VIII
On July 20, in Indianapolis, on the local, late-evening TV talk show Perspective, Dr. Harrison Taylor, a local college professor of psychology, was being interviewed regarding the Eidermann incident. Nothing more had happened during the ten days following the destruction of the base, and this interview mimicked dozens of others across the United States, and perhaps hundreds around the world, ostensibly trying to make sense of the event.
In reality, as was to be expected, the media was capitalizing on it to boost viewer ratings and ratings-share. During the first week following the incident, one couldn’t turn on a TV set without seeing the same aerial video images of the destruction at Eidermann, or hearing someone, in every conceivable show format, discussing the event. The residents of Twentynine Palms were questioned about every nuance—remembered or imagined—from personal injuries to the psychological trauma to their pets, while TV news cameramen irritated the at-home viewers as usual, by panning full-frame nostril shots and eyeball views of tears rolling down the cheeks of the discomfited.
In spite of the obvious pandering by the media, the public was eager to hear each tidbit of speculation, and to hear the demands from the terrorist tape reiterated and reevaluated, again and again, from every possible perspective. There was no shortage of self-proclaimed experts willing to go on television and theorize, or make profound assertions.
Once the pool of “expert” guests dried up, newscasters resorted to interviewing each other, repeatedly analyzing the message on the tape for the viewers who had just heard it for themselves, by talking to one another in the standard formula. “Well, Wally, what do you think they meant by that?” “Well Don, I think . . . blah, blah, blah.”
“There you have it, ladies and gentlemen, from the Twentynine Palms Marine Corps Base and the Eidermann storage depot, or what’s left of it, I’m Don Wallingford, JGN World News.”
The tabloid shows had had everybody on, from defense experts to flying saucer proponents and end-of-the-world religious fanatics. The daily torrent of irrationalities ranged from the sublime to the utterly stupid; from meek acceptance to hysterical, impotent rage. The initial public shock had dulled somewhat, the novelty guests were becoming rare, and in an effort to lure the channel surfers to their spot, shows were beginning to drift into the realm of the “my boyfriend left me because of differences over the terrorists’ cause” sort of thing. Perspective was of a more serious vein.
Beverly Watkins, host of the show, was a serious woman in her early thirties. She had shoulder-length blond hair, blue eyes and a voluptuous figure. She was attractive and, outwardly, the typical female-model-cum-newscaster-cum-talk-show host of the 2000s.
To her credit, she believed in what she did. Inwardly, she really wasn’t a cookie-cutter model of the stock media “info babe,” and genuinely tried to be of service to the people of her community by keeping her show on a high level, and by focusing on local and national issues that affected them. She didn’t simply try to fill up an hour’s air time.
She was also the programming manager for her station and, within certain constraints, she had a broad latitude of authority in deciding what was aired. At the moment her station manager was vacationing in Bermuda and, as usual, when he was away she was in charge.
She was saying to her guest, “The message on the tape dictates ten commandments that must happen within three weeks or, according to the terrorist, government installations and business centers along the Eastern Seaboard of the United States will be destroyed, including Washington, New York, and other major cities. We’ve had several people on the show who have talked about the scientific and technical feasibility of such a threat, and about the possibility of underlying reasons behind the threats, other than those expressed in the taped message. Though the person on the tape mentions no co-conspirators, most people think that a fair-sized organization was necessary to accomplish the enormous technological feat of constructing and putting such a weapon system in orbit. No independent organization known has such a capability. All nations with the capability of launching the weapon deny having any knowledge of it.
“Regarding the possible motives behind such an obviously expensive venture, the terrorist, or patriot, whichever label one chooses to apply, claims to be interested only in saving the United States. Can you cast any light on the psychological makeup of the man, Dr. Taylor?”
Taylor was a middle-aged, slightly heavy individual with pale eyes and horn-rimmed glasses. He wore a brown, three-piece suit which dated him as eighties-era fashionable, and played with a pipe which Watkins could see had never been smoked, and which she surmised was bought specifically for his appearance on her show. He and Watkins sat in armless swivel-chairs on an elevated coffee table set. Camera technicians operated two dolly cameras in the darkened foreground of the studio.
“Yes, Beverly. He obviously is an antisocial individual, a loner, a person with limited intelligence, possibly even a disgruntled Defense Department employee who was fired for some reason.” Taylor smiled as if he had just announced the formula for eternal youth.
