To all the Really Good Ones, and to all adrift on a fatally angry sea: In our current deadly-dire predicament, with raw venomous hatred abounding on every side, in so many nations, (not just in our own, but especially in our own), it is difficult these days to clear our vision enough to even imagine a better future for Humanity, a future in which our children's hopes and dreams can prosper. The United States of America was ostensibly born from noble British colonial aristocrats' hopes of creating a better future "to our posterity". That was how those staid old, even if rebellious, British colonial aristocrats, who created our nation without any participation whatsoever from the Common People, put it. These landed gentry, these noblemen aristocrats, who had instigated and led the Common People of the Colonies in revolt from under the reign of the British King, those privileged baron aristocrats who created our nation in the already centuries old tradition of the rights granted to noble British barons like them by the Magna Charta, (there were NO representatives of the Common People present nor participating when the Magna Charta was forged, nor when the US Constitution was written), claimed that their intention was to "secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity". (Didn't we all memorize these noble words as schoolchildren?) Those noblemen aristocrats, many of them slave-owners, clearly failed. The US Constitution has clearly failed to secure "the blessings of liberty" for our nation's Common People, for the "posterity" of the American farmers and tradesmen, the American Common People, who died fighting the King's men so that the colonial nobleman barons could unilaterally create a government that would, and did, secure their own dominance over the new nation's yeoman folk. We ALL can surely 'see' that this new nation, created by aristocratic barons, many of them slave-owners, with no input whatsoever from the Common People, (none were even present at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia), has now fallen into the crumbling ruin of moral and spiritual corruption, to the point of complete decrepitude. We have long ago seen the death of Public Honor in America. The Truth has no status, at ALL, in our nation's projected consciousness. We are now governed by 'propaganda narrative', by Big Lies. Freedom of speech itself, and freedom of the press, have now been effectively repealed. We can no longer even object publicly to the biggest of the Big Lies we are constantly told.  And now, here we are, exactly where such circumstances always deliver any nations that fall into them. Our very lives now teeter precariously on the brink of deadly mass violence. How do any of us even imagine that the burgeoning hatred currently choking our nation in its poison is going to be resolved? We ALL can surely 'see' that the hatred we have sown so widely is festering into deadly swelling anger, which is rapidly 'coming to a head' of toxic venomous rage, like a pus swelling boil about to burst its toxic venom into our nation's soul. We ALL can surely 'see' that in such a heavily armed nation, this ever more toxic mindless rage is threatening us ALL with deadly violence. The FBI reportedly estimates, (ask Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson, who reported this right before the election), that there are as many as 400 million privately owned guns in our nation. If there are even just 100 rounds cached, (two boxes of 50), for each gun, that is 40 billion rounds. How can we possibly escape this degree of deadly social hatred, with anger festering into deadly rage on every side, without the free flow of rivers of blood? Can any of us cite any historical precedent, when any nation fell into this set of circumstances, dominated by primitive tribal hatreds, but managed to avert horrific bloodshed? Surely we ALL know that more Americans died in our primitive 19th Century Civil War, (when muzzle-loaded muskets prevailed at the outset, although breech-loaded rifles, and even the Gatling gun, were in use by the end), than in all other US wars/conflicts combined. What's the 'end game' that any of us imagine? In a nation so deeply divided, by such primitive blood-deep tribal hatreds, how can catastrophic violence possibly be averted? Surely we all must be asking ourselves this question in the unspoken chambers of our minds' fears, but we seldom EVER hear anyone asking it in public discourse, let alone trying to answer it. Do we think the abject horrors that have befallen so many other nations that have come to this fatal pass, with hatred and violence crackling like deadly electric arcs in the very air, can somehow be averted in ours? If so, how? Don't we think that averting our worst fears, before they erupt into horrific reality, is something that we would all benefit from talking about? Shouldn't this be the most avid topic of our public discourse? Has anyone read an article recently, or seen a podcast, or seen or heard any commentator, anyone at all, from any faction or quarter, discussing how to avert the horrific tragedy that so obviously threatens us ALL? Blessed are the 'peacemakers'? Where have they all gone? Does unspoken but