PREFACE

“We shall not cease from exploration. And the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started,
and know the place for the first time.”

T.S. Eliot

he author of the present treatise was shocked out of the “American Dream” reverie, and into the awareness that something was terribly wrong in this country when President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. This life-transforming event eventually led to increasingly serious investigation and research, not to mention an odyssey of adventure and intrigue in the U.S. Army's Special Forces - The “Green Berets”. It also led to participation in the development of the US Pentagon’s first top secret, experimental, “Cold War” Long Range Reconnaissance Patrols (LRRP’s) in Southern Germany, whose initial mission was intelligence gathering (combat espionage - behind enemy lines surveillance – *Author’s note), engaging in “shock operations”, and tactical placement of Special Atomic Demolition Munitions (SADM’s, or “Tactical-Nukes”) at strategic Eastern European border locations in the event of a feared Russian land invasion. These were the Armys equivalent to the perhaps more distinguished and renowned Navy's SEAL Teams. A serious parachute malfunction, and the injuries resulting from a near fatal plunge from an aircraft at an altitude of twelve hundred feet (400 meters) cut short my military career and launched me on another adventure across Europe and into the Middle East as a journalist during the 1967 Arab/Israeli, “Six-Day War”.

Little did I know that this early training would set the tone for a life-long quest of research and revelation about what is, and what has long been transpiring in the corridors of ultimate power in my own country. I did not, however, anticipate writing a book on the nature of my discoveries, much less a series of books at that time.

As I searched and studied, I uncovered important life-influencing facets of history that had been overlooked, omitted, covered up or even purposely distorted by some “popular” historians, and by a media that, as it became increasingly clear to me, was in the grips of a biased agenda. I found myself becoming indignant and outraged toward these “sources” and “agencies” I had trusted and had sworn to protect and preserve under military (constitutional) oath. Along with this rising indignation and outrage, I also began to sense a growing responsibility toward my fellow countrymen and women who seemed blissfully unaware of these agendas. As they blindly and diligently pursued a multitude of means directed at getting ahead, or desperately tried to maintain the status quo, in reality, they were plunging headlong toward a precipice they did not know lay ahead of them.

The realization also occurred to me that the world does not need yet another doomsday chronicle, spreading more paranoia and terror. There is a great deal of well-documented and credible information available for the curious and concerned seeker to examine. The victors are not the only writers of history. It is also written by the victims, and sometimes by those who are just casually passing through. It is simply up to us to take an interest in it, study it, and form a new perspective with our own abilities of discernment. It is possible that the victors (the powers that be) will try and persuade us to study and believe that which will popularize their agenda in our minds. However, the onus for finding truth and creating a compatible reality is the responsibility of each and every one of us, individually.

If as stated, such information is already available. Why another book? I have pondered this question often, and even as I pondered, the questioned treatise continued to unfold. I could say this book wrote itself

- it simply used me as a writing instrument. All the information, intrigue, contacts and excitement appeared synchronistically when I chose to act upon the knowledge life had given me. More and more I began to feel as though I was in the hands of another, while still entirely myself. It was as if I was seated at the edge of two eternities - one fading into the past and the other, ever-present, yet at the same time inseparable from the first.

If there is one person out there who has it all, has done it all and is suffering the doldrums of too much success - don’t be fooled. There is more! There is always more. Don't be fooled by success, fame, failure or shame! At the bottom line, they’re all exactly the same! The fellow who was once was a yes-man, may now very well be in no-man’s land. Whether the textbooks and reference books from which we “officially” learn our history are even remotely accurate or not, we may never know. Often the real motivations or intentions that provoke events are not addressed or are misrepresented. We do know that what many other authors, researchers, observers and “unofficial” chroniclers wrote as they perceived it, sounds very different from what most of us were taught.

It is not my purpose herein to prove or disprove the accuracy or inaccuracy of either the official or unofficial versions of history. What is true IS true, be that as it may, and nothing can change that. In today's world however, we can easily lose sight of what is true, since it is so easily obscured by intentional omission. What I am endeavoring to do here is outline and define a paradigm, and explain that it is thinking and believing from this paradigm that we have become what we are as individuals and also as a society today - a paradigm which is outworn and perishing because it no longer serves the needs of human civilization.

