God is not dead; He's just Regenerating.

 

                                      Regeneration scene of the 3rd God.


         Ever since He appeared in his first adventure thousands of years ago on Saturday the 23rd November*, God has been a hugely popular character thanks to his mastery of time and space, his interactions with his mainly human companions and, of course, his battles with the evil of the universe. Spanning the generations as parents pass on their love of Him to their children, His fans continue to praise and laud the show whilst arguing over the finer details of the stories. It's not surprising that a story as long in the telling as that of God's has often had armies of fans disagreeing over what is or isn't canon.
         A lot of the problem's in God's continuity come from the simple fact that His stories had so many writers in the early days. Also, this was a long time before the modern concept of a showrunner. Consequently, certain of His episodes seem to directly contradict another and it is also widely acknowledged that a lot of the earliest episodes were simply wiped, as archivists of the time had little inkling of how much continuing interest there would be in the future.
        However, thanks to the efforts of His many fans, including many of the professionals who have worked on the show, we now have a generally accepted continuity for the God-universe.**
      
       The first complete episode, entitled Ahura Mazda, introduced the basic story concepts that people still love today. God appears as the guardian of justice and wastes no time telling the humans he encounters of the errors of their ways. His seemingly magical ability to appear anywhere in time and space quickly caught the imaginations of people far and wide, but it was  the climax of the first episode that really had audiences eager for more. For God chose a human companion to help him in his adventures.

                                                  Zarathustra. He Spake.
        

          It was with the introduction of Zarathustra*** as the first companion that the show really took off. Now, the viewing public could identify with a character whose general demeanor appealed to many, while that same character would pull off the dramatic feat of explaining the main character while keeping the main character compulsively elusive.
       In the second episode, entitled Asha,  Zarathustra would utter the immortal lines: "No guide is known who can shelter the world from woe, None who knows what moves and works Thy lofty plans." With this one line was established the show's long tradition of dramatic legerdemain. The star of the show is brought into focus whilst, at the same time, it is inferred that He remains too bright, too majestic to allow anyone a long, close examination. The characterisation of the 1st God was also vague enough to open the door for many other writers to bring their own interpretation. And one of those writers, the brilliant creative spark Ibrahim Millat, would stun the audience by not only kicking down the door, but demolish the entire house as he introduced the concept of Regeneration, and a new  God.
 
   
     Millat's genius lay in performing story surgery that, although commonplace today, was breathtaking in its audacity at the time. Very simply, Millat retconned the origins of the main character to include scenes and concepts that had never been mentioned before. Suddenly, people were presented with such overwhelmingly operatic scenes as the creation of the world and, in the hugely popular The Ark in Earth, the destruction of mankind! 
      The  audience went mad for this second regeneration of God. Gone was the rather vague and occasionally dotty grandfather figure of previous series, and in came a much more three-dimensional character who was only too pleased to inform all and sundry, in writing if necessary, of what exactly was what, and what the rules were. He strode the stage because he owned it. He was both the good cop and the bad cop in the same uniform . There can be few more compelling characters in history, and the audience simply couldn't get enough of it.
      The Genesis episodes are the bedrock on which the Classic Era of God was built. It was this story arc that brought in a huge number of new fans, but it is the excellence of individual episodes such as Count The Stars, Eyes Ne'er Closed; Eyes Ne'er Opened, and the legendary Sturm und Drang of the 2nd God classic And He Called that really ensured that people's passions would be stirred by this new series of God as never before.

Classic era 2nd God companion Abraham.

