Mary Whitney Must Prevail!

By
John Huckel

Part I

1. Headlines

Suez and Panama Canals Fall to Internet Terrorists

Terrorists Threaten 15% of International Shipping

Terrorists Call for Internet Mob Rule

Intl Cyber-Court Gives Peace a Chance

Terrorists Press for Peace?

Populist Gun Control

“These were some of the headlines from the early 21st Century, just before the Great Liberation really took hold and Governments began to fall. That was more than 1500 years ago; and that, dear ones is what we will be investigating during this next section of our look at the Pasts. This period is of particular interest to me; I am currently investigating the lives of three people who were central to the events which brought an end to Civilization.” Sister Inez put up her hand to quell any questions along that line. “We’ll investigate them together later, but for now I want you to put your attention on the sequence of events leading up to the Conspiracy Revelations. And that starts in the Suez. I chose these six headlines to exemplify what the underlying struggle was really all about.

“And when I say, what it was really all about, I don’t mean the local politics at the time. That is important, and we will put some attention on that. But I also want you to think about how it could be that it was natural for Man to have arrived at someplace so different from where we are now. International terrorism – what’s that all about? The point I want you to keep in mind is that Mankind did do all the terrible things we will be investigating. And somehow—ourselves members of Mankind—it suggests that it is also within each of us to have participated in those activities. We are not angels, and they were not devils. We are both Man; and if our circumstances were reversed, we would probably—both of us—act as the other acted then, or is acting now.

“There are two seemingly conflicting dynamics within each Individual. And each of us manifests that conflict in the personal balance at which each of us has individually arrived. Think of a little child who is just starting to walk. Half the time it wants to stay cuddled in its mother’s arms (the Family is a child’s first Group), and the other half it is struggling to get free as an Individual to go exploring, apart from the Group. This simple example allows that at its core, Human Nature is of two minds regarding the Individual and his or her Group. And there are two extremes of opinion: Some people are sure that, 1- Only by each Individual insisting on the absolute Liberty to reach his or her own Goals, can the Body Politic approach perfection (that’s all of us as a Group); and at the other extreme, people believe that, 2- The Body Politic can be optimized only when the Individuals making it up, subordinate their Selves to the Group and expunge their separate action.

“And you guys as children fit within that Gradient Scale. You are all still under the control of your parents – but at the same time you receive more and more Freedoms from them as you grow older and get more experience. Generally between 18 and 21 years of age it is understood that your parents will have set you completely free. But even then there will be a balance of Freedom and Control each of you will seek out in your lives. Some of you will want to be almost completely independent, while others will seek out Groups to which they will cede much of that Independence. As in all things, there are gradients.

“During the Age of the Social Contract the latter position was dominant: Individuals were expected to cede their Freedoms to the Group of whichever Tribute Zone they are a part. And Force was universally employed against Individuals to assure the Group’s wellbeing. We will be investigating how the Force-driven Social Contract was unwound when communications technologies permitted Society to flourish without anyone forcing anyone to be a certain way.”

Here Sister Inez separated the first three headlines from the second three.

“Notice the different tones and connotations of the first three headlines, compared to the second three. The first three focus on Terrorists – one Group using Force on another; and the second three on Peace – no one using Force on anyone. And I’ll put up the Pilot’s Manifesto again so you can see these headlines were referring to.”

Up went the manifesto.

From the Pilots of the Suez Canal:
There is blood on our hands. For generations we have been complicit in the wholesale murder and subjugation of our friends and neighbors by the Colonial Powers. We will be complicit no more. We will not guide any ship through our canal until all warships and cargo ships carrying arms, remove themselves from the waters designated for canal traffic. If there is a delay in the removal of those ships, no ship shall pass. The only exception will be ships carrying cargo urgently needed to support the lives of our brethren of whatever religion, in whatever land.

The Middle East has long been termed, the Crossroads of the World. That puts us right at the center of things. But for too long, that center has been crisscrossed for the purposes of War! We don’t pretend to have the answers to World Peace, but we hereby pray that the world at large will help us find them. Whoever you are reading this, please utilize the Internet platform established recently in Tiquicia, to help us come to some accommodation – hopefully forwarding our desires for Peace. Please go to www.TiquiciaTrabaja.com, and click on the Dove/World Peace icon and help us put an end to War. May your God guide you in your actions.

Addressing the Class as a whole, Sister Inez asked, “Do any of you know what provoked the Pilots to risk their jobs and make such a public announcement?” A number of hands went up. “Yes, Sidney....”

“It was because there were a bunch of warships in the Mediterranean Sea that wanted to go to the Persian Gulf. There was a war starting there, and their captains were told to go there, but the Pilots didn’t want to help them.” Sidney, satisfied that he had adequately answered the question, sat back down with the assurance of someone who has just said everything that needed to be said on the subject.

“Very good Sidney – that’s right. There were two fleets of ships separated by the Suez Canal, and the admiral of the 6th Fleet had orders to leave the Mediterranean Sea through the Suez Canal, and steam full speed to join the 5th Fleet in the Persian Gulf.

“At that time, the Pilots had just about finished juggling a bunch of waiting ships around to allow clear passage for a hospital ship and several cargo ships carrying emergency supplies to the Indus River region between Pakistan and India. Flooding there had already claimed thousands of lives, and thousands more would perish without the quick arrival of the doctors and their emergency supplies.

“Nobody really knows if the Pilots had even been considering such a daring move as the Pilot’s Manifesto, until they received orders from their Government ordering them to clear the way for the warships.

“What happened is that the Pilots conspired and ignored their orders; they just continued to do what was necessary to get the relief ships through. The Admiral of the 6th Fleet expressed his sympathy for the refugees in India and Pakistan, but demanded that Egypt comply with its treaty obligations to expedite his fleet’s transit of the canal.