It should also be remembered that it is futile to judge a dying cause, condemning whatever the truth of its circumstances may be. Better that we become aware of it, evaluate it discerningly, relieve ourselves of its hold upon our minds and our lives, and begin to consciously create a new paradigm from which to give an account of ourselves and our lives upon this earth. We must re-identify and re-define the laws and principles by which we live from that which we know to be appropriate, correct and just, not merely from what we are told and persuaded to believe by morally inferior authorities. We should refrain from hiring or electing others to explain such things to us or enforce them on us. Better we should enforce what we know is appropriate on ourselves. The applicable terms here are self-discipline and awareness.

Aside from our daily toil, the vast majority of we westerners contribute only moderately to the welfare and improvement of our own lives and the society in which we find ourselves a part. We seem for the most part enslaved to our own consumerism and pleasure-seeking habits. What exists in and of civilization as we know it, is there only by the grace of a comparatively few curiously insightful and adventurously enterprising souls.

The average human would probably revert to helpless primitivism were all that modern society offers not provided and made accessible to us by a few visionary thinkers and industrious creators. The remainder are for the most part, simply along for the ride. We should be grateful and never take for granted these unique minds - the scientists, the inventors, the technologists, the artists, the entrepreneurs, the sociologists, the theologians and leaders, who are responsible for the progress that has made our lives as comfortable as they are.

At the same time however, it is important to devote ourselves to gaining a deeper insight and a greater awareness of the kind of world in which this progress is contained, as well as the direction in which this progress is taking us, who may be influencing it, and why. This suggests it is the responsibility of each individual to cultivate a more penetrating view of our own lives and the influences affecting us. To put it allegorically: a perspective which will allow us to see beyond the “screen” upon which the events and experiences of our lives are “projected”, and what goes on behind this screen and these projections which move and steer our life direction. We imagine ourselves to be free and independent beings, but it is certainly clear that this is so only within those parameters that have already been created for us by someone else.

While it may be possible that many people today may only become irritated or confused by such suggestions, there is a growing number of individuals who are beginning to ponder just where their lives actually fit into this dubiously planned and pre-existing equation - that is, the “establishment”. To wit: why am I filled with doubts or fears about this or that? Why does this excite me or give me pleasure? Why does my life seem so ritualized and predictable? Why must I be so scheduled and over-worked in order just to survive? These and other questions are beginning to lurk on the side-roads along the highway of evolving awareness upon which all we humans travel.

Within the following pages it is hoped the reader will discern a map or a set of guidelines. Though perhaps well worn, it covers a fair distance of the journey traveled by man since the first glimmerings of his intelligence, to where we are now, noting along the way the many crossroads, signals and sign posts that indicate how and why we are in our present condition.

As the sub-title infers, we are examining a perishing paradigm: a nonviable mindset or framework of thought that cannot serve our present needs and aspirations, in the hope that we may recognize the opportunity which stands glaringly before us - the opportunity to begin exploring and laying the ground work for our future more responsibly with our own initiative and volition. To accomplish this fully, we must pay attention to detail, learn to read the fine print, and in most cases, we must also read between the lines in order to derive some semblance of truth, from what we have in the past, obligingly accepted as historical fact.

A number of possible destinies await mankind at this significant juncture in time. Whichever one it shall be will be determined by man’s creativity and willingness (or lack of it) to participate responsibly and enthusiastically in designing and directing his own fate. Fundamentalists will disagree at this point, for the sheep, of course, will go on grazing in seemingly endless pastoral fields of ignorance and complacency. The goats will spend their austere days struggling their way up the rugged slopes of the mountain, determined eventually to take the Kingdom of Heaven by storm.

I would like to quote a wonderfully perceptive proverb by a native Hawaiian writer, who lives quietly and simply on the island of Moloka'i in the Hawaiian archipelago, an area still rich in spiritual and practical wisdom retained nobly among the few remaining Kupuna (elders), which summarizes a truth that relates to us all. It is as follows: "History, as anything else, is seen and understood by where a person stands on the mountain. All people climb the same mountain. The mountain, however, has many pathways - each with a different view. A person knows and understands only what he sees from his own pathway and, as he moves, his view will change. Only when he reaches the top of the mountain will he see and understand all the views of mankind. But who among us has reached the top of the mountain? Tomorrow, we too will see a different view. We have not yet finished growing." (See Addendum - *Author’s note.)