Watkins studied Taylor for a moment, only long practice at maintaining a poker face preventing her from showing her surprise. “Are you serious?” she asked, her voice flat and cold.
She realized, and in the realization felt angry and used, that he was just another brainless publicity seeker who had used the issue and her show to gratify his ego. She considered for a moment, then came to a decision.
“You know, Dr. Taylor, that seems to be the standard description the law-enforcement agencies always use to describe anyone who cracks up and shoots a bunch of people; he was a loner, antisocial, disgruntled, paranoid. Did they get that from you, or are you aping them?”
Taylor looked at her, bewildered. “I don’t understand what you mean,” he said, adjusting the bridge of his glasses with his finger.
“That doesn’t surprise me,” Watkins said, staring deadpan at him. “Aren’t those words simply labels that the authorities use when they don’t care to address the real causes? Can’t you think of something original, Dr. Taylor? What about the frustrations of life that cause someone to eventually snap? The claptrap you just spouted is the rhetoric the government uses to describe people when they are trying to color public opinion. It’s called spin-doctoring. They characterize everyone that disagrees with them as antisocial or extremist, or a group of people as a cult, just to bias public opinion. You’re simply mouthing those standard phrases, Dr. Taylor, and avoiding discussing specifics. Do you even have a glimmer of what a real cause might be?”
Taylor recovered his composure, and smiled condescendingly. “Beverly, it may sound like standard phrases, but someone has to be mentally maladjusted to take out their petty grievances on society by random killing. These people can appear like normal individuals on the surface, but it’s just a face they don for others. They truly are paranoid inside. They behave like normal, social individuals on the surface. Phrases like government conspiracy, peoples’ revolution and other holy cause jargon are keys to the deep, underlying mental aberrations of these kooks. They tend to group together, like scared vermin backed into a corner. They’re eaten up with the belief that the world is out to get them.”
Watkins gazed at Taylor a moment before responding. “First of all, they haven’t killed anyone, randomly or otherwise, Dr. Taylor. Second, they are threatening a very specific action, the destruction of the business and political centers of the nation. They haven’t used any of the phrases you’ve mentioned. The individual on the tape doesn’t mention affiliation with any group, paranoid or otherwise. Assuming there is a group, how can they be classified as loners, or antisocial, and what exactly do you mean by your use of the term paranoid?”
Taylor shifted in his chair, leaning forward and bringing hand gestures into play, warming to his live audience of one, and visualizing himself in the headlines tomorrow as an authority who had mesmerized his unseen TV audience with his sagacity. “Generally speaking,” he said, “people are paranoid when they falsely believe that there is a collaborative effort by others, a conspiracy if you will, to ‘get them’.” Taylor emphasized quotation marks in the air with the two fingers of each hand. “These people really are loners, they just pretend to be sociable in public. In other words, they generally don’t have any real friends, Beverly, they simply band together out of fear.” He smiled. “The psychosis begins to develop in childhood and gradually gets worse as the individual matures, until eventually, they can’t function within the framework of normal society at all.”
Watkins leaned back in her chair casually, studying Taylor, and said, “I take it then that you do not believe in temporary insanity, per se?”
Taylor’s expression grew serious and he said, guardedly, “What makes you say that?”
“In generalizing, you have just stated that anyone who commits a violent act against society has a cleverly concealed, chronic mental aberration that started in childhood. Nobody just ‘loses it’ spontaneously. Nobody is ever mad or frustrated with good reason. Let me ask you then . . . when factions of congress and local business get together and say they want to raise taxes on the American people so that they can buy a few votes with some pork-barrel project, can that be classified as a conspiracy?”
“Not really, Beverly, it’s just routine government business. We have to have taxes and government. Unfortunately, some misuse of authority goes with the territory. Human beings are corruptible.”
“So taxpayers who believe they are being robbed by a sneaky, insidious government that has become an institution of crooks that aid and abet one another for personal gain, are actually just paranoid kooks?”
Taylor’s regard was no longer condescending; he answered cautiously, “I think that’s a bit extreme, and a bit far afield, Ms. Watkins.”
