The One Commandment:
"Thou shalt not procreate"

The Four Pillars:
suicide · abortion
cannibalism · sodomy

Snuff It #4

Recommended Reading

Black Elk Speaks, John G. Neihardt. After having a great vision at an early age, Black Elk became a medicine man. He spent the rest of his life trying to realize his dream for the Lakota--and for all people--of the tree of life blooming at the center of the sacred hoop. His dream ended in the butchering at Wounded Knee. Years later, with tears running down his face, Black Elk tells the Great Spirit that the tree never bloomed, and is withered: "A pitiful old man, you see me here, and I have fallen away and done nothing... It may be that some little root of the sacred tree still lives. Nourish it then, that it may leaf and bloom and fill with singing birds." To see how things could be, but be powerless to make them so, surely nothing is harder. Does the preservation of Black Elk's vision in a popular book lessen his defeat? The author thought so, but I'm unsure. Even if the tree still lives, how can I nourish it when I can barely nourish myself? Or are these two are the same, because the tree is in each of us? I also have a vision, and feel unable to realize it. Will I end up like Black Elk?

O-Zone, Paul Theroux. Industrial society concentrates its power in cities, but only by ceding control over outlying areas, as Hakim Bey and others have observed. Already the elite submit to surveillance, and willingly trade freedom of movement for increased security. Today's "knowledge workers" telecommute, and rarely leave their gated communities, complete with shopping malls, recreation facilities, and private police. How much longer will it be before cities become walled cities? Are we returning to a feudal world? Theroux's answer is yes, and his bone-chilling novel searches for life outside the walls. "I'm an Owner...get out of my way and let me through!"

On Behalf of Wolf and the First Peoples, Joseph Marshall III. Unlike hundreds of tribes that became stacks of paper, names on a list, or nothing at all, the Lakota are alive, with a surprising amount of their heritage intact. Marshall moves easily in the white man's world, but he also listens to his ancestors, and their voices permeate his essays. They stress the importance of knowing one's place, and living within the limits of the shared physical world. Every species has a part to play in the dance of life, and possesses unique strengths that enable it to survive. The first peoples "did not see their ability to reason or understand as anything that made them superior; instead, it was simply their key to survival." Like Vonnegut, Marshall distinguishes the Europeans not by their technology, but by their arrogance. Their merciless campaign to exterminate the wolf--and the remaining first peoples--in the late 1800s is one of many examples.

The Only Planet of Choice: Essential Briefings from Deep Space, Phyllis V. Schlemmer and Mary Bennett. After three hundred pages of channelled interviews with the Being who speaks for the Council of Nine (also known as Tom), the mind boggles. The good news is that total destruction won't be permitted, but other than that, it's up to us, as usual. Eyebrow-raising topics include universal civilizations, Atlantis, and Hebrew aliens. Despite urgent warnings to get "unstuck," overall the message is positive: "You all have come to Earth to beautify it, to purify it, to love it and be in joy with it. Know this: in your time, through your and others' dedication, through the quality of your being on Planet Earth, you may bring it to the fulfillment of its creation. That is for us a great joy and we thank you." The Being who visited me was considerably less cheerful. How do you say "don't count your chickens"?

The Wanting Seed, Anthony Burgess. In this outrageous Malthusian comedy from the author of A Clockwork Orange, overpopulation is so bad that the government promotes homosexuality. Their slogan: "It's Sapiens to be Homo." The humor is very British, of course, and it overwhelms in places, but civilization is demolished, and three out of four pillars are covered, in short order. Fans of Aldous Huxley's Brave New World (written thirty years earlier) will notice many interesting similarities and differences. Thank you, William, for making me read this.

Where White Men Fear To Tread, Russell Means with Marvin J. Wolf. Means--another Lakota--achieved lasting fame as one of the most outspoken leaders of the American Indian Movement (AIM), for which he and many others suffered almost unimaginable violence. His autobiography is white-hot with anger, and it left me exhausted, racked by alternating spasms of self-hate and self-pity from which I'm still recovering. I can't overcome all of my social conditioning in one lifetime; it's too much to ask. I was born and raised in a city, and indoctrinated into the intellectual elite. As a child, my knowledge of the world came from books. I thought food came from behind the mirrors in the supermarket: I didn't know any better. I learned to read and write and control machines, and the damage is done. My skills are only useful to industrial society, and it tempts me, with distractions and a comfortable existence. I drink its poison, and my spirit is sick. I have no tradition, and I can't be a Lakota, no matter how much I purify myself. I'm an outsider, a mental European. Sometimes I want to live in a right way, but I'm weak, and Microsoft is big. I weep for myself, I'm so ashamed.

There's an internally recognized beauty of motion and balance on any man-healthy planet...You see in this beauty a dynamic stabilizing effect essential to all life. Its aim is simple: to maintain and produce coordinated patterns of greater and greater diversity. Life improves the closed system's capacity to sustain life. Life--all life--is in the service of life. Necessary nutrients are made available to life by life in greater and greater richness as the diversity of life increases. The entire landscape comes alive, filled with relationships and relationships within relationships.

-Pardot Kynes, First Planetologist of Arrakis