With the reader’s permission, I will indulge in a few words of circumspect melodrama regarding my experience of engaging this literary effort. Writing a book, I have found, is so much more than just a task. It is a stormy affair - full of passion and sorrow. It evokes exhilaration and depression, illumination and stupefaction, astonishment and frustration. In a word, it is intense.

This is so I believe, because soon after one has embarked along this path of discovery and self-expression, one becomes acutely aware of being vulnerably exposed to the providential spectre of responsibility, that is, you are suddenly accountable for the truth that you are attempting to communicate by means of your own peculiar assemblage of words and ideas. By the time you become aware that you are under the judicious eye of responsibility, you have tasted truth, are inexorably committed to it and its attendant extremes, and alas, it is too late to draw back from the project at hand. By this time, there is also the realization that there is now something stronger, more compelling than mere curiosity, moving your own self.

Depending upon your subject matter, you soon become aware that a realm where truth resides eternal and untainted has been entered. It is not distorted by man’s excuses, guilt or cunning. It stands bare, naked and exposed, and when you are privileged enough to stand in its presence in its natural state, you also begin to grasp what it was our forefathers had discovered that inspired them to found and establish our nation’s government. The documents they drafted, under divine inspiration, shelter us from government - the Declaration of Independence, the Bill of Rights and the Constitution of the United States of America. Their purpose was to empower the people to keep bureaucracy in check and thwart the inevitable tendency of government to overpower and over-run the people, not the other way around.

The American people have failed to recognize their rights and failed to exercise their power. Thus we have what you see today -a government out of control and arrogant with power. The responsibility for communicating this truth to the American people as clearly and as undistorted, as our language will allow, is a serious and important one. Members of our armed forces, our domestic police agencies, and our bureaucratic administrators presently believe it is important to follow the orders of treasonous leaders even when it clearly violates the rights they have sworn to uphold under the Constitution and Bill of Rights. These unfortunate beings have become confounded and made fearful of authority, so they obey without thought of justice or future consequences.

Since the very first day these concepts were placed before the promoters of government in the time of Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin and George Washington, nearly every institution fostered by our government, along with many private ones, has twisted and distorted these truths to their own advantage.

Occasionally, a president who actually understood and advocated these truths and attempted to actualise them would gain office... men like Andrew Jackson, Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy. Two attempts were made on Jackson’s life, and of course Lincoln and Kennedy were assassinated. What did these men advocate that got them killed? To answer part of this question we might examine a few words from President Lincoln's first inaugural address, made on March 4, 1861. He stated: "This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it, or their revolutionary right to dismember it or overthrow it." It should be clearly seen that such a position would not be popular among advocates of powerful government.

Yet, to quote another presidential hopeful of later years, Adlai E. Stevenson commented in a 1954 speech at Princeton University: "All progress has resulted from people who took unpopular positions." When a government seeks power over its people rather than advocacy of its people's rights, we can expect distortion, deception and lies from that government. The people are left no recourse but to remember the advice of men like Lincoln.

Let us not forget the advice of John F. Kennedy also, in his speech at Amherst College, October 26, 1963, the month before he was killed by those who chose to use government in the manner we are presently experiencing. He urged: "When power leads man to arrogance, poetry reminds him of his limitations. When power narrows the areas of man’s concerns, poetry reminds him of the richness and diversity of his existence. When power corrupts, poetry cleanses, for art establishes the basic human truths which must serve as the touchstone of our judgment."

And as Henry Wadsworth Longfellow informed us in his 1834 work, HYPERION: "Glorious indeed is the world of God around us, but more glorious the world of God within us. There lies the land of song; there lies the poet’s native land." The objective of this book is to attempt to lead the reader to an awareness of this land. Hereafter it shall be referred to as the undiscovered country (also the title of the second book in this trilogy of guides, which I have identified as THE ARCADIAN PRIMER).