        In Count The Stars, God promises that He will give wonderful gifts to Abraham and his family, and that Abraham's offspring would be as numerous as the stars in the night sky. This might seem laughable to a modern viewer, but for the viewers at the time, who all identified with Abraham, this episode was a sensation with some fan groups immediately declaring it: best episode ever.  
        This kind of attitude toward the, admittedly hackneyed, story-line has coloured it in the eyes of many fans of newer era God. However, although it has slipped down the best-of polls over the years, the continuing popularity of Abraham ensures its core compelling images will endure.
        Ibraham Millat's tenure would also see the introduction of God's most famous adversary in  Eyes ne'er closed; Eyes ne'er opened. Who could forget the great tragedy of the 2nd God's companions Adam and Eve succumbing to the machinations of The Adversary having cunningly adopted the guise of a Squamate?
       Although first appearing in Genesis, the character of The Adversary would prove to be God's finest foil, and an enduring love/hate character. Taking various forms through the history of the show, many critics believe his dramatic high-point occurred with John Milton's celebrated ret-conning of the evil one's origin story, showing a largely unexplored relationship with God that the adversary had in his youth; a revelation that excited fans the world over.
        The entirety of the classic era of the show has been criticised for over-reliance on violence, war-stories and simplistic moral shading. An episode as once revered as And He Called, 
is often ridiculed for the way its dramatic pay-offs are clearly engineered to appeal to the audience of the time, an audience that the writers of the show knew kept them in the life-style that they had grown accustomed to.    
       It is this kind of ouroborosian pact that ensured that, at the end of its run, the classic-era God would feel increasingly stale and repetitive, with episodes like My Holiday and Stew being sad echoes of former glories like Bowels Boiled.+
        And it would also be a reaction to the old cycles of violence that would see a new group of writers take the 3rd generation of God into exciting and experimental territory.

 

The watcher appears to Mary in this scene from the first episode of The Gospel Era

        Gospel era God kicks off with the announcement of its own incredible dramatic conceit in a scene with one of God's Watcher companions announcing to a human female that she is to bear the son of God.
        At the time, a lot of the audience were confused by this new story line. Indeed, some fans would abandon the show at this point. Others would simply remain unconvinced of the validity of this 3rd regeneration.
        As usual, it would be the strength of the writing that would win over new converts, with many viewers stunned by the magnificent first 2-parter of the Gospel era:  The House of Bread/ The House of Meat
      In a deliberate shift in narrative tone, the new God, unlike the old, was extremely vulnerable at first, and it was not at all clear to the audience that He would even survive. Viewers gasped as the maniacally infanticidal, but hugely popular, new villain Herod went about his grisly business.
      This bloody rampage allowed the creative team the necessary breathing-room to spin a series of quiet contemplative episodes concerning the new God. Whereas the classic era indulged in Manichean power plays, the gospel era began to challenge its audience as they followed the new God's struggles with the authorities' natural conservatism. Episodes such as The Universe Next Door, introduced new themes while the spectacular return of The Adversary in All The Kingdoms of the World kept up the more expected story-telling traditions of God. 
        What also drew fans' interest were the new companions known as The Apostles. Not only were people impressed by their number, they were excited by the 3rd God granting these companions super-powers of authority over all devils in 5+2=5000. (Although we are also clearly reminded in the same episode of His own mighty abilities.)
        Of course, Gospel era God reached its incredible and beloved climax with the story arc known as A Crossmaker.
       Starting with scenes of great optimism as He enters Jerusalem, where it looks as though the 3rd God is finally being triumphant in his battles, the writers are simply setting the audience up for the devastating events to follow. Slowly and surely, the world slips from under Him as parochial powers do their worst, and he is betrayed by those who were once most dear to Him in the heart-rending episode 30 Easy Pieces.
       Even some 2000 years later, the events that unfold in A Place of a Skull have a resonance that only the finest story-telling can manufacture. It is not difficult, even at this remove, to imagine the effect on fans of seeing the 3rd God mocked, spat upon and finally horribly tortured to death. As a character who had promised something more than the oft dull cul-de-sacs of the 2nd God, to then see him destroyed without that same 2nd God materialising to save him would, could, only draw great and sustained passion from the audience.
        The following episode would be much more traditionally exciting and action-oriented, although certain critics see it as being a sop to certain groups of fans. The Harrowing of Hell  remains controversial to this day.

     The penultimate episode of the Gospel-era would see the writers bring out the twist that people remember and celebrate even today: the 3rd God came back from the dead. The plot of Carry thy Myrrh Home has often been criticised as muddled and a convenient deus ex sepulcrum.   It was this episode, however, along with the following The Key of the Bottomless Pit that made a great many fans proclaim the 3rd God and the entire Gospel-era to be the best ever. 

       

        After the Gospel era, the next high point in a time when the show seemed, far from resting on them but actively cultivating bigger and better laurels, came from the creative partnership of  The Council of Nicaea producing one of the all-time favourite episodes: The 2 Gods which was the first adventure to show 2 regenerations of God together. Later writers would build on this work to produce the The 3 Gods, which was the dramatically logical culmination of the earlier adventure. 

Mecca at the time of Muhammad. (Muhammad not pictured.)