It may have been his statement, I’m under orders to surge, and every day I’m delayed, American lives will be lost, that tipped the moral balance in the Pilots’ minds. As it turned out, two of the pilots working the Suez Canal had lost family members when a Sudanese aspirin factory had been bombed by American planes years ago as a public relations stunt to divert public attention from the embarrassing sexual peccadilloes of the sitting American president. They were incensed at the admiral’s arrogance. The Pilots’ Manifesto was issued, and the canal was shut down.

“Yes Sally...”

“But why did Panama get involved?” Sally held up a map showing the distance between the Suez Canal and the Panama Canal. “They were on the other side of the world. They couldn’t help anyone in India.”

“Good question. Thank you Sally.

“Anyone?” …Sister Inez looked around the class, but there were no takers.

“It was because the workers in the Panama Canal felt close to the workers in the Suez Canal, not because they were physically close, but because those were the only two canals in the world that were so important, and they were sympathetic to the problems the workers from the Suez Canal were facing. They too realized that they had always helped warships get to where they could kill people. They felt guilty for not doing anything before, and decided to show their solidarity with the canal workers in Egypt. Their union issued a statement saying that no warships would be allowed to transit their canal either – until a settlement was reached with their fellow workers in Egypt.

“This is an excellent example of how the Internet made the world smaller and more unified. Remember that during the approximately 10,000 years of the Age of the Social Contract, Mankind had separated itself with artificial geographical barriers. On one side of a line in the sand you were in one Tribute Zone, and on the other side you were in another Tribute Zone. And more often than not, neighbors on either side of those lines became enemies – because of the criminal greed of one or both of their Rulers.

“As Mankind evolved from Hunter Gatherer to City Dweller, people had had to adapt to novel societal structures foreign to their Hunter-Gatherer traditions. Any group numbering in the thousands had to adopt the top-down governmental power structures inherent in the Social Contract. There was just no other way for large groups to defend themselves from other groups that had gone criminal. Initially Individuals freely ceded their Freedoms for Security. The existence of their Group came first, and if they had to put up with Police forcing them to do things—so be it. That was just the way things were at the time. And because of the constant threat that some Criminal would lead his people against your Group – War was the rule for 10,000 years. As we have seen, initially giving up some Freedoms for Security was a win-win situation. The larger part of the Group agreed to support a smaller group of warriors who would defend them in times of need.

“The threat of attack from other groups was always present. And not until the advent of the Internet at the turn of the 21st Century, was there a better solution to the problem of Criminal Groups than the Social Contract. At that point in History, technology provided Mankind with a superior way to associate. And from that point on, the criminal Rulers of the warring Tribute Zones had a harder and harder time extracting Tribute from their people to keep fighting their neighbors. With the Internet, Man’s humanity began to express itself across those artificial barriers in spite of the wishes of any Rulers. Ignoring the divisive maneuvers of their Governments, people separated by Geography, Race, and Culture, began to seek each other out according to their common interests. People more and more rejected the notion that War was the only solution to the world's problems.

“It wasn’t because the Pilots from Panama and Egypt personally knew each other. And as Sally pointed out, they were on opposite sides of the world. It was because of the instant communications via the Internet that the Pilots in Panama learned of the details facing their counterparts in Egypt. They were unified not by proximity, but by common interests. And of course, it didn’t stop there. Here’s a quote from the union of stevedores in Long Beach, California commenting on the treaty Egypt had signed more than a century before: “There are many things in life that may be legal – but they may still be absolutely and utterly irresponsible.” Soon stevedores in 29 countries were expressing sympathy—if not themselves interfering with arms shipments—they were unequivocal about their support for a popular international settlement.”

Noticing a quizzical look on Sally's face, Sister Inez added, “Stevedores are workers who load and unload ships.” With Sally back on board, Sister Inez continued.

“One of the first suggestions to be issued from the TiquiciaTrabaja website, or the New Peace Corps, as it came to be known, was the suggestion that an unaligned team of weapons inspectors be assembled to certify that a ship was okay to move through the canal. But another headline soon after that news was from Secretary of State Abel Hastings, “No weapons inspectors will interfere with US shipping!” His refusal was greeted with approval only by the heads of world Governments.

“Okay Class, we’re going to take a break for now. When you get back, we’ll discuss how the Central Information Cloud came to be, and how 1500 years ago it affected the people of those times.” Sister Inez was herself excited about what they would be investigating. She had spent the last ten years focusing on just this period.

2. Author’s Explanation, Personnel & Definitions

Please excuse this precocious interruption and disregard for normal formatting – but there just isn’t time to introduce the following as supplemental information in the Appendix. Honestly – how many of you have ever lasted long enough with a Science Fiction novel to read the Appendix? (Actually, I'm told – this is Science Fantasy.) Well, lots of loose ends ... that’s my point. So allow me to introduce the following in order of importance, rather than textural sequence.

First of all, I am channeling Sister Inez who lived, lives, or will live about 1,500 years into the Futures. She is, was, or will be a teacher in an education complex made up of about 2,200 students. Under the educational system of her time, until students reach 14 or 15, the bulk of their studies take place with the same teacher, and with their same classmates. After the initial psychometrics taken in their kindergarten years, the kids are grouped together into discrete units. In tone and efficiency, the resultant classes are very much like the one-room schoolhouses of the 18th and 19th century American Experiment.

There are many benefits to this system. Of great importance of course, is that learning is greatly accelerated when older (or more skilled) kids help their classmates. When a kid seeks to instruct another, his or her understanding must reach a higher level. And also integral to this New-Age system is that the 'teacher' is not the source of the data studied; original texts, followed by advancements and permutations of the subjects under investigation are studied directly from those sources. In reality, the 'teacher' becomes more of a supervisor, monitoring and handling any problems the kids may have in making way in their studies. Once difficulties and confusions are straightened out, the kids are again on their own in their investigations.

And only when there are specific topics, appropriate only for kids of the same physiological, emotional, and/or academic levels, is the primary 'one-room schoolhouse' structure disturbed. Sister Inez is one of the teachers who instructs a class drawn from the other classes, for investigations in a specialized subject: Returning.

