WHAT NOW, WHAT NEXT?

"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."-Benjamin Franklin, Historical Review of Pennsylvania (1759)

"When I am King you will be first against the wall/with your opinions which are of no consequence at all."-radiohead, "Paranoid Android" (1997)

This is not a place or time to mince words so I'll speak the plain truth: America is now a police state.

We can debate endlessly about which act of fiat by government or judiciary was the fate-sealer-I say that it was the so-called Patriot Act-but that won't solve a thing or prove a point. Most people won't get it even when some jack-booted Juke or Kallikak confronts them on the street and says, "Your papers, please!" Or they'll be so programmed that they think it's necessary.

Anent that, for those few reading this who are still singing that old refrain, "It Can't Happen Here:" two words, one name-Stanley Milgram. Over 40 years ago, Dr. Milgram proved scientifically that a majority of Homo sapiens are so conditioned to obey Authority that they will kill someone (or believe that they have) if ordered to do so--just for giving wrong test answers. Any state can become a police state. Any country can be Nazi Germany. The seeds are everywhere, spread easily and are hardy perennials.

So, the Dreadful has already happened. We're on the other side of the rainbow. The monster is at the door. What will you do? What will you do? Well, I can't and won't speak for others, but my personal short-duration mantra these days is something Bugs Bunny once said when confronted by a 50-foot tall dog guarding a giant's garden: "I'll be scared later. Right now I'm too mad."

I'm not actually mad, though. Any acute observer of socio-political trends knew this was coming years ago and decided either to emigrate or stick it out here. I chose the latter initially out of fear and difficulty with languages other than English, but now that events have come to a head, I'm actually looking forward to what is coming. There's no more ambiguity; the battle is joined. I know where I am and where my towel is. A year or so from now, I may be dead or in jail, but I will have lived and loved. And as Heinlein points out in "Time Enough For Love," you don't have to choose between being a live chicken and a dead hero.

People with uncommon sense know when to fight and when to run-the sort of apprehension of body language that is taught in all martial arts courses. My feeling is, if one can irritate John Ashcroft et.al. by something one does or says-as a person or group member-that's yeoman work. Anyone who feels the need to drape statues in order to hide mammary glands from view is probably missing several skin layers and may have been prematurely weaned. (Note to Mr Ashcroft: It's a statue, sir. Marble. The tits aren't real.) And then, if he gets seriously pissed-"Uncle Sam spank"---you can face the chin music, run or duck.

These are hard times, no question. We are not governed by the best and brightest, but the half-warmed-over leftovers from the political abbatoir. Consequently, we need to be brighter, happier and quicker than we've ever been. Depression is a luxury we can no longer afford. Fear will also have to be shrunk to necessary levels. And worry needs to go "Buh-bye." We may be fighting a lost cause. But as a great American actor once said, the lost causes are usually the ones most worth fighting for.

Some tips for dealing with the current Zeitgeist and beyond:

Believe nothing that anyone else tells you unless it checks with your own research and uncommon sense. As the Buddha said, "Doubt, and find your own light."

Put no head higher than your own. If you do, you can be controlled-hell, you are controlled.

Check out these websites and books for neurological resources to combat/defeat worry and fear:

www.rawilson.com

www.anxietyculture.mcmail.com

www.purenlp.com

www.nlp.com

Man's Search for Meaning-Viktor Frankl

Beyond Success & Failure-W. & M. Beecher

The Politics of Experience-R.D. Laing

The Art of Loving-Erich Fromm

Any books by Robert Anton Wilson and Timothy Leary

To remind yourself how, who, what, where, when and why we are the way we are:

"The War Prayer" and "The War Psychoses"-Mark Twain

The Naked Ape-Desmond Morris

If you're interested in alternative cultures and points of view, or just having fun and meeting like-minded folks online, check out

www.greenpanthers.org

www.web.mit.edu/dryfoo

www.fqa.com/romana

www.copvcia.com (check out Michael Ruppert's timeline of events leading up to Sept.11)

or any of the links at www.rawilson.com

Educate yourself about cryptography, especially cyber-cryptography. Acquire and use the latest versions of RSA and PGP (Pretty Good Privacy), the safest and strongest encryption software available.

Remember the War on Some Terrorists/War on Some People with Some Drugs has five agendas:

*Keep citizens in a low-level state of panic with constant vague warnings of possible terrorist actions

*Keep the psycho-pharmaceutical industry in high gear supplying Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitiors (SSRI's) and anti-anxiety drugs, etc. to folks who have especial trouble dealing with panic, anxieties, etc. exacerbated by the constant state of alert (with little or no competition from untaxed drugs)

*To keep the majority supporting the President and not questioning his decisions

*To keep them distracted with bread and circuses

*To keep everyone just mentally well enough to work but not well enough to be truly happy

The other "axi of evil" (believe or disbelieve as you will):

*George Bush *John Ashcroft *AOL/Time-Warner

*Ariel Sharon *Donald Rumsfeld *McDonald's

*Tony Blair *Tom Ridge *Microsoft

And above all remember this:

We take lemons and turn them into Jack Daniels lemonade. We take STD's and turn them into the best, tastiest, juiciest, safest sex ever. We take shit and turn it into 24 karat gold. We pick the goddamn terror of the Gods out of our noses. We don't play. So like Bob said, "Don't worry 'bout a thing, 'cause every little thing is gonna be all right."