deep-seated primitive bloodlust now secretly own our souls? Is our predicament hopeless? Is horrific bloodshed now inevitable? Isn't that, in fact, exactly what those who rule over our nation, the Ruling Elites, want? Haven't they used their control of Mass Media to cunningly and beliberartely 'engineer' us, our entire society, into this deadly pass? Haven't they deliberately created these conditions? Doesn't Naked Fascism ALWAYS rise on the shoulders of social violence? This has all happened before, folks, and many times. When rivers of blood start to flow, when the sewers run red, people don't merely tolerate Fascism's rise. They DEMAND it. (When the tribe's security is immediately at stake, when people's actual lives are threatened, (when "Hannibal is at the gates"), security becomes not merely The People's primary concern, it becomes our ONLY concern. Writing about solutions is an act of Hope. Talking about solutions is an act of Hope. Sharing visions of resolution is an act of Hope. Do enough of us hold to Hope to avert the horrors that now seem inevitable?  Caliban has Hope to bring. Caliban has a 'vision' of a New Society, reborn in a New Spirit of Justice and genuine Social Morality, leading to a degree of Social Harmony that surely seems impossible to many in light of our current deadly predicament. We ALL can surely 'see' that all Humanity itself, not merely our nation, but especially our nation, is facing a terrible existential Fate. 'Politics' cannot save us. We are already far beyond that. We all can surely 'see' that when human affairs sink to our current pass of moral and spiritual corruption, 'politics' only lead us to warfare. (As the great Prussian general and military theorist von Clausewitz famously said, "War is just politics by other means"). Aren't those who rule over our nation, the Ruling Elites, avidly advocating for ever more warfare? And with the Nuclear Demon always furiously pulling at its ever weakening chains, we ALL can surely 'see' that modern warfare can only lead to the final annihilation of Humanity itself. Politics cannot save us, folks. We are far past that. Our problem is SPIRITUAL, not POLITICAL, in nature. Only a general and widespread Spiritual Awakening can save us from a horrible Fate. As phantasmagorically unlikely as that may sound, a Spiritual Awakening is nonetheless our ONLY hope. Who ELSE is offering up any hopeful vision? If any hold Hope in their hearts, be not silent at this crucial moment of our nation's dire need, when doom hangs over us like Damocles' proverbial sword. If any 'see' Hope, even a sliver, let their voices be amplified. For any who harbor Hope in our hearts, now is not the time for fearful silence. Now is the time to make our voices heard. Let ALL who harbor hopeful visions put them forth NOW for us all to consider, before our nation's sewers begin to run red with our cherished children's lifeblood. Caliban has a crystal sharp vision of a New Nation, a New America, born in a New Spirit, born on the very brink of complete disaster, born at the very moment that is pregnant with horrific ruin, born in New Spirit at the very moment when Evil Spirit is salivating in anticipation of its impending freedom. Caliban has a vision of a New Nation, to supplant the now completely failed moral and spiritual corruption of the nation that our deeply flawed, even if heroically hopeful, American forefathers mistakenly thought could sustain human freedom and prosperity. (It never did for very long, if at all, as many know). Why me? Why has this vision been "planted in my brain", (echoes of Paul Simon, in his prophetic 'Sounds of Silence', first sung over a half century ago...Surely we ALL know the words, "Hello darkness my old friend, I've come to talk to you again")? Why would a strange old ape-like creature of a broke-down old carpenter, now a chicken-farmer, like me, find himself thus burdened so powerfully and compulsively with such a clear and compelling vision? A few weeks ago I had resolved to try to explain, to try to answer that question. "Why me?". I had asked myself that question for so many years, and I still wanted to try to explain it to myself, as much as to anyone else. I resolved to write a sort of 'memoir' that would recount some of the key experiences that have made me whatever it is that I have become. I was not far into it, however, before I realized it was a bad idea. The whole concept was bad. Too much pretension, too much needful ego, insistently began to intercede. I could feel its oppression increase as I wrote. I learned long ago that whenever one tries to embrace Good Spirit, all other spirits become jealously insistent. ("ALL spirits want to be in me", was something Caliban learned many years ago). The last dispatch I sent out before this one, (weeks ago now), was entitled 'Ego, I Go, You Go, ergo, All Go'. It comprised a discussion of how our eternal human foibles have delivered us into the predicament in which we now find ourselves. Please understand from the outset, that even as I offer up dramatically grandiose claims of 'vision', I make no claim, nor ever have, to be anything more than a poor dumb human. As I have often and consistently averred, self-awareness is the