When this story first came to me, I thought it was just the normal dribbles from my rather inconsistent imagination. It was interesting, so I scampered along like a happy puppy following the scent of the exciting unknown. And the story flowed so easily for a while – as if it had always been sitting there, just waiting to be reduced to print by my inspired key strokes. That was very gratifying. It was when I had gotten a few thousand words in, and decided to go back and edit and refine the narrative, that I discovered otherwise – it wasn’t my story at all!

I had been immediately captivated by the narrative (as I think you may be too) and was distressed when I couldn’t seem to either make the changes I envisioned, or continue on with it as I thought it should go. It just stood there in front of me—an uncompleted monolith—blocking me from doing anything else. When I would approach the computer intending to exert my prerogatives as the Author of the piece, I would get oddly nervous and distracted, and couldn’t make any headway. (Sister Inez was short-circuiting my thought processes.) And I couldn’t sleep! At night I could find no rest. Sister Inez was always there in my dreams—and certainly not as a succubus—but as an impatient schoolmarm, glowering over me, tapping her foot, slapping a ruler into her open palm. Eventually her imposing dream Identity mellowed as I finally got the idea.

Dunce cap fully in place I learned that I had been selected by her to act as her personal Scribe. So much for my creative genius.... Although she did praise one of my early short stories, Riding the Time Vault (you just read it in the Foreword). She indicated that that story had reached her time, and had caused her to seek me out. And while all this in itself is a wonderful subject for a story, I am informed that nothing off-subject will be forthcoming until my assigned task is satisfactorily completed.

I don’t know how proud to be. Apparently I was chosen not just because I can write, which is good – but probably more importantly, because Sister Inez determined I was weak minded and easily manipulated. (That doesn’t feel so good.) And it also became apparent that I wasn’t suffering from writer’s block, so much as from writer’s disapprobation. But once I assented to the rules and settled into my role as Scribe, my writers 'block' lifted. I could once again approach the computer without fear. I could write again – but it was made very clear that any tinkering I had in mind, would have strictly defined limits.

Happily, my penchant for capitalizing texturally important nouns has met with Sister Inez’ approval. (I hope it’s not distracting to you.) And I have been permitted to place in the Appendix, bits and pieces which I might otherwise have pared down and inserted strategically within the story itself. I will indicate to you when you might want to visit the Appendix for clarification or amplification on various points.

And among other things, apparently Sister Inez does not deem written profanity socially acceptable. This, although one section of dialogue she downloaded to me is in fact nothing but a stream of the most vicious and scathing (yet erudite) invective I have ever encountered. You, Dear Reader, will have to take that on faith – because I have been limited to the corniest of comic-strip renditions, e.g. #$@%!!!. So, when you see such sanitized expressions – know to be repulsed and offended.

Slipping and sliding through Time with Sister Inez has become routine for me, but it may be a little startling to the uninitiated. It would seem that the Present really isn’t so firm as we might think; it actually needs a Past and a Future to fully define it. With that in mind, I chose Riding the Time Vault as the Foreword to kick this thing off. It anticipates Returning, which was one of the things that had caught Sister Inez' attention.

Furthermore, because of the unusual circumstances of this work, as putative Author, I feel obliged to step outside my normal invisibility to explain how and why this book will be so different in format. First off there's the channeling thing. That is quite enough to merit special attention. But, beyond that, it is a thinly veiled con job on her part. The whole purpose of it is to save the world, if you will. Our good Sister Inez is convinced (and as I have come to learn – at times quite convincing) that our whole planet is soon to experience an energetic impact of cosmic proportions. It will affect all lifeforms, and that that disturbance will likely make our Societies ricochet off into uncharted directions. It seems to be her mission to both warn us about that event, and to urge us to put our house in order – aka the Societies of the planet – so we can ride out the impact and arrive intact on the other side. She feels that if we are informed we will become emboldened enough to put a stop to the predations of globalist forces at large. She says we need to put an end to all the Woke nonsense that is currently spearheading their agenda. That if we as a race get back to the business of promoting the ethos of the American Dream – the worldwide protection of an Individual's sacred right to Life, Liberty, and Possession – we will emerge from our coming trauma on the right footing. But, if we sleepily carry on in the manner we have been, when shaken up, Societies may well accelerate down the slippery slope we're on – to a millennia or two of Sustainable Tyranny.

And in some arcane manner, our Society's devolution may adversely affect hers. (No – I have no clue how that works.) So, all this cavorting through Time is so that she and her happy New Age can continue on their merry way. Had I known this backstory when I signed on as faithful Scribe, I might not have signed on. But, as I mentioned, I was intrigued by the circumstances, and quite taken by the story on its own merit.

Apparently channeling has its limits. The book was not delivered to me in a coherent stream – but broken up – more like receiving the bits and pieces of a mosaic that I have had to collate and piece back together into its intended coherent mural. And Sister Inez was always on hand to help me get things right.

And there are multiple levels to this book: A love story; Science Fantasy Conspiracy; Mankind's true History; Apocalyptic Predictions; and a Compendium of the Math, Science, Governance, and Social Norms of the New Age. I have remained faithful to the basic order as she delivered to me, but that order may be difficult to navigate for the average reader. When we reach a junction between subjects, I will help you in following thematic paths. I will insert myself and play traffic cop – directing you how to get to where you want to go. Judging from the early readers, just sticking with the Love Story narrative will be of prime importance. Other directions will be to guide you to some section of the Appendix for further discussions on the subject at hand.

Following the Love Story is fairly straight forward: You are now in Part I, Chapter 3, continue reading this chapter, then skip the rest of Part I; skip Part II, and go to Part III; skip Part IV and go to Part V, and continue on to the end of the story. When it comes time to skip around, I'll remind you. Other themes are fairly well contained within the Parts themselves.