“My point, Dr. Taylor, is that I don’t believe that everyone who reacts violently is suffering from a common psychosis. I believe that the only people who fit into categories are people who have been brainwashed into irrational, mainstream attitudes. If they all think alike, there can be no individuality or personality, and therefore they must have an implanted psychosis. That’s when I question the motives of those who implanted the psychosis, not those of the people who resist it.”
“I don’t see what this has to do with the issue,” Taylor said, backing away from verbal quicksand.
“All right, Dr. Taylor, to return to the issue, what does a citizenry do when the morons they elect simply brush their concerns aside? I don’t think that taking more of my hard-earned money is ‘just government business’. That statement, in itself, is a conditioned response. Taking a large portion of what I earn, by threat of force, deprives me of what I have worked for and diminishes my life. It’s called robbery when anyone other than the government does it.”
“Such conditioning points up the purposeful selectivity of these labels. They apply to whoever you want them to apply to at the moment. What is the difference between the Mafia and the Internal Revenue Service if both of them demand half of everything I earn, and threaten to send armed men to destroy my life if I don’t pay up? Why is one labeled organized crime, and considered bad, and the other labeled government, and my acquiescence is considered public duty?”
“That’s not really a good analogy though, Ms., Mrs., uh, Beverly,” Taylor smiled, trying to recover. “I don’t understand where you are going with this,” Taylor grinned at the camera, shook his head as if the audience shared his mystification.
“I’m trying to get an answer from a self-proclaimed expert, Dr. Taylor, on what the size limit is for a group of people to be paranoid kooks, and to discover what discriminates between a conspiracy and just plain business or politics as usual. I’m trying to pin you down to something specific and definitive, rather than listen to you babble generic labels and stock platitudes. I’m asking you to provide my viewers with a psychological assessment of the mentality of the players involved in a specific example of typical government behavior and the resulting typical social backlash. How about an answer?”
By now, the camera crew and set director were so riveted by the sparks flying on the set that they forgot to break for commercials.
“I can’t see that this has anything to do with a gang of criminals who threaten to kill innocent people if the government doesn’t give them what they want,” Taylor responded heatedly. “They are not mainstream society, so by virtue of elimination, that makes them deviants.”
Watkins pounced like a mongoose playing with a snake, “So by your implication, enclaves of native populations with localized interests are deviants? Does that mean that African-Americans and other ethnic minorities with a non-government agenda are deviants? What about businesses with specific economic concerns?”
“No!” Taylor was exasperated. “We are not talking about subcultures or markets here, for Christ’s sake. We are talking about individuals who do not fit into the mainstream beliefs of society. They distrust others. They keep quiet about their personal convictions in order to get by.”
“Aren’t ‘mainstream beliefs’ simply a product of whichever faction currently dominates the culture of a society, Dr. Taylor? Don’t businesses distrust their competitors? If you and I went to live in a highly ethnic culture, say Sweden for example, and tried to fit in with the native culture despite our philosophical and cultural differences over sex, religion and social customs, wouldn’t we be deviants by your definition? I mean, if we felt socially isolated, and sought out the society of other displaced Americans who shared our beliefs and customs, just as the Jews, Latinos, Blacks, Vietnamese, Chinese, Cubans, Italians and Poles do in America, wouldn’t we be resented by the indigenous population, and treated as enclaves or cults of deviants?”
“Not in the true meaning of the word, Beverly, no. These criminals think that the government is persecuting them. They are retaliating against mainstream society because they think that is the only way to change the government.”
“I want to change the government, too, Dr. Taylor. I want the public to take back control of it from the civil servants. For all I know, you may secretly feel the same way, and just be putting on a pro-government act in order to ease the government’s suspicions about you. Does that mean you could do something like that—kill a bunch of people? I mean, could you, Dr. Taylor, be a closet paranoid who is just putting on an act to appear as a normal, mainstream member of society?”
Taylor eyed her defensively, trying to recover himself, subdue his anger. “Of course not. Maladjusted people have typical behavior patterns that identify them to the trained professional.” He lost control momentarily, throwing up his hands. “Why are you attacking me? You sound as if you are defending these people.”
Watkins, coolly, “I’m certainly not defending the killing of innocent people, I’m simply trying to find out what the underlying causes are. Why do you feel that I’m attacking you? Do you feel that I’m out to get you in some way, Dr. Taylor?”
