Random musings on a dystopian future

May 2nd, 2007

Year Zero, whose ideas, taken part and parcel, aren’t new unto themselves, but the synthesis of a totalitarian fascist society coupled with the overwhelming strength of big pharma– a scenario that could be lifted out of the pages of Wired magazine– create only the first act of the play. Just before the curtain draws, there is the awakening, the phenomena that seems to be driven by The Big Man In The Sky or, perhaps, The Big Aliens In The Sky.

I should probably preface the rest of this by saying that the burden of proof rests on those trying to prove it, and not on the defense; that is to say, if there is a giant, omniscient force in this world, I remain largely skeptical given the scant proof we have for such an idea.

I can’t help but be reminded of the man in the red sweatsuit that would come over and visit my crap apartment, the top floor of a dilapidated home, sometime around the winter of 1997. He was the friend of our own couch squatter– they had met at the Eugene Mission– he was an older man, with probably just over forty years behind him. Oh, and he was Jesus.

I don’t mean that he was Latino; he was a white dude with scraggly hair and a wiry beard who told me, in certain terms, that he was the Son of God. Apparently, he and John the Baptist were staying at the Mission together. He talked at length about an eventual “ascension” sort of event that was to come, and how certain people in various positions of celebrity and power would be “revealed” to be angels. Specifically, I recall him mentioning Bill Clinton and Michael Jordan. Jordan, at least, is a natural fit– the man already flies.

It seems there is just a part of us that needs to believe that something will come along and take care of us, since we can’t possibly be responsible for the unfathomable vastness of our combined existence on this lonely planet. Researchers have discovered a part of the brain that, when stimulated, will evoke a response indicative of a perceived event. Those of a religious bent describe it as a “spiritual event”, while believers in extraterrestrial life describe it as an “abduction”-type event.

From “The Warning”:

“You’ve become a virus
Killing off his host
We been watching you with all of our eyes
And what you seem to value most
…
We have come to intervene
You will change your ways and you will make amends
Or we will wipe this place clean”

The idea of a savior, in the form of an advanced alien race, a man in a red sweatsuit, or Superman, is certainly appealing, but I remain skeptical.

Entry Filed under: Music, Monsters In The Sky