To give yourself a further leg up into this unfamiliar world through which you are about to travel, please take a quick look at the following List of Characters and Terms. It will give you the feel for what follows, and you can always refer back to it if you lose your way.

It is Sister Inez’ purpose that you understand her message and be able to make a reasoned decision about what and whether something should be done by you regarding the Futures she will be presenting. And it’s my intention to provide you with explanations and peripheral materials when needed – as you make your way through this hodgepodge of a tale.

But enough from me – I’m told.

~ Your Author and her Scribe

List of Principal Characters

From the Futures:

Sister Inez – A teacher of 8- and 9-year-olds from approximately the year 3,500.

Sally – Emotional student.

Sidney – Precocious trickster student.

Bobby – Student with weird cousins.

Franklin – Student with authoritarian dad.

Albert – Hungry student.

From our Present:

Colonel Blythe – US Army Colonel, career Soldier, enlisted at 17. Now with the Defense Intelligence Agency, he had been ordered to search out and destroy the group calling itself the New Peace Corps.

Victor (Cha-Cha) Chavez – Star reporter for the Panamanian magazine La Verdad (The Truth)—our Hero.

Manolo Xavior Ortiz Dominguez – Owner and Editor-in-chief of La Verdad.

Guillermo Luis Solis – President of the Republic of Tiquicia.

Doña Mercedes Maria Peñas – First Lady of the Republic of Tiquicia; it was she who introduced Mr. X to her husband.

Mr. X – Futurist Author who developed both the Matrix-8 Solution – a necessary upgrade for the Democratic Processes; and LaborBits – the monetary foundation of Sister Inez’ time. (Respecting his wishes, his true identity will not be revealed.)

Mary Whitney – Driven 2nd generation functionary for the Rothenfelter family—our Heroine.

Garth Rothenfelter – Aged former Family patriarch lingering with Dementia.

Cyrus Rothenfelter – Garth's nephew and inheritor of Garth's control.

Ms. Spencer – Elderly spinster receptionist at the Rothenfelter estate, and private secretary to Cyrus Rothenfelter.

Captain Errol P. Shard – Ex-Army, head of security for the Family. His principal duties included the wellbeing of Garth Rothenfelter, and the security of Pandora, the computer holding the Family's secrets.

List of Terms

Civilization – The onset of the Agricultural Revolution just 10,000 years ago marked the end of Man’s existence in small Band Societies as hunter-gatherers. It also marked the end of the Direct Democracy, Mankind's default societal setting, enjoyed during the prior 190,000 years. The word, Civilization is a noun derived from the verb, to Civilize; it is the end product of victorious Governments forcing the vanquished to be like them. It is a result of the constant warring during the Age of the Social Contract. Prior to Civilization and the Social Contract there were no Wars as we know them today.

The Age of the Social Contract – Beginning 10,000 years ago, the Social Contract has been the anomalous Societal Structure universally developed to protect the newly settled Cities from marauding Criminal Strangers. It requires top-down power structures utilizing Governments. During that period (our Present) War has been the central focus of all societal dynamics. The Age of the Social Contract lasted until about the middle of the 21st Century.

The Bureaucracy – The Bureaucracy is top-down administrative mechanisms of a Government. Directed by a Dictator, it extracts Labor and extorts Tribute from the masses. It concentrates all Power in the hands of the Dictator, and then at his orders uses that Power to force the masses into submission. Using Coercion and Bread & Circuses, the Bureaucracy insulates the Dictator from the people. “Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain,” is the refrain.

Every Revolution evaporates
and leaves behind
only the slime
of a new Bureaucracy.
~ Franz Kafka

The New Age – Thought to be a reset to the default societal ambiance of Mankind’s first 190,000 years of living in small Band Societies. It is the designation given to the period following the Age of the Social Contract. From the vantage of the New Age, the Age of the Social Contract – with its wars, Governments and Civilization – is seen as the Democrity Hiatus. (Sister Inez lives in the New Age—about 1,500 years into our Futures.)

Democrity – Democrity is like Democracy, but without Enforcement. Under Democrity, the individual retains their Sovereignty over the Group; the Group cannot enforce compliance to its rules. It was/will be both the pre- and post-Civilization style of Governance enjoyed by populations that use Democratic Processes to reach Accords. Pre-Civilization, it can best be seen as the extended Family sitting around a council fire deciding what to do next season. Post-Civilization, Democrity will be the result of MultiLevel Governance – the Matrix-8 Solution's bottom-up power structure that slowly replaces Civilization's top-down governmental bureaucracies. It is a council fire around which the entire population of the planet can comfortably sit.

The Matrix-8 Solution – The Internet-based program that allows millions to efficiently Participate, Deliberate, and reach Accords in real time. It is the modern engine of Democrity.

8-PAC – On a Matrix-8 Platform, people associate in interconnected groups of 8. An 8-PAC is an acronym for 8 People in Active Communication.

Real-time Democracy – Real-time Democracy is similar to the Democrity enjoyed by Band Societies, and to the Direct Democracy of early Puritan Colonists making decisions in a Town Meeting. But it still employs enforced compliance. And it is different from both, in that it is not limited in the number of Participants, their proximity, nor is it hampered by scheduling constraints. It is the modern technological bridge to Democrity from the Democracy originally introduced by the Greeks. It describes the continual deliberative processes provided by a Matrix-8 Internet Platform today.

TiquiciaTrabaja – (In English: Tiquicia Works) This organization was developed in the Central American nation of Tiquicia. Tiquicia was in an Economic Crisis. It was being sucked down into Depression as a relatively unimportant satellite of the flailing Anglo-American Empire. TiquiciaTrabaja was the first instance of MultiLevel Governance, CauseFunding, and LaborBits being successfully utilized on a national basis.

CauseFunding – CauseFunding is the apotheosis of Crowdfunding. It elevates Causes in society beyond the controlling reach of single Individuals or Corporations. It is the amalgamation of Social Networking and Crowdfunding platforms. Utilizing the Matrix-8 Solution and its 8-PAC’s, it was the Internet-based engine that revitalized the Democratic Process in the New Age, and returned Societal Power to the People.