     
       
        The next great sustained period of God would come about when the new creative partnership of Praise and Desire took over. Immediately, they ret-conned the 3rd God and proceeded to take the show in a new  direction that would eventually prove immensely popular. As well as the 4th God, the new regeneration's new companion Muhammad also gained legions of fans, and the writers used the superb dramatic conceit of this being God's final regeneration to great effect.
        Many new fans were drawn in by Muhammad's many scenes where he would explain his own conversations with God in newer quieter episodes like: Shahada as well as the crowd-pleasing and reassuring Zakat. Also, as there was a general insistence to respect the work of Ibrahim Mittal and a debt owing to some of Zarathustra's stories, fans of other Gods were  often also charmed by these episodes.
        It was also during this period that more hard-core fans would be inspired by the episode Hajj to set up the first regular fan convention where people can happily mingle in costume with kindred spirits who also share a love of God.
       However, older fans, and many hard-core devotees of the 2nd God, would find much more of interest in the 4th God's adventures when the Mother of All Settlements story-arc began to catch fire as it gradually adopted more aggressive themes. Here, Muhammad's trials, battles and eventual success would provide compelling viewing, especially in episodes like Conquest of the House of God.
        With quality like this, it was no wonder that so many fans happily submitted to the Recitation-era of the 4th God.
       

      Although starting brightly with the 4 part Rashidun, the Caliphate-era adventures that featured the 4th regeneration of God and the Caliph companions would ultimately prove disappointing. The seeds of the potential fascinating story-arcs which may be glimpsed in Rashidun went largely unfulfilled as successive teams of writers simply started repeating dramatic themes from both earlier and later God stories, often with a paticular emphasis on the 11th God.

5th regeneration: The War God.

      In order to get back on track and excite the audience again, writers came up with the 5th regeneration, who is often referred to as The War God.
      His first appearance in Dieu Et Mon Droit established the general tone of what would become known as The Martian arc, the lengthiest story arc of any of the Gods. It was in the climactic scenes of this episode that we can see how the 5th God's new companion Henry V offers the poisoned grail directly to the audience with his Elysian promise of "we few, we happy few, we band of brothers".       
       It would be this poisoned grail that would turn wine to blood and bread to burned flesh. It would be one of the most popular runs of God.
       The War God would be insanely popular for the next few hundred years that would include some of God's most violent stories, including the massively experimental 11,349 part The New World.

       When the 5th God finally regenerated into The 6th God (also known as The British God), viewers were treated to the full debut of Science as a regular companion to God. Having appeared in bit parts since the very start of the show, it is surprising now to consider just how angry many fans felt at Science being given a major part. Fortunately, thanks to story-lines concocted by the likes of Isaac Newton, who cleverly played out challenging new themes with old-school images from classic episodes such as Eyes Ne'er Closed, Eyes Ne'er Opened, Science's role in the show only went from strength to strength.

Joseph Smith- young writing talent.

       The characterisation of the 6th God was never as strong as it might have been, and in the 19th Century fandom was split as the very young Joseph Smith assumed writing duties on the series. Bringing fresh new ideas and what certain commentators considered to be a bold and hugely entertaining new approach, Smith's 7th God episodes would prove tremendously popular with some, while others, annoyed by Smith actually writing himself in as a companion, would sniffily dismiss these episodes as fan fiction. Whatever you think, it's hard to deny the genius of an episode like Returned To an Angel .

Fred und Karl: Young Turks.

       Although the thirst for new episodes of God showed no strong signs of diminishing, experimental and highly controversial episodes written by Karl Marx and Friedrich Nietzsche would lay the groundwork for new approaches to God as the 20th Century rolled around.
       This pair of writers had previously only shown contempt for the show, so it was a big surprise when they both wrote a couple of episodes. Unsurprisingly, Marx's Alien Nation, and Nietzsche's Thus Spoke Zarathustra would usher in new directions for God, with Nietzche's episode famously ret-conning the old Zarathustra adventures as both stories laid down themes that would have a profound influence on the writers and producers of God for the next hundred years.
       As a reaction to these themes, the writer Peter Keys would ensure that the regeneration of the 8th God would result in a more traditional main character for the show. The 8th God's relationship with his new companions The Leiter Brothers and certain fascinating episodes like The City in The City ensured a solid foundation for the adventures of the 8th God that would reach their apex with what was to come.
     