Taylor eyed her warily before responding. “I don’t know. Are you?”
“Are you paranoid, Dr. Taylor?”
“This is ridiculous.” Taylor was beginning to bluster, his face red.
Watkins, still calm and studious in her regard, “Are you becoming disgruntled with me, Dr. Taylor?”
“Look, I didn’t come on your program to be publicly humiliated.”
Said Watkins, straight-faced, “I know you didn’t, Dr. Taylor, you came on my show under false pretenses. You claimed to have some useful insight regarding an event of national concern, and what I’m hearing is dogmatic, biased drivel.
“I already have an opinion as to why this event has taken place. It is retaliation for the increasing unbridled attacks by police and federal agents on citizens who have committed no crimes against society. Citizens whose property has been confiscated and whose lives have been ruined without so much as a chance to be heard. It is because of policies that encumber and restrict and tax a population that has no other recourse. Freedom is under siege by our government. The rights of the individual are being stripped away in the name of ‘saving the children,’ ‘anti-terrorism’ and the ever-popular ‘war on drugs.’
“Though the official stance is that these are the acts of terrorist kooks, we all know why this is happening. I’m trying to ascertain why, at this specific time and place, someone feels that change is so urgently needed that they are willing to kill millions of people in order to bring it about overnight. The weapon is here, now, but even the government acknowledges that it could have been put up months, or even years ago. Aside from the technology of the weapon, there is a sense of timing—an underlying knowledge that the public is not privy to. The new federal administration seems to be in some kind of internal upheaval. Agency heads are dropping like flies, and whispers are everywhere, but no one seems to know what is going on. All these events evoke the suspicion that something critical is about to happen. What do you think it is?”
“That’s what I’m telling you,” Taylor expostulated in frustration, pounding his fist into his hand to the beat of his words. “It’s insanity! There are secret forces at work. They want to overthrow the government. They want to start a civil war. They want a revolution and a return to some mythical nirvana of the 1950s.”
“Why, Dr. Taylor, you sound like a conspiracy nut,” said Watkins, her chin resting in her hand, eyes wide in mock amazement.
Taylor fumed. “They don’t realize that you can’t force people to change their way of thinking at gunpoint. Americans like to gripe and complain, but when it comes down to it, they want someone in authority to tell them what to do. You cannot stir up patriotic ire by threatening to destroy part of the population. No one has ever tried that.”
“I don’t know about that,” Watkins responded disdainfully. “Hitler did it in Germany in the 1930s; the United States did it in Europe and Japan in the 1940s, Korea in the 1950s, Viet Nam in the 1970s and Iraq in the 1990s. Russia did it in Afghanistan in the 1960s through the 1980s, and in Chechnya in the 1990s. The Serbs and Croats did it in Bosnia in the 1990s. The Israelis, Egyptians and Jordanians have been doing it continually since before the dawn of history. Those are just a few of the thousands of examples. It would take more air time than we have just to name all the wars, great and small, of the past two centuries, let alone in the history of the world, that have started because a population became divided over issues just like those we face today. They all must have had some reasons other than just mass psychosis and mass paranoia, Dr. Taylor.”
“Those were wars, Beverly. This is at most a handful of people.”
“How many does it take to make a war, Dr. Taylor?”
“Are you serious?”
“Never more so.”
“It takes more than a few psychotic whackos, I can tell you that, Ms. Watkins.”
“Since these ‘psychotic whackos’ aren’t just randomly killing people for the fun of it, and actually seem to be pleading with people to change the country in their own best interests, I can’t see them as disgruntled government employees that kill a bunch of innocent people just because they got fired, or because their wives left them. They appear to exhibit the same kind of nationalism and ideological purpose that all these other wars of mass destruction have been fought over. What if they’re just madder than hell, and aren’t going to take it anymore, to borrow a phrase?”
There was a pregnant pause, during which Watkins and Taylor simply eyed one another balefully.
“When people get mad, Dr. Taylor, occasionally it’s for a reason. Like the first American colonists, they revolt when they feel mistreated by an insensitive government that not only pays them no attention, but taxes them, dictates to them and harasses them at will. They rebel. They threaten and demand. They strike back at their tormentors, and the violence of their outcry is a measure of how strongly they feel and how frustrated they are in trying to do something about it.”