LaborBit – A method to monetize the Future Labor of the Unemployed. A regional or national Currency is derived from the promised Future Labor of unemployed workers. First used in Tiquicia, it saved them from an economic meltdown and Depression.

The Conspiracy Revelations – The purloined Rothenfelter database broadcast to the world – seen as the single act precipitating The Great Liberation.

The Great Liberation – The period from approximately 2025 to 2130, of the dissolution of most Nation States, in favor of ad hoc Culture Foci.

The Central Information Cloud (CIC) – The compilation of all the data uploaded to a Universal Database. All uploaded data of a personal nature is given a reliability rating, but its specific source is unknowable.

The Cloud – Colloquially, the intangible, yet universal nature of the Internet.

Enhanced Coordination Modules (ECM) – Localized plug-in devices which tap the emotional ambiance in specific locales. They then amplify it locally to a point of Gentle Awareness. This and all data is uploaded to the CIC.

Group Accord Level (GAL) – The emotional radiation derived from the ECM’s. It is never set high enough to influence a change in individual Emotion, just high enough to be like a subliminal message, giving Individuals the feel for the emotional state of those around them.

Individualists – At the start of the New Age, those who mistrusted any connection to any centralized database, due to the shocking revelations (The Conspiracy Revelations) about Governments’ previous misuse of such data. They were the majority for about 70 years after The Great Liberation. When they passed into the Minority they were referred to as Unconformists.

Group-ID – The momentary personality of an individual derived from what that person is currently doing with the Things about him or her. It is who you appear to be to Others, as determined by what you do with what you have.

Returning – Returning is the computer-generated sensation of actually being a specific Individual from the Pasts. One is channeled into following along in the activities of the Individual – as limited by the known situation and options available at the time. A Returner feels like they have become the Group-ID projected by that person.

HumaNatarchy – The conflation of the term Human Nature and the suffix –archy. It is the philosophical assertion that what is Human Nature, is by definition Good, and should be allowed to guide Mankind in its group actions.

Basal Tropism – Analogous to a leaf turning towards the sun, or a root tip seeking water, all animal Bodies, Human Bodies included, have many basic reactions.

The 5 H’s – Five of the most obvious Human Basal Tropisms – presented in an easily remembered format: Hungry, Horny, Happy, Hunting, and Hunted.

3. Back in the Classroom

We join Sister Inez—some 1500 years into the Futures. She is developing a basic introduction to studying the dominant Individuals and their circumstances during and effecting the change from the Age of the Social Contract to The New Age.

Liberty vs Sociopaths
Sister Inez speaking to the Class: “The skipping stone of Liberty has come to us from the Old Age [pre-Social Contract times], to the Greek City-states, to the American Experiment, now to us again in the New Age. Some anthropologists make note of a seeming geometric regression in the time signature of the skip of that Liberty Stone. It went from being bedrock for 190,000 years, to basically disappearing into the Social Contract for about 10,000 years. But within those 10,000 years, it did touch down in Greece and the Mideast after having disappeared for 8,000 years; it reappeared with the American Experiment 2000 years after that; and again another 400 years later – with the beginnings of the New Age, where it has seemingly become bedrock once again.

“Society went through a difficult period of adjustment moving from the Age of the Social Contract to the New Age. It had been 10,000 years since Individuals had first changed their naturally independent decision-making processes, and began to defer to the larger Group—run by people they didn’t personally know.

“Just as in Band Societies, where it was necessary not to leave anything valuable some place that your sociopathic 2nd cousin Leo might find it – because he would surely steal it and probably break it before you got it back – the first settled Cities soon found that they too had to be careful. In this case, the part of Leo was played by other Cities. While Sociopaths were known and tagged for life in Clan Societies, in cities they got lost to vision, and some emerged as leaders. Some City would eventually fall under the control of the Leo’s of the day, and they became a threat to any other Groups within their thieving radius. As we have seen, all large settled Societies had to organize themselves for War.

From 'Protect and Serve' to 'Obey or die!'
“So, to prevent being overrun by criminally inspired Strangers, all Cities eventually adopted what worked: the Social Contract. The bulk of the people would support a Militia that didn't labor in the fields, but stood ready to defend the Group. All Cities organized themselves such that they could quickly call up their Militia if a threat appeared. Soon, all important decisions for the Group were made by Generals and Kings. And eventually the common people became subservient to, and dependent upon their new Rulers and their Governments.

“In essence, people over the centuries learned to remain as children waiting for Mommy or Daddy to tell them what to do, or to do it for them. And until The Great Liberation, if they as Adults did something the Group didn’t like, or wouldn’t do something it required, they could assume they might get spanked for it, and sent to their room. Or in this case, sent to jail.

“But all that changed with the manifestly more efficient and more just operations of Society utilizing the Central Information Cloud in tandem with the Matrix-8 Solution. Instead of the over-arching Bureaucracies that all top-down governmental systems had imposed, Societies developed bottom-up structures of more humane governance. During the period of readjustment, nobody knew how far they could go with Individual Liberty and still keep all the sprawling societies of Earth from crashing to rubble. (But quite obviously we have made it—this far at least.)” This last was said with a smile.

“As Governments fell or were replaced piecemeal—function by function—Individuals had to learn how to get things done that Governments had previously arrogated to themselves.

“Think of the term Body Politic, which is a way of describing the whole of a specific Society as if it were one body. By the end of the Social Contract—in the beginning of the 21st Century, warring was the order of the day. And in our analogy, almost all Nation States had the bodies of Soldiers. The uniform of the Body Politic varied from Government to Government, but the head always wore a military cap. And there were alliances among Governments that went higher and higher, until some saw all Mankind under the orders of one shadowy leadership.