        The long Martian Arc would eventually culminate in the famous and shocking 249 part story of The 5 War Gods. Astonishingly, but grippingly, the 9th regeneration: The God that Failed would align itself with the 6th God as well as an antimatter version of the 6th God to do battle with the 8th God that had forged an alliance with the 10th regeneration: The God Emperor.
        Fans of the classic era flocked back to the show, but this story burnt so brightly that only a new direction, using new dramatic fuel, could possibly keep the audience's interest.

Plenty of interest: the 11th God, Mammon.

          The simple fact that the 11th regeneration of the long-running and beloved character is Mammon causes hackles to rise far and wide throughout the fan community. Clearly, a lot of the controversy results from the fact that a character that looked a lot like, and even shared the name Mammon was introduced in one of the 3rd God's adventures: The 2 Masters.
          But it is exactly this controversial energy that writers have used to such amazing effect, in order to pull off one of the greatest narrative feats in history. In short, large parts of the audience and even some of the writers seem to be unaware that Mammon, is, in fact the 11th God!
          It was thanks to the elements of The 5 War Gods, the confusion about whether The War God himself should be counted as the 5th regeneration, and whether The Antimatter War God was, in himself a new regeneration, that a potential dramatic smoke-screen blew up around continuity that later writers would seize upon.
          Margaret Thatcher, writing at a time when female presences were very rare in the production of the show, produced a lot of popular episodes including the famed The Price of Everything and The Value of Nothing, but it is probably the less well-known Managed Decline, that exemplifies a lot of her basic philosophy about the character. Some argue that a large part of Thatcher's skill with the 11th God was due to her own mis-reading of the character, so that her own ideas were never in synch with the reality of the story that played out, resulting in stories that made little sense and often polarised fans even while they made for compelling viewing.
        
        Excellent writers such as Christopher Hitchens and Richard Dawkins also provided popular and challenging episodes for the show, but both Hitchens' Toxic Medicine and Dawkins' The Naked Leprechaun put the companion Science so front and centre, that the true nature of the relationship between Science and the 11th God lacks clarity and can leave viewers with the impression that the 11th God isn't even part of the show, just part of the scenery. 
     
        Never topping any polls, but those fans who love it maintain that it has changed their entire relationship with the show, is the recent story arc Morningstar. Here, writers such as Aleister Crowley, Anton LaVey and Charlie Daniels built on the earlier work of Marx and Nietzsche and ret-conned the entire history of The Adversary. The most popular episodes, Crowley's Count The Stars (+1) and LaVey's The Best Friend of God, while not widely loved, have their own devoted fans. Some fan groups even go as far as to insist that The Adversary has been the star of the show from the beginning.
       
        With increasing amounts of ret-conning, and the flurry of new themes, it is easy to sympathise with those who complain that the show is becoming increasingly difficult to watch. Indeed, new viewers can be bewildered by the sheer volume of back-story, although, as it ever was, audience members usually retain a great deal of nostalgic affection for the first God they enjoyed.

        But, as God himself said in The City in The City: "That is enough of the past. What of the future?"

The Universe (possibly.) - The 12th God?

         Increasingly derided as a story for children, if the show is to continue to be popular it must do what it has always done; innovate and evolve while retaining the beating heart that fans the world-over love. There has been talk of ideas like a female God as well as discussion as to whether the show is becoming stale enough to warrant the end of its run. 
        
         Here's what the British-Indian physicist and cultural critic (and God fan since she was a little girl)  Wash Sukh Jana has to say on the subject of The 12th God:

                 As an 8 year old watching the adventures of God (from behind the back of the Sofa, of course), I loved all the classic themes of Love and sacrifice; of fighting for your land and your loved ones, and standing up for what you truly believed in. I cowered as the monsters threatened our heroes (The Adversary's wings! The Leviathan's wake!), but it was when the stories centered upon the young (female!) companion called Science that the show really began to speak to me. And it is now, as an adult, that I can see that across the totality of all the adventures of God there is one huge story arc. I would expect the 12th God to reflect this, and, as the story of God would be nothing without revelation, I would expect something big from the adventures of this regeneration.