Taylor stood up, his face angry and flushed, and glared down on an unperturbed woman who appeared even at her lower angle, to be looking down her nose at him. “No sane person believes he can change the world by force, Mrs. Watkins. These people are psychotics who invent causes to kill and die for. They can hire people with brains to build a weapon, and to put it into orbit.”
“It’s certainly news to me, Dr. Taylor, that sane people don’t believe in the use of force. It happens every day and is advocated by parents, employers, the police, the courts and the government. Even lovers use some form of coercion on a regular basis. In fact, force—and the threat of force—is behind everything organized society does. Everybody seems intent on bending someone else to their will by threat of some penalty or punishment. Throughout history, a lot of people, mainly revolutionaries and established governments, have effectively changed the world for better or worse through use of force. Every turning point in history is marked by a war. In fact, force seems to be the most common instrument of social change.”
“That doesn’t mean that a few dissatisfied individuals have the right to take the law into their own hands,” stuttered Taylor. “That is anarchy, and in the end, it’s idiotic martyrdom. They cannot win.”
Watkins sighed and shook her head, unbelievingly. “Dr. Taylor, you’ve called these people stupid, vain-glorious martyrs, loners, antisocial misfits, and applied every other label you can think of, but the military and scientific communities believe that these are some very daring, intelligent, organized people, with a technology far superior to that of anyone else in the world. How can you of all people, a trained psychologist, make from that a portrait of twisted, withdrawn, obsessive zealots, hiding in dark corners, casting furtive glances at each other and jumping at every little noise? For a supposedly educated man, you don’t even seem to have a grasp of elementary history or basic human psychology. I think that if anyone is idiotic, it’s you. I bid you goodnight, Dr. Taylor.”
“Ladies and gentlemen,”—a spotlight isolated Watkins, and on her cue the camera zoomed in on her, excluding Professor Taylor who strode, red-faced and muttering, into the darkened background of the set—“we have just heard from another self-proclaimed expert on the motivations and psychotic characteristics of terrorists in general, and he lumps the current event in with terrorist bombings, post office shootings, street muggings and all the rest.
“Contrary to Dr. Taylor’s opinion, I find something uniquely different about this. First, the voice on the tape does not claim credit for any militant organization. Second, it does not ask for the release of political prisoners, espouse any radical political causes or demand any kind of ransom. Once again, the ten demands it makes are as follows:
“One: All tax-supported colleges and universities will immediately begin teaching evening classes for adults, at cost, in all disciplines, including the sciences and engineering, and these will be fully accredited, compressed schedule, degree-earning curriculums to provide the people of America with the opportunity to obtain a higher education even after they are married and hold full-time jobs. It is time that the people who pay the bills get some of the benefits.
“Two: The American Constitution and Bill of Rights shall be enforced to the letter, and enforcement of all victimless crimes shall cease. People shall not be treated like a common herd. They shall have the individual freedom to do as they please so long as they do not inflict their beliefs on others, harm others or destroy property. Law enforcement does not have the right to anticipate crime at the expense of liberty, and government does not have the right to dictate individual morals.
“No civil servant or group thereof may controvert the United States Constitution or Bill of Rights in any way, or make, or waive, the law of the land. Only the citizenry for which the civil servant works may introduce petition for change.
“No law may be passed without a majority vote by the affected population. Civil servants shall only enforce the laws, they shall not introduce them. No government employees, no matter what their agency or rank, shall use tax dollars to fund political propaganda or support special-interest groups, or cast any public opinions in such matters. That is a clear conflict of interest. This includes all civilian authorities and military forces.
“There shall be no impromptu use of martial law except in the case of civil emergency, and even then it shall be limited in scope to invasion by foreign nationals or armies, or to prevent looting in the wake of disaster.
“The justice system shall be streamlined to limit appeals to two, and to exact swift, just punishment of those who bring harm to others. Sentences shall be literal and shall be carried out exactly as handed down. All crimes against people or property shall carry standard, mandatory sentences without dispensation. No one shall have privilege in this respect.
“Three: The total parasitic load on society shall be reduced to no more than twenty percent of the gross domestic product. That includes all government—local, state and national. It includes the criminal justice industry, the largest industry in the nation. It includes the combined military forces. In short, the public burden for all expenses for services supported directly or indirectly by taxes shall be reduced to less than twenty percent of GDP.