In this analogy, as The Great Liberation advanced and societal functions were disrupted, the military head no longer gave all the orders to the arms and legs. That head had been lopped off – there was no longer a centralized decision-maker. Decision making was slowly devolving lower and lower on the chain. But the Body Politic knew it would soon die if the arms and legs couldn’t figure out how to operate in unison without a central brain constantly giving them orders.

New routes
“Another analogy which has often been used to describe how Societies learned to get on without Central Governments, is Patterning. That is the therapy which has been most successful in teaching brain-damaged children how to learn anew to operate their bodies. Luckily for those kids, there are sufficient numbers of redundant neural pathways, so that the desired bodily actions could be accomplished by utilizing new nerve routes. And so it was with those Societies re-emerging from the rubble of Civilization. As they aspired to become bastions of individual Liberty and Responsibility, new routes between Decision and Action had to be discovered. Those pathways were discovered and put into service in the common interests of Individuals across all the artificial boundaries that had been imposed to collect Tribute. The Internet slowly eroded and finally erased those pretty colored lines on the ancient maps.

“The People could no longer be as children—waiting for their Governments to provide for them, and tell them what to do. They had to step up and learn to organize themselves to be able to breathe life into the robotic bureaucracies which had always so slowly and agonizingly ground out old solutions to new problems. The People had to learn to be responsible for themselves!

“But such therapy doesn’t show results overnight; it is a grueling process. Do not forget that the Communications Technologies—which permitted Society to operate without its traditionally centralized decision points—were still relatively new, and basically unfamiliar to many adults in even the most advanced of societies. It is not too surprising that in many instances Society appeared much like a clumsy drunk staggering about doing mundane chores. And it was! During the first tentative years building the bridge between the Age of the Social Contract, and the New Age, societies continued to function, but often in a less than graceful fashion. Like our patient with brain damage – societies got things done, but they were decidedly clumsy at first.

Youthful aspirations
“And as is often the case when societies undergo traumatic disruptions – it is the younger generations that lead the way. The young are not so stuck in the strictures of business as usual. A little less than a century earlier, Bureaucracies had been shattered. During the post-WWII period of accommodation to the new realities of Realpolitik, in much of Europe and Asia, there was a hiatus in the heavy-handed control of Individuals by their Governments. Governments had been at the very least pauperized and disrupted – in some cases rendered completely useless. Their citizens had to shoulder the load of rebuilding their Societies. Sometimes those efforts were in spite of their Government’s forced misallocation of scarce resources.

“In America, however, there was a period of jubilant Liberty for the Individual. That was a time of peace and prosperity; their country had just emerged from a world war as the unchallenged, de facto winner of the Civilization Game. The atmosphere of a victorious phoenix rising from the flames of war was much like the energetic atmosphere felt during America’s early post-Colonial years.... That was before its Government acquired an Empire of its own. That was before its Government started treating its own citizens the way the colonial English Government had earlier treated them when they were colonists. I.e., as if the People were the Government’s property.

“Into this relaxation of Governmental control after World War II, young Americans raced with delirious abandon. The open horizons offered them heady new possibilities afforded by their wealth and Liberty. They took the smoldering pieces of a world shattered by war, and arranged them into sometimes disquietingly innovative new shapes and combinations – the horrors of Rock and Roll being a leading example.

“Yankee ingenuity in the hands of teenage boys and their older brothers just released from war, applied itself to the displaying of their plumage via the vehicles they could afford. Like all young hormonally-charged males, they needed to impress their potential mates. They needed to drive something alluring in which to take their dates out for an ice cream soda, or dare I say it—to a drive-in movie! Old clunkers in which no self-respecting adult would want to be seen – were purchased and transformed into gleaming chariots, made by the self-schooled hands of their rightly proud sons. Hot rods fabricated in the garages of thousands of teenagers across America showed the established auto manufacturers, advances in both styling and performance. It was youth that led the way.

“Meanwhile, of course, there were the old men who stayed the course as it was delivered to them from the hands of the earlier generation of old men. Themselves well-schooled in the art of Statecraft (that of telling their inferiors what to do) they merely reapplied the standard rules of the Age of the Social Contract. They, the victors, began the process of molding all other Societies into cross-bred images of the American Dream. (Civilization was marching on!)

“And getting closer to our times, when the Great Liberation started to take hold, and the foundations of Civilization began to crumble, it was the young once again, who had stepped into the breach. It was they who hadn’t yet acquiesced to a limiting of their inherent Liberty by giving up their independence of action to anyone – much less to a Government. Having grown up playing with Computers, Cellphones, and the Internet – the young raced into the organizational void with enthusiasm. It was the youngsters from North America, Europe, and Asia who built the Internet Platforms—strong enough to handle billions of secure communications—that the rest of the world would use and perfect as they moved into the New Age.

New technologies
“These young men and young women were totally comfortable with the new Communications Technologies – easily establishing Associations with multitudes of Strangers in order to bring their projects to completion. With their unhindered spirit of adventure, and armed with Cellphones connecting them to the world – which were like familiar toys in their hands – they did what their hot-rodding grandfathers had done earlier in America with automobile technologies. For these nascent New Agers it was an easy step from the Social Networks of Facebook and Twitter (the two giant Associative Networks in the early 21st century), to forming 8-PAC’s (groups of 8 People in Active Communication) who in association with other 8-PAC’s could actually get things done.

“Much of what we depend on today in the CIC [Central Information Cloud], has its roots in what was developed by those young minds of the 21st Century. Social media had long been the meeting ground for discussing any and all topics of interest. But when Chatrooms began to organize themselves into 8-PACs with the purpose of developing Business Plans for action, there was an explosion of activity in society. They called the marriage of chatrooms and Crowdfunding, CauseFunding. CauseFunding allowed people to rally around a Common Cause in vast numbers.

Associative Anonymous Anarchy
“Secure in their anonymity, they could join together in small groups to deliberate, refine their goals, and then in association with the other small groups deliberating the same subject, reach Accords on how to pool their energies for the betterment of Society. The old proverb, Many hands make light work, was never more true than in the hands of the participants utilizing CauseFunding Platforms. If a Cause was indeed important, it would attract thousands, if not millions of interested individuals across multiple jurisdictions.