    　　I'm a fan, so here's my theory: Each regeneration of God has allowed us a glimpse at different facets of what, obviously, is the same character. We know that He is the Lord Of Time and Space who helps and loves humans, yet is often mysteriously unable to help in certain times and places. We know that He drifts from Father to Mother to Son to Ghost to Adversary and seldom provides any clear statement about what all of this might ultimately mean. He embraces science and he embraces war. We complain about Him as much as we love Him.
       In short then, we can conclude that God is the universe.
       Now, as we all are part of the universe, this necessarily means that we are all aspects of God. Like the character of Science, our increasing understanding of God is our increasing understanding of the universe. Like Science, and her character arc with God, our science is basically an increasingly fruitful conversation with the universe, with our interlocutor being, at times, irascible, mean, vicious, unbearable, nightmarish, horrific, comforting, extraordinary, miraculous and occasionally incredibly taciturn. Now, does that sound like anyone we know?
       With God as the universe there will certainly never be any shortage of future episodes. After all, the most basic way the universe works is what allows so many ideas about God; what allows Him to regenerate and pushes for the inevitable change that provides us with new stories. It is the way things work.
       For that basic gift, we can thank God. Whichever one may be your favourite.
          

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------


*  According to legend the original broadcast was delayed by the untimely slaying of a beloved goat.

** Often referred to by fans as: The Universe.

*** Or Zoroaster, as some fans prefer.

+ Contains the now-classic line from The Adversary: "Bowels boiled hot, bowels boiled cold,  bowels boiled in the pot, nine years old!"

Me, Hell and The Universe: The 3 basic kinds of communication.

Why was I even alive at all?

      
        Most of the thinking that has been done about communication has been in the field of Information Technology, with the general approach being concerned with Claude Shannon's idea that: " The fundamental problem of communication is that of reproducing at one point either exactly or approximately a message selected at another point." This is, of course, a very reasonable approach as long as you are dealing with machines.
But another fundamental problem, and one that I would argue is infinitely more important at this time, is that human beings are, very clearly, not machines.
        So how does communication work in people?
       
        Communication always most basically works as: Information --------> Idea. (With Idea here being defined as: any information that follows from the first information.
        With machines, the information that follows will be the same as the information at first, as per Shannon's explanation. Or else you can programmme a system to allow certain incoming information to connect to a web of previous information.
       With humans however, the information that follows the first information can be transformed into something that was never originally programmed. In short, machines don't develop new ideas, but humans do.
      Moreover, the popular communication model of sender and receiver is actually contained within one single person, so that it is perfectly normal to communicate with oneself.

      In short; we can communicate with ourselves, with others, and, because communication most basically only requires information to idea, we are constantly communicating with the universe.

      1. Communication with oneself: Et In Arcardia Ego.
      
        Taking a look at the illustration above, we see a young boy* dreaming of a dying horse in the bed opposite to his own. His previous experiences: his dying grandmother, his best friend who is a horse, and his current perplexed view of his own life and situation; all of this information knits together to produce this dream.
        Anyone who has had a dream will surely agree that, within that situation of experiencing a dream, we are basically telling ourselves a story. And, we can experience it in such a way as to not know what is going to happen next. Clearly then, when dreaming we are both sender and receiver.
        Not only that, but this trick of being both sender and receiver is apparent in our waking state. We are able to ask ourselves questions as well as being able to provide descriptions and explanations to answer those questions. As we are also able to check our own ideas, we are, plainly, communicating with ourselves. Not only is there information to idea but we are using the 4 most basic skills of communication which are describing + explaining + asking + checking.
      Another natural consequence of our ability to both send and receive within ourselves is that we will have ideas popping into our heads unbidden. Sometimes as random thoughts that describe and explain, sometimes as questions. These thoughts and ideas manifest like sprites and freely walk through the walls of our mind from without.
      Human beings spend their entire existence with ghosts in their head. Our mind a haunted mansion.
      And people, quite naturally, are afraid of ghosts.
     Unfortunately, we are unable to call Bill Murray and friends, so the traditional way we deal with these ghosts is by attempting to blot out their droning and wailing, the clanking of the chains. Drugs and alcohol are the traditional remedies for the ghosts in our head. Spirits for spirits, Speed for our demons.
       But, much as in Sixth Sense, the most practical advice is to engage with our ghosts, because after all, communication is the only thing we ever do.
      
