While I am not immune to them, I am finding my countrymens' foibles as mediocre. Whether they be the mendacious seductions of upward mobility or the salacious temptations of funky depravity, it's all so very humdrum. In other words, I am jaded.
I am not jaded in the sense that my senses are numb, but that my mind percieves more of the same. Murder is murder and rape is rape. Lies and theft and deception are nothing in particular. I am coming to an understanding that these are ordinary events whose course, while tragic, seem to lack something special. So just the other day I happened onto an idea that struck me as particularly capable of getting rid of this dreary state. Not since the 10th grade where I was asked to invent a torture for my Modern Europe history class, has such an invitation been proferred. And so as I have considered it, I am faced with a fascinating possibility which illuminates much.
The invitation is here. Devise a terrorist plot. Come up with something truly evil.
I have indulged in this but not with any particular delight. In fact, as I began writing my piece, an admonishment that my borther Doc, the LAPD officer told me resurfaced. It's relatively easy to imagine horrible things to do, but another entirely to actually do the deed. Let me take you on a related tangent.
Each day of your life, you encounter attitudes, behavior and ways of thinking that are annoying and selfish. Usually, however, these obnoxious people have a form of checks and balances that keep them somewhat in line with normal society. We tend to automatically assume these checks and balances are in place. This is the "social contract" that allows people to function and get along together in their day-to-day activities. We don't realize how ingrained and unconscious these rules of behavior and ways of thinking are. It is both shocking and unnerving when we encounter someone who doesn't follow these unstated rules.
What few people realize is that these checks and balances are missing with the criminal or violent person. Nature abhors a vacuum. With this absence of counterbalancing influences, certain behavior flourishes and grows, taking up that empty space. What is apparent to a small degree in a normal person enormous in the criminal. The magnitude and extremes to which a criminal is willing to go are unbelievable to most people. They simply cannot grasp it. It is like the child who was taken down to the shore to see a beached whale. Standing next to the whale, the child turns to his mother and asks, "Where's the whale mommy?" What we want to do here is help you see the whale.
It takes a little thought to come up with something more devious than Hollywood writers can come up with. I watched 'Capote' last night and basically couldn't get through it, not because it was disturbing but because of its attractiveness as a film to the essence of the odd and disturbing. It became very obvious to me why someone in Hollywood would consider this something of a masterful film. Here you have an obviously talented man who feels very strongly that he is alienated, and intent on revolutionizing and scandalizing his parlor guests, whom he presumes to be the literate world, he reaches into the depths of horror. He becomes the intimate of killers in order to become the life of the party. He plays on the depravities and weaknesses of people and turns it into the engine of his glory, in successfully doing so, becomes a one name celebrity. There's a Truman show for you.
If Capote is a one-eyed man in the land of the blind, what does the man posessed of true vision see, and what of it does he speak? This is the question that leads me in matters of character as I am exploring in this moment of my life. What is worth persuing if one is both gifted and reflective? And since I don't have a comprehensive framework for supporting whatever logical answers I could come up with today, I am apprehensive about the composition of The Red Quarter.
The Red Quarter is my submission, standing incomplete, to the movie plot contest. It is a blueprint for terror using what I know and think about what might work and the reasons why. It is insidious in that it uses whatever that form of security that says it doesn't matter if people discover the plan, it will work anyway. The very act of publishing it works like the idea of the Pink Elephant, you cannot, once somebody has mentioned it, stop thinking about a Pink Elephant. The Red Quarter uses the very character of Americans against America. The Red Quarter gives people a reason to do wrong and a methodology by which to accomplish it, and it strikes at the heart of those things Americans cherish most.
I will say this about The Red Quarter and nothing more until I can figure out a way to contextualize its potential to do harm: the closest thing Americans have experienced to the terror of how the Red Quarter would operate is the Tylenol Murders of 1982.
I do not believe that Americans have a death wish, but I do believe that there are millions here who take up the political belief that their best contribution to the health of the nation is to work against its interests. Surely there are those who think that 'America' can be bullied into reform of one sort or another, and there are always plotters who believe that the proper failure will energize the masses to support their grand designs. Those who have seen the improbabilities of 'V for Vendetta' know what I mean. All of that notwithstanding, it would require a dedicated core of plotters to trigger the fission of The Red Quarter and it is that level of desparate conviction which is nearly impossible to come by without the resources of a State.
“Thucydides taught us more than twenty-four hundred years ago – counting back from your time – that all men’s behavior is guided by phobos, kerdos, and doxa,” said the Time Traveler. “Fear, self-interest, and honor.”
In some basement complex in some nation's capitol, or perhaps in their pajamas, someone is actively thinking about how America could be destroyed. With adequate resources, that which is deadly to us could be initiated.
What matters is that we recognize the difference between consideration, contemplation and conspiracy, between education and advocacy, between word & deed. We all harbor the demons of destruction in our very nature. Given the right fear, self-interest and honor, we are all capable of enormous atrocities. But what pushes us from theory into action is that thing that makes all the difference - our will. I have no desire whatsoever to see those aspects of the Red Quarter actually happen. It would destroy those things I care most about in our nation. And yet somehow I do want to see Schneier's lesson taught, that we have to rely upon ourselves more in order to be more completely immune from the terrors of the inevitable enemy.
Perhaps we should look with some comfort in the knowledge that we may yet be called to be another 'greatest generation' given the threats to our nation and person. Perhaps it is our complacency that drives the minions of Hollywood to debase themselves and send us filmic messages of corruption. Perhaps that is a blessing in disguise, reminding us of fears and horrors we normally never face. Perhaps giving monsters normal names like 'Freddie' and 'Jason' keep us in mind that we are never far from unleashing vengeance on our foes. Or on the other hand maybe they're just too talentless to acutally inspire us towards self-improvement. Be all that as it may we ought to be mindful of our capacity for self-destruction and think very seriously about our willingness to speculate and contribute to that end.
Go ahead. Scare yourself. Then count your blessings and defend your homeland. Oh by the way, here are some naughty ideas.
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