“And with the advancements of AI, many of the earlier complexities of programming the interconnections between 8-PACs simply disappeared. AI let everybody know the changing size of a Cause Group, its main Agreements, plus the emergence of subgroups and what set them apart. Once all the details of various Business Plans had been ironed out in the Deliberation process, the resulting cost per participant could be negligible. Folks got together, created Business Plans, and then funded their projects to completion. As time went on, often more production would emerge from individual subgroups breaking off and doing their own things. It was disarmingly easy!

“Anonymity on the platform washed away the celebrity status of the participants. And Blockchain kept folks honest in their Anonymity. Of course, Anonymity in voting had long been recognized as a requisite for the integrity of the Democratic Process. Also being able to debate anonymously was found to be a further boost for people’s confidence regarding any final decisions reached. No one was afraid to speak their mind – no matter how marginal their ideas might be. No one was worried that they might suffer retribution for upsetting the applecart of some powerful Individual or Group. Everyone came to understand that the strength of the Deliberative Process was in the validity of the data they discussed; it was not vested in some celebrity opinion leader or rich lobbyist guiding the process. Meanwhile Blockchain technologies kept track of everything. Once CauseFunding caught on – it spread like wildfire.

“Anyone could join the ongoing Deliberations on projects of their interest. All through this turbulent time of change, it was the young people with their Cellphones in hand who led the way. Their parents and the bulk of the rest of the world would take a while longer to get out of their Let-George-Do-It frame of mind. They had grown up thinking that somebody else was responsible for the Society in which they lived. They had given up their Responsibility to shape their world to Kings and Queens, to Commissars, Presidents, and all manner of elected Representatives. The People continued to labor in the fields and in the factories and in the offices, to fund their respective Governments; they sent their Tribute to their capital cities and then just hoped for the best. And all too often their Governments frivolously squandered away the money their citizens had labored so hard to provide. The People were used to paying their Tribute (aka, Taxes), and then complaining that Government was inefficient – end of story.”

Sister Inez saw that her extended lecturing had reached its limits of usefulness. There was much more to relate, but her kids were getting too antsy.

“Okay, kids! Take a break! Back in 20 minutes and I'll bore you with more ancient history....”

Her charges didn't need to be told twice that they were free. They were out the door in a tumultuous rush.

The Golden Rule
“All during the Age of the Social Contract, once the Government’s Treasuries were filled with the People’s Tribute, there was always only a tiny percent of those earlier generations who were among those who got to decide how to spend all the money collected. They were the Elitists. In the period we will be examining, the Elitists held the purse strings – if for no other reason than that they owned or controlled about 85% of the wealth of the planet. Many of their great-great-great grandfathers had positioned themselves strategically in the industries of Natural Resources, Manufacturing, and Banking – just as the Industrial Revolution started its meteoric rise. They owned the gold, so they made the rules. And it was their families along with the vestiges of Royalty who fought in panic against the changes we know as the Great Liberation.

“The great-great-great grandkids of those titans of the Industrial Revolution had no intention of giving up their exalted positions in Society. They had been brought up believing that they were different in some unstated way from other babies born to other families. Joining their fellow men and women as for-hire laborers did not appeal greatly to them. They preferred getting money, rather than earning money. They did not greet 8-PAC’s and CauseFunding with anything but horror. CauseFunding was true Democracy; there were not even any governmental Representatives to suborn and control. This was a real threat – not just an annoyance like Rock & Roll.

“There were the inevitable old-guard attempts at stopping the explosive growth of what were later to be recognized as the seeds of the Central Information Cloud. Some of their attempts were vicious, some were merely comical. But no matter their strategies, it soon became obvious to even the dullest of observers that Power in Society was quickly shifting away from the traditional top-down associative structures headed by Governments and the shadowy powers behind them.

“There sprung up wildly mercurial bottom-up associations—without discernible Leaders—whose participants gathered around Causes, coalesced, deliberated and acted, way before the traditional powers even noticed that something was in the offing. And at the core of this unsettling revolution was the Internet. But the Internet was such an integral part of the fabric of Commerce, that in order to stop folks from innocently talking, it would have meant practically shutting down the whole economy. And shockingly, literally bringing the world to its knees just so the few self-proclaimed Elitists could maintain their ersatz superiority, was for a while the order of the day.

Broken contracts
“But as we know, the Skipping Stone of Liberty did not sink beneath the greed of the few vicious Elitists. Rather, Liberty flourished; and once again Individuals regained their personal Power. It took quite a while, but eventually the Social Contract became a dead letter in the minds of the People. The historical reality was that the Social Contract between the People and their nominated Protectors, had been broken thousands of years before. By the time History started recording its stories, the Social Contract had long been scuttled. It had been broken unilaterally through the fraud of the Protectors as they assumed the mantle of God Kings.”

Sister Inez looked around the room, gathering in all of the kids, “Culturally, broadly speaking – as we look at how Individuals associate with each other, and in and with the Groups they form – you and I have much more in common with our pre-Social Contract, Band-Society ancestors, than either they or we have in common with those whose lives were determined for 10,000 years by warmongering Strangers.

“Okay!” Here Sister Inez took a deep breath letting the kids know that that was enough background for what they would be taking up in bits and pieces of intense detail.

Individuals?
“Tomorrow we will begin to look at some of the specifics in the tale of the Conspiracy Revelations. You will meet one of the three people I am investigating in depth from that period: Victor (Cha-Cha) Chavez.

“I’m sorry Bobby, did you have a question?” Sister Inez signaled the rest of the class to settle down until Bobby got his thoughts together.

“Yes, ma’am. Why is this man Cha-Cha so important? Why should we investigate him? He wasn’t one of the Leaders back then. Why is he so important?”