crucial key to Caliban's vision. Even as I was writing the 'Ego' piece, as an ostensible 'chapter' in my 'memoir', I became self-aware of the deep pitfalls in that entire 'memoir' concept. Glory is always like old Dolly Parton's 'Jolene', an impossibly beautiful woman, an Evil Spirit, tempting and stealing a happily married man, "just because she can". Old DollyGirl's song, pleading with an Evil Spirit, was well-covered by the insolent Cyrus girl, who has flirted with the Devil itself. (Sticking her tongue out in the Devil's own blatantly obscene gesture. Publicly flaunting herself like a cheap whore). She first inhabited Jolene's spirit, and then perhaps (hopefully) thought better of it. Perhaps old DollyGirl was a 'good Baba' to her. Perhaps some wise old Baba taught the foolish young girl that if you knock on the Devil's Door long enough, sooner or later that Evil Beast is gonna open that door with a cunningly evil smile that will be your own doom. 'Ego, I go, you go, ergo all go'. Every human is burdened by a needful ego. It's always "the same old story, a fight for love and glory". It's our eternal human condition. It's an essential precept of the Human Paradox. None of us who eat and rut and stink, are ever 'immune' from Glory's temptations. We are social animals. We long to 'fit in' with 'the collective'. We long to be part of something greater than ourselves. "No person is an island", wrote Donne. ("And therefore do not send to know for whom the bell tolls. It tolls for thee"). We are compelled to conform ourselves to 'the collective'. But we also throb with individual yearning and desire, which drives us to want to dominate. We want to conform, to 'fit in' with the crowd, but we also want to 'stand out', as individuals, to 'be famous', to have power over others. This is our eternal Human Condition. The Human Paradox. I realized that recounting my 'adventures' in a 'memoir' was only feeding my own eternal thirst for Glory. It doesn't matter who I am. No one needs to hear my 'memoirs'. I am merely Caliban. Half wild beast, Half Spirit. All human. I am a stupid stinking human beast. I am a fool of epic proportions. I am NOT a beauteous Grecian Urn. "That is all ye know on Earth, and all ye need to know", (as me old buddy, John Keats said). Why me? Why am I Caliban? "I don't know. Don't really care". It doesn't matter. I've stopped asking myself that question. "Let there be songs, to fill the air". Let a New Spirit be born. Suffice it to explain that an often difficult life, often excruciatingly painful, has led me into a myriad of experiences that few (if any) people have, (although it's foolish to believe one is 'unique'). Like every other human that has ever lived, the experience I have suffered, ("the slings and arrows"), has made me what I am. I have affected this name, Caliban, purloined from old Willie Sharkespeare, not to hide my identity, but because this life I have lived has made me into this strange, half wild, wide-eyed beast, and half narrow-eyed spirit, (as was the old bard's character in his dream-like fantasy, 'The Tempest'), even as I remain completely stupidly human. Am I sane? Another question I have constantly asked myself for many years, that I have now come to understand is irrelevant. Am I sane? I don't know. Don't really care. It doesn't matter. I've stopped asking myself that question as well. What I KNOW is that I am constantly and compulsively burdened with a 'vision' that can save Humanity from a horrible onrushing Fate, a terrible deadly Fate that my own beloved grandchildren (seven) will surely witness if we do not act, and soon, to forestall it. Once 'seen', a vision is then easy to 'see'. It even becomes indelible. (Once seen, a vision can be hard to un-see). But as anyone who has ever tried to impart a vision through words knows, a vision is an exceedingly difficult thing to try to 'explain'. Words are clumsy vehicles to carry what must be 'seen'. A vision can be easy to 'see', but excruciatingly difficult to get others to 'see'. Once 'seen', a vision can awaken us 'suddenly' into a new consciousness. No person need be burdened by her or his past. No matter the 'sin', some form of spiritual redemption is always available. We cannot change the past, but the future is always 'there' for anyone to freely create, liberated from the burdens of the past. Stories and legends abound of people finding redemption from even the most horrible 'sins'. We all surely know the legend of the cruel and hateful persecutor, Saul, who fell suddenly blinded on the road, to awaken into a New Vision in Damascus, as the disciple Paul. "Come all you young rebels. 'List well while I sing. The love of one's nation is a terrible thing. It banishes fear, with the speed of a flame. And it makes us all part of the Patriot Game". I am an American Patriot. These are times that try all patriots' souls. (Not just in our nation, in ALL nations, but especially in our own). 'List well while Caliban sings. I have a vision that can save us all. All for One. One for All. (more to come......soon) Caliban R Zwarich Bent Birch Farm (the old Webber place) 63 Webber Rd Brookfield, MA01506 774 449-8030 |
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