       Overall, we might compare the human experience with that of a dog who awakes one day to find a human brain within his head. After all, it is not clearly explained to us that we are to spend our entire lives with a head full of ghosts.**
      The dog, formerly full only of joy and excitement when his mistress feeds him, now finds new and disturbing ideas manifesting themselves as his new brain begins to collate new information: that's quite a cheap dog-food, maybe she doesn't love me after all!
      Once fully satisfied with food and drink, sex and ball-sport, the canine can now look at the sun and where once he saw a hot blob he now can see a god. This idea must, in turn, itself become information that feeds other ideas: What is god? What does he want me to do? Wait a minute, here's a dog in a daft hat, who claims to know what god wants. I'll listen to him, I mean, just look at that hat. Ah! this is all getting a bit much, I need wine not water, Christ, I can only relax with the ball...
        There has always been this tension within the human animal arising from our haunted mind, but we would do better to understand that the ghosts we share our living space with are aspects of ourselves.
        It's not a good idea to be scared of yourself. 

        On a modern and more trivial note, the irritation that is commonly felt by having to listen to someone having a conversation on a mobile phone with an unseen, and more importantly, unheard interlocutor can be explained as our brain's most natural and fundamental desire- to step from information to idea -being constantly thwarted.
       Whereas, our brain receives a great deal of reward from the information and ideas of other people. Although, it is clear, it doesn't always go well.
      

 

Our education. Largely decided by others. No questions asked.

               2. Communication with others:  God grant you find one face there, you loved when all was young.

        In his play Huis Clos/ Dead End, the French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre had one of his characters pronounce: Hell is other people ( Lenfer, c'est les autres.)  As Sartre himself explained, this wasn't meant as a fire and brimstone condemnation of the futility of human relationships, but rather was intended to explore the idea that our relationships with others lead us continually back to the idea of ourself. And that it is possible to act in ways that improve our relationships with others.
        If we are at all interested in our interactions with our fellow human beings, we stand a much better chance of more successful interaction if we acknowledge how communication works.
       Specifically, as communication = Information --------> Idea, it is vital to understand that any information can have any number of ideas connected to it.  Thus it is that if we take some seemingly simple information such as: Japan, we might casually assume that it is connected to the idea of a country. It is, of course, but we can also connect it to any number of other things:
                                          Japan -------------> An island
                                                   -------------> A football team
                                                   -------------> A culture
                                                   -------------> A government
                                                   -------------> The home of sushi
                                                   -------------> The home of Samurai
                                                   -------------> David Sylvian's gang
                                                   -------------> Pearl Harbour
                                                   -------------> Hello Kitty
                                                   -------------> 被爆者
　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　-------------> Oscar Goldman
                                                                          etc etc etc

       Any idea from any information will only be "correct" within a specific context as all information depends on context. Consequently, the goal of better communication becomes an effort to find and understand better ideas.
     How do we understand what constitutes a better idea? Simply put, it can only be that which provides a better description or explanation of how things work.
      For example, for the vast majority of human history the main and strongest idea connected to the information of our environment (animals, humans, the world, the heavens, day, night, plants, water, sex, food) has constantly been: God or gods. Considering the circumstances that our ancestors had to battle through in order to survive, that they came up with any kind of explanation at all is a triumph of the basic human skill of communication.
      An explanation of God or gods, however, offers little in the way of helping us to understand how things work. It is not mere coincidence that priests offer the explanation of: God works in mysterious ways.
     Generally then, the gods bring men more questions than answers. But it is only by using questions, our gift from the gods, that we can put information together in novel ways to form new ideas.
      With more information comes more idea. So when the historical tide of increasing communication carried Darwin's Beagle around the world, the new idea that returned on the crest of all this new information would provide a better explanation of how a fair part of the world worked.
     And so, instead of wasting time with the futility of debating whether basic evolutionary theory or God are  the "truth" it would be a much more simple and useful matter to consider which offers the better explanation.***
     This way, we must necessarily be more interested not only in those ideas of others, but even more importantly, more interested in those ideas of our own.

                                     All  we see of stars are their old photographs.