“That’s a good question, Bobby. Why should we study someone who was unknown until after the events we are interested in? And we can ask why is any person more important than another when we look at the Histories.

“Well, this single man, Cha-Cha Chavez, is special because he is the one person who stands out when we look back across those more than 1000 years between him and us. We remember him because he was the man of action, central to the Conspiracy Revelations. Here in school we are more accustomed to honoring Mr. X, who was the quiet thinker behind the Central Information Cloud, but it was Cha-Cha Chavez, with the help of Mary Whitney, who risked his life to broadcast the Conspiracy Revelations to the world. And I am sure you have all seen the various movies based on Cha-Cha and Mary infiltrating the headquarters of one of the leading centers of the corruption of the times. We have all seen the exploits of their harrowing escape, dropping the broadcast beacon in the sea, and of course, the history-changing results of the data broadcast.” Bobby relaxed back into his chair; he was satisfied with that explanation, and had no follow-up questions.

Returning
Here, Sister Inez looked around the room again to include them all. “I have an exciting announcement to make – soon you will all get the chance to see the times we are investigating through the eyes of all these pivotal Individuals and others around them. That’s right, we will be starting your first Returning sessions very soon!”

“Wow!” “Oh, man!” “Finally!” and other like exclamations burst out among the kids. Bobby perked up again… he and all the rest of the kids were jabbering excitedly, anticipating that they would finally get to experience Returning. Of course they all knew about it, but none had as yet experienced it. The milestone of the first Returning was eagerly awaited by every generation of kids. You get to be someone else! And they didn’t really care who it was that they would experience firsthand. “Returning! This will be great…!” They filed out of the room in a buzz of high animated chatter.

After the kids had left her alone in the room, Sister Inez was happily humming as she too anticipated the adventure awaiting them. She was particularly excited by the prospect of taking her class back with her to meet Cha-Cha. Now that she had all the parents’ signed permissions, perhaps they could do their first Returning as a group early next week.

Fabricating a database
Every time anyone returned to some Individual in the Pasts via the CIC, the information about that person's Group-ID became that much clearer. In this case, the CIC would take all the new reactions radiating from the kids as they experienced the Group-IDs to which they were returning, and by analyzing what seemed the most certain to them, incorporate the new data – further refining those Individuals, and thereby projecting ever more accurate Individuals for the next Returner.

Once controversial, the idea that people seemed to know what they “couldn’t” know was no longer just conjecture. There were too many instances of correct refinements being made by people who should have had no insight into the Individuals to whom they were returning. But later, when hard evidence in the form of a photograph, or recordings, or even houses discovered, or locations unearthed, that incontrovertibly substantiated the refinements made – even the greatest of skeptics had to admit that something was going on. But from where this a priori knowledge originated was still a subject of much contention.

Of course those who held with Spiritism insisted that it was proof of Past Lives. And those who held with Materialism scoffed and rolled out ample proof that the mystery was easily explained by the DNA passed down from generation to generation. Although DNA had not yet given up all its own mysteries, there was enough known to assert that it could easily carry subtle information stretching back millennia.

Whatever the final answer, once a person had personally experienced the oddity of 'being' someone else through Returning, they were open to investigating many subjects dealing with the basic premises of Philosophy and Religion. And once her kids had experienced the impact of seemingly being another Individual long dead, they too would be open to pondering what was underlying their personal experiences.

For her part, Sister Inez was not dogmatic about either theory, but was an enthusiastic Returner nonetheless. She was content to continually immerse herself in an experience she couldn’t explain. Aside from her role as teacher, Returning was her passion. And since this period and these Individuals was exactly her focus, she was pleased to be able to both handle her teaching responsibilities, and to also revisit her own relative certainties of those Individuals surrounding Victor Cha-Cha Chavez. Her experience would be enhanced by the presence of these dear children that she knew so well. Plus by priming the kids to look at specific areas about which she was herself curious, she could delve with them into some of the quizzical details that had been vexing her. This would be great fun!

Author’s Note:
I have been given leave to interrupt again.

The complexity of this data is rough enough for me – and I’ve been thrown into the deep end of the pool so often by Sister Inez that I must have learned how to doggy paddle at least. I understand the basics now. But I am worried that you Dear Reader won’t, and that you will find this barrage of as yet unrelated information daunting, and in your frustration go elsewhere before you have learned enough to make a reasoned decision about whether this project merits your help or just your derision.

My intention here is to make the Reader more comfortable with these long narratives. But this is the way the information came down to me. I balked at not being able to soften the impact of so much strange technology—specifically the concept of Returning via a computer-generalized concept regarding the activities of specific people. I wanted to make these large bites more palatable and easier to digest. After all, I reasoned, Sister Inez is an adult talking to eight- and nine-year-olds. The necessary information could have been delivered in much more simplistic language, which would seem more appropriate when talking to kids, and certainly easier for my Readers to grasp.

I told Sister Inez that this last chapter reminded me of some of the interminable rants Ayn Rand indulged in in her writings. But I was told that to relate what she had just described, with exactly the words she used with her kids would not only be boring to a Reader, but probably misleading and very incomplete as well. She explained that there were just too many aspects of what she was describing which went unsaid in the classroom. The kids already knew a great deal about their basic history and the technologies of the day – all things that needed fuller explanation for someone from the 21st Century. Additionally she said much of the background information to come, about various Individuals and concepts would be transferred in the same bulk format. She wasn’t going to give any sources or references to support her assertions. I, and my Readers would have to take the information on face value – or not.

But I am told that now that a base of understanding has been offered, what comes next will be more faithful to the facts and sequences as far as the classroom dialogue goes – and will hopefully be less daunting. And in closing, she said that she had read Ayn Rand with pleasure, and found no problem with her 'rants' – because she didn’t notice any!

So, hang in there, Dear Reader, I’ll give you a hand wherever I can.

The following scene opens in the Office of Strategic Planning and Terrorist Response at an undisclosed mountain stronghold location.

Your Author

To Be Continued

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