We must change our view of the world in order to change the world. There are at least two essential ways in which we might serve our own best interests, and at the same time the best interests of our society. One is by researching our past history, as this present treatise does, and surmising from our efforts how best we might amend the old, the outworn and the damaged. The other way is to apply our efforts in a forward looking manner by seeking new formulae, patterns and possibilities, as the second treatise in this series will attempt to do. There is a growing need for each of us to direct some of our undivided attention toward one or the other, or to become a bridge - or facilitator - between both. There is as much need for those who seek ways of avoiding further damage as there is for those attempting to repair the damage already done.

Human growth and development is not just a whirlwind of inspired ideas. It is people participating in planning and executing their own futures. When a problem occurs in our personal lives, we like to turn our back on it, thinking we may thus escape its consequences. If we would, however, “turn to face it” and meet it head on, and begin trimming it down to its essential qualities, we would soon recognize that our problem is the result of something previously avoided. Now it has returned to us in the form of an intensified opportunity to make the inevitable discomfort dissipate simply by facing and addressing it. A problem, therefore, is an opportunity in disguise - an opportunity to discharge positive, creative and beneficial energy.

A writer, for instance, may perceive a problem and direct his talents toward it to achieve a certain desired end. There ensues a strong connection between the writer and the object of his writing. Writing is an active form of meditation. Contemplation objectified, as it were. The writer is a meditator who assembles and creates worlds out of his own mind-stuff, using resources that have come to him in the form of words, ideas, experiences and events. The words and language are pre-existing conditions. The experiences and events lay waiting in our past-life and history for interpretation. For the most part, they are speculative because our interpretation of them will be tinged by the attitudes and positioning of those who record them. Give two different people the same book and a “high-liter” for instance, and each will find different passages relevant and worthy of note to them, depending upon where they are with respect to what is presented.

The choice of assemblage, with the exception of quotes that in them- selves were interpretations by those who made them, the meaning conveyed and the vision imparted is the responsibility of the writer. The acceptance or rejection of the assemblage is the responsibility of the reader.

The information contained on the following pages has been gleaned from many sources. The sources themselves can be confirmed easily enough, but it is up to the reader to determine the ultimate underlying truth of what is presented here, whatever its source. It would be irresponsible of the reader not to do so.

It is with complete sincerity and honesty, and to the best of my ability, that I have shared what I have learned and what I suspect may be the facts concerning both the past and the present circumstances of human society. The same is true regarding the means that I suggest and believe the adversity experienced, because of being at the mercy of such circumstances, might be ameliorated. The reader is advised once again however, to question, seek and confirm for themselves whether any statements or suggestions presented herein are true and valid, or viable and worthwhile undertaking. It is only by so doing that any true benefit can be derived from such knowledge. What is presented here is the result of many years of observation, study and contemplation. I believe it to be true, but also realize and advise that beliefs are not always true.

This work is here for your examination and consideration, not your persuasion and conversion. I hope to incite a questioning disposition and to excite curiosity in the mind of the reader. Rather than presuming that such disclosures are claimed to be true, I suggest it would be more prudent for the reader to accept the invitation to examine the facts for themselves. In doing this, the reader will be able to determine whether or not our current circumstances are possibly the result of these lesser known, past circumstances and events, or if we are simply, haphazardly, plunging into hopeless chaos without any design or intent behind it.

One of our modern classical writers, Ernest Hemingway, made the statement: "Not all things are true, yet everything is truth." Such may be said of the material in this book, since much of it can be found in the lesser-read annals of history (i.e., Congressional Records, political speeches, Encyclopedic references, etc. - * Author’s note.) for those who choose to search for it. And though it may be that details seem to connect-up differently for different researchers, the fact that such things are recorded make them a part of the overall truth (and resulting paradigm) which embraces our lives in this world as it is. Thus it behooves us, out of fair sensibility, to note it all in our awareness and apply it to who and what we are as living executors of causal determination, as we endeavor to improve our lot.