        3. Communication with the universe: Apprehend God.


        In his short story, The Nine Billion Names of God, Arthur C. Clarke spins a tale of a couple of western computer programmers who are hired by Tibetan Monks to calculate all the possible permutations of the names of God according to a sacred alphabet. This task is, according to the Monks, the most basic function of the universe and to carry it out is to do God's will.
       God's will, of course, has been a matter of intense speculation for what is almost certainly the near entirety of human history, and any number of interesting ideas have been put forth on the matter. It seems as though there is a basic human need for a spirituality that encourages belief in an other whom we refer to as god.
      This desire to orient ourselves within the universe is one major aspect of our constant communication with the universe. It is the universe we question, the universe we appeal to, the universe that lets us down.
      Surrounded as we are by all the information of the universe we can do nothing else but respond with ideas. For a long time, our explanation of the universe was simply God, or gods. More recently, we have come up with better explanations for how things work. Science can be seen as our ongoing conversation with the universe.
      If we leave God in the vestry for the moment, the majority of our interactions with the universe are in and among the classical elements of air water earth and fire.###$ Those things that were formerly considered to be the basic building blocks of existence.
     The information of oxygen gives the information of energy. A similar process occurs with food, drink and warmth. Everyday miracles of ordinary transubstantiation that often pass without comment or reverence or worship.
      The plants that provide our oxygen and food take the body of the sun and the blood of water which, combined with the ministrations of the holy photosynthetic ghost, produce the nativity. With carbohydrates the son of the universe.
      The world turns as information combines with other information to form new information. And it will continue like that until the Fimbulwinter.
     
                      Sunflower to God turns, asks," What?"
                      God beams and offers,"Let there be light."
                      Prana becomes the body of Christ,
                      Communion inevitable, unavoidable, unstoppable.
                      


      For not only is communication the only thing we ever do, it is also the only thing that ever happens.
      Why then, would we not want to improve communication? Why would we want to ignore all the evidence of history and avoid to improve communication, which is tied to any improvement in society, and attempt to maintain the status quo? ++++
      
       All around, without any fuss the stars, all of them, began shining brighter.
     
                                                 ---------------
      * Jimmy Corrigan's Granddad.

   ** My life in the Bush of Ghosts-
    

 
  *** It would, of course, be most illuminating and interesting to hear an explanation of why God provides a better explanation for natural history than does evolution.
   ++++ Which is great if you are in power. Another idea, however, is that maintaining the status quo is Status Quo's job. #

   ## Which, in itself, suggests rather fantastically## that Status Quo are agents of darkness,   doing the Devil's work.

   ### Or entirely appropriately depending on your point of view.

   #### That's not quite Earth Wind and Fire. But possibly even more groovy-



    $ Throw in ball-sport, and our dog-heart becomes apparent.

we all r star

Michael Jackson vs. Alfred Hitchcock: The magic of the Thriller.

The midnight hour is close at hand.

       In December 1982,  Michael Jackson's music video for Thriller emerged from the Stygian gloom of Union Pacific Avenue and proceeded to shuffle and clap its way across the planet; with continents and cultures of all kinds succumbing to the remorseless 40,000 year old funk.
      This particular viewer, however, was moved to ask: Why is this called " Thriller" when it's clearly about a horror movie?
       
      "It is often forgotten that (dictionaries) are artificial repositories, put together well after the languages they define. The roots of language are irrational and of a magical nature."
                    - Jorge Luis Borges*
     
        All communication always (most basically)  works as: Information -------> Idea. As any information can give any number of ideas, it is clear that communication relies on agreement of idea, or, in other words, agreement of definitions. It should be noted that when people are asked to define their terms, the most common responses are bemusement, anger, and the singing of crickets with the soft whispering of tumbleweed, as the question is ignored.
       Simply put, this is the way communication works. Don't blame me, blame god/evolution/explanation of choice.
      As this is the way communication works, it is also clear that different people will have different ideas about the same information. This is perfectly normal. A danger lies in anybody insisting that their definition is correct. What really needs to happen, for better communication, is to try to get more information to try and understand anyone's particular idea.
       It should be noted here that the basic skill we are born with that enables us to get more information- the ability to ask questions- has always been an enemy of those with power. Which is why traditional education has so little interest in questions.   
       So why was it called Thriller? You might think that unless Mr Jackson does indeed rise from his grave, dancing or not, we would be unable to ask the song-writer. But the song writer was in fact, as people are often surprised to find out, this man-
 
 

The wizard Temperton.

           The writer of Thriller is Rod Temperton, whose place in disco heaven** is assured by the fact that he also wrote Boogie Nights. (The original groove rather than the film.)
           Originally, Thriller was to be called Starlight, but, thankfully, Temperton was asked to come up with another title by Quincy Jones. According to Temperton, he woke up in the morning and the new title came to mind fully formed.***
            So where did this idea come from? Possibly a thirteen year old Rod was influenced by the local cinema showing  Psycho.
                               

