will they not convert nor
See our truth revealed and what glories await?
Imps and demons poison all
Who doubt!

Lure the peasant from his fold to kneel and
Labor all his days at parchment and wine press
And the bell ropes.
Equip with a tongue so old and forgotten that its drone
Would cower all rogue dissent.
Tell of lesser breeds who need succor
Or bondage and how the parchments
Command it.

The freed serf and vassal and bondsmen too
Gladly aped hard Roman and thinking Greek as well
In yolking others to their will.
Centuries of men in chains leave evidence of
Grand spectacle for their driven effort.
No onset of humane regret manumit those held so
Long 'til better power than human muscle made
Them free.

Oil of whale and then of ancient ferns and such
Flowing from deep pit caused water to
Boil and spit.
Drove the engines of the newly freed serfs and made
Leisure to devise torments fresh
For sundry foes.
Onward the Juggernaut of devout
Desert minions.

Conquest and mayhem and decades of war
And more again as quick as the
Stink clears.
On and dreadful on 'til this very day and again surely
Tomorrow.
Religion the beastly side our nature. Need to pray and
Urge to slay
Dwell together.

Whilst Barons feudal did John the King coerce to
Magna Carta sire a lusty bairn was
Whelped.
When gray of beard that babe had met
Another ancient one.
Whose da was born the very year
English pluck routed brave Frenchmen at
Agincourt.


Now that wee babe with long lived luck
In dotage knew another such who's own dear mother
Came alive the very day
Great Lear appeared upon the stage.
For just three mortal spans of years made
Creaking steps of times past appear
Less daunting. Six stout hearts carried us to
Elizabethan sphere.

Nearing now our present era aided by
These leaps in time to learn of a Bard's namesake
Babe who too grew eld.
And chanced to meet another crone of
Countless years who told
The singular precedent of one
Whose papa timely arrived when
Adams, John was President.

To be or not to be a King our
Republic's Princeling heir pondered, then agreed
To forsake the crown.
Majestically he searched in vain to find an American heart
Not depraved or corrupted. More darkness than light
Filled their souls and thus were unfit
For a Republic. Low born. Base.
Demos!

It was a Nation, that much is true and
A new Republic, too. Though some saw murder, theft
And jingo seeping through.
But winners write the tale that longest lasts.
There was a wilderness to tame
And treasures greater than ever known before
Lay at every patriot's door.
For the taking.

Tom J. came along when we needed a friend.
Eight years had he but old Adams, J. scarce half that
To rule. Good friend Tom fiddled and took all
The House commanded and kept all his bought help
In field, kitchen and manse.
Tom was no friend to woman or hired man who
Dared wish a ballot to cast, if you please. Was Tom J. truly
A friend... indeed?

Polish an oaf and he cleans up so nicely.
Put his hands on a throttle with caboose
Far behind.
Varlet now literate reading solemn at law while
Steamboat Willie flickers about on
A wall.
Brave and new the world is our oyster
Stew.

Republic gone. Lasted but scarce a half century! Egad.
Then on that slippery slope. Big chunk of neighbor Mexico.
Some idyllic pineapple isles
And next whatever Spain had worth the taking.
Hush! Be loath to utter aloud or even think
If loyal patriotic and discrete
That foulest of foul word that stink...
Empire.

Our RNA, our very genes demand we must always grow.
Go West Young Man and Eminent Domain and Westward Ho!
But no Nation unless some hidden fugue propels will endlessly
Grow the whole world over.
No wisdom voice to mock us as we willfully grow, but never do
Grow up.
Unlimited growth is a perfect tell but only by a metastasizing
Cancer cell.

The game is up. Every day, in every way it slides away and
We have no clue as to how it ever got that way.
We are not unique, never were. We are not all good
And wise and noble.
Only motion and noise and none to say Stop! Pause!
Between the human and the truly humane we are but a link
And a messy bit of unfinished celestial business
I think.