“To prevent hidden taxes, there shall be no income tax, inheritance tax, property tax, capital gains tax or corporate tax. The Internal Revenue Service shall be dismantled. The only tax permitted shall be a uniform sales tax, levied on everything except food, clothing, shelter, fuel and medical care, evenly applied to every individual without deductibles. The tax shall be collected by each state, and twenty percent passed on to the federal government for the national defense, and for the national regulation of health standards, interstate highways, public safety, quality of food, pharmaceuticals, air and water. There shall be no federally supported endowments. Artistic expression and other such endeavors are not the purview of the government.
“Four: Parents shall have ultimate authority over their minor children unless it can be proved that they are unfit or cruel. They shall have the fundamental right to discipline and teach their offspring as they see fit, including the limited exercise of corporal punishment, so long as such discipline is not cruel or unjust beyond reason, and such teachings do not engender disrespect for the life, liberty and property of others.”
Watkins paused, “There are six more commandments or dictates, ten in all,” she said, “and the content is lengthy. Just to summarize the main points, number five does not permit foreign ownership of United States real property or natural resources, or the exercise of political influence in the United States by foreign business or foreign nationals; number six restricts the terms of senior federal executives and makes conduct not in keeping with the interests of the American people treasonous; number seven establishes a mandatory life sentence without parole for the act of treason by a public official; number eight addresses conflict of interest by government employees; number nine restricts government involvement in the affairs of foreign nations; and number ten limits government interference in private enterprise to consumer safety, and to public protections against monopolistic advantage and profligate behavior.”
Watkins continued, “The preamble of the taped message states: ‘If the government fails in any respect to enact and enforce these laws, factories and businesses, military installations, even major population centers shall be destroyed. Such destruction shall continue until the people rally together, take responsibility and force their governing officials to comply. These commandments are not negotiable.’
“I don’t know about you folks,” Watkins addressed her listeners, “but these demands do not seem insane to me, and are in fact the very things most of us claim to want. I don’t understand why, with so much at stake, these things can’t simply be done. If the people are willing to meet these demands, even desire the changes, then who are these civil servants to say no? For most of the demands, it would only take the stroke of a pen to change the law. Our elected officials are posturing and breast-beating and protecting their own perks, but there are millions of our lives at stake.
“Congress and the President claim that if they give in to these demands, no matter how innocuous they seem, that further, more impossible demands will be made in the future. In my personal opinion, I think that we should meet the demands until something impossible is actually demanded. What if these people are exactly what they say they are? Almost two weeks have passed since the tape was sent, and nothing has been done.
“I have interviewed five people, including Dr. Taylor, and I’m appalled at the moronic way this is being exploited. As with any big news item, the self-promoters like Dr. Taylor are coming out of the woodwork to get on television. The incumbent politicians are posing and acting defiant, while the ones who want to take their places are ridiculing the incumbents and offering asinine solutions, or no solutions at all.
“The military is speculating on whether or not this weapon is capable of the threatened destruction. No one seems to be considering the potential loss of life if it is, and if these people do exactly what they say they will do.
“There have been no attempts at negotiation, primarily because the terrorists have said there will be none. No one even knows how to communicate with them. They have been absolutely silent since the destruction at the Marine base in California. One assumes that they are listening to television broadcasts, and if they are, I hope that they will reconsider, and not destroy all those innocent lives. There must be another way to bring about change. We all know that our government is out of our control and we don’t know how to fix it, but the massacre of innocent people can’t be the solution.
“If you are listening, I appeal to you, sincerely, with all my heart, whoever you are, please don’t do what you have threatened. There has to be a better way.
“Once again, according to the warning, on August 11, residents of the East Coast need to be west of a line that runs roughly north-south along the Eastern Seaboard between Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and Concord, Massachusetts. If what is threatened comes to pass, anyone who is east of that line on that day, is risking death. My instincts tell me to err on the side of safety. Take your most precious belongings and your pets, and move to safety. The man on the tape pleads with you to heed the warning. The only alternative is complete compliance with his demands, and as of this moment, that doesn’t seem likely.
“I want to thank you ladies and gentlemen in the audience, and our viewers for tuning in. We are out of time. I’m Beverly Watkins for Perspective. Good night.”