With regard to my style of treating certain points of special consideration, the reader will note that on numerous occasions throughout the text special emphasis has been given to the term private. It will be emphasized with italics because it is hoped that the reader will note to whom the term most often actually applies. A pattern may be noted which reveals that we may have been conditioned (educated) to accept, or even revere, a term as if it referred to us, the common people, as opposed (we are encouraged to imagine) to the corporate bureaucracy, when in fact, it seems to apply more appropriately to a particularly advantaged and secretive intellectual elite. What emerges, in reality, is somewhat different from what we were taught and urged to believe, for it becomes conspicuously evident that the private sector is in fact, a highly select and advantaged few who have managed to become disproportionately rewarded by the efforts of the toiling and plodding working classes. The private sector then, it would seem, is more closely associated with a hidden but wealthy and powerful guiding elite than it is with us (identified in America as the striving, working class and just above them the professional, middle class; in post revolution, Bolshevik, Russia as the struggling proletariat and above them the advantaged bourgeoisie – *Author’s note). As long as we erroneously believe that we are the private sector however, such a Power Elite could go on enjoying the utmost protection achievable, even though our erroneous belief is an imaginary deception fostered in our own minds. I encourage the reader to be alert to this interesting possibility and see whether they eventually agree or not.

Commenting further on my style of treating certain points of special consideration, it is my wish to state clearly from the beginning to those readers who might be offended by what may appear to be gender biased references, that it is not my intention to do so. Wherever in the text of this book the masculine pronouns "man", "his", "he" or "him" are used, unless it is indicated that it should be understood otherwise, it is meant to include both sexes. In some cases the masculine pronoun will also be used in reference to "God" or the "Creator" and in these cases the words "He", "His" or "Him" may be used. While it has become fashionable or politically correct to avoid such gender references, it suits neither the style of this book nor the writer’s inclination to engage in such polite redundancies. If the reader deems it necessary to be specific on these issues, I invite them to add or delete the desired gender specifics themselves as they see fit.

As we finally approach the text before us, the author would like to share a thought from C.S. Lewis in his tome, GOD IN THE DOCK: "Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent busy bodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience."

For nearly half my life I have lived and traveled throughout the remote islands of the South Pacific. On one occasion, during a cultural and educational exchange visit to the friendly isles of Tonga, I happened to develop a close friendship with a Tongan Chief of noteworthy stature. It occurred to me to ask my chiefly friend about socio-political functions in the Polynesian chiefdom. My chiefly friend smiled with mischief and wisdom at the same time and replied: "Let me say it to you in this manner. There is a story about a palangi (foreigner) who observed one of our native fishermen carrying his basket full of fish back from the reef where he had just caught them. He noted that the fisherman had no cover on it to keep the still live fish from flip-flopping out. When he questioned the fisherman about this, the fisherman responded simply: `I have not to worry. The fish on the top always keep the fish on the bottom from escaping the basket.” If we judiciously scrutinize with genuine concern and intelligent discernment, we may be surprised to discover that the shrewd sagacity of the previous allegory applies not only to the Polynesian socio-political system, but also to literally every government on earth.

So, my friends and countrymen, the words that follow are simply the initial stirrings, the prophetic tremors of an ever expanding literary quest in search of truth - a contemplative narration and introspective adventure that knows not where its probe will lead or what will ultimately be found.

Barely conscious of its own necessity, it begins a tenuous journey through the mysteries of life, carried forth only by a dedication to its own curiosity. This work is as life itself -as unmapped as the universe, a means and an end unto itself. Aware only that nowhere is man’s destiny set in stone, it arrives where it began, and having completed its journey, will begin again, and hopefully in a finer form, an ascending spiral of literary unfoldment, ever seeking the highest good.

Its purpose is born out of an apparent purposelessness, yet ever slashing new footholds in its steadfast ascent upon its own experience in form and essence, order and substance. This work, as life, is simply a study of human experiences, events, influences and intentions in their persevering qualities and their transforming effects upon the lives of humanity.

It has been for me, that the living content is increasingly defined within the boundless context of life. The question of being and non-being is confronted, and responded to, only to be faced again with ever increasing awareness. This is a journey of return from the place of no return.

I feel as though I have been to the mountaintop many times. For me, it is no longer a place to go to, nor is it a place to be from. It is simply a place to BE! Each word spoken or written about it is a step away from it, not towards it. But yea, still he goes on writing, for ultimately he returns - weary, bruised and bleeding, but freer still, to know more deeply, more intimately, the nature of truth.