Poster for Alfred Hitchcock's thriller. Influence on young Rods?

    The thriller genre that Alfred Hitchcock was so enamoured of has always conjured up (for me, and probably for most people) ideas of espionage and plans of murder. A protaganist who often is flung into a chaotic environment where friend and foe are not easily identifiable. The horror genre, on the other hand is usually defined by the presence of a supernatural foe. My own Hitchcock favourite, Strangers on a Train can be easily labeled a thriller, although it also contains horrific scenes. However, there is no clear supernatural presence.+
     Psycho itself is variously labelled horror or thriller or even horror-thriller, but what excuse does Michael Jackson have for stocking his video with zombies and a werewolf, two of the most famous archetypes of the horror genre?
     Of course, his excuse is: "It gave and continues to give pleasure to millions and nobody cares that it's called thriller."
     I actually agree with this quote from Michael Jackson that I made up. None of this is really important, it's just, to my mind at least, an interesting example of the way that communication works. Moreover, it is entirely possible to live a good and happy life without once giving any thought to the way that communication works. We can also be perfectly fine without knowing how blood circulates in our body, or how our heart pumps it. But, when there is a problem, knowing how the heart or blood circulation works is of such clear importance that it hardly needs mentioning. Ask people how communication works, however, and its importance is far fom apparent.
     And yet, as the entirety of human history has been about better communication, if we are to pay more than lip-service to improving things in the future then an understanding of how comunication works may even be vital.

     The role of definition in communication is fundamental, as any information can always give more than one idea. Thus, there is no correct idea, but rather an agreement on what the idea is in any particular context.
     Understanding this, I am not about to load up on guns and take Muhammad Wassab, Jermaine Jackson and Jermaine Jacksun hostage until the Jackson estate agrees to change the title of Thriller to Horror.

     It is in this agreement of definition, this agreement of idea, that the great power, the great magic, of human communication is revealed.
     If any information can give more thasn one idea then there is always the possibilty of better ideas.      Throughout our history, human beings have looked for better ideas.  Better ideas about God or gods, better ideas about agriculture and medicine; better ideas about music and stories and football.
     Better ideas about music videos and psychological thrillers.

     And I agree that horror is not a better title than thriller.


     But of course there are always other ideas, it's just that we want better ideas don't we?
     Well, if we do, we are going to have to define better aren't we?
     But why talk about stuff, something that requires a little effort, when there's so much great  entertainment available?
     Because communication is the only thing we ever do, and the only argument for not wanting to do it better is that we wish to live as #dogs



     And finally, the information of Michael Jackson, might also just give us the idea of: child molester.
     And that of Alfred Hitchcock might give us: serial blonde abuser.
     But whatever idea you have about these kings of the thriller, they also left us with these ideas; these pieces of magic:

              And that's just the way it works.

                 Although, perhaps less (real) horror and more (real) thrills is maybe something to aim for?

---------------------------------------------------------------------------


* Completely failing to provide us with a definition of magic.

** Rod himself, might well prefer the other place-

*** We might consider whether the universe itself  should claim a writing credit. I think the fact that the universe has never claimed a writing credit on Thriller can be explained by the simple fact that the universe is bigger than that. Besides, although Rod temperton enjoys a house in Fiji, the universe already has homes everywhere.

+ We are, of course, free to argue that the character of Bruno is driven by the Devil ++ himself.

++ Who, when not simply enjoying his disco inferno, is handing out rail tickets.+++


+++

"Room for one more inside, Sir..."



 # Which is, of course, a choice. But if it is explained  it to the rest of us, then we can get a leash and muzzle for whomsoever wishes to do so

Breathing together: The truth about 9/11.

      When the events that came to be collectively known as 9/11 occurred in the United States it was late night in Asia.* That night I made a phone call to my brother in China to arrange a forthcoming trip to visit him. When he answered the phone, I asked how his evening had been. He said: "We had a great night in a bar, some Chinese guy was trying to convince us that some terrorists had flown planes into the World Trade Center and that the twin towers had fallen down!"
      "It's true." I said.


 And since that day, pretty much the only thing that everyone agrees on is the fact that it happened. The who, what, how and why of that day however, have given rise to a much broader range of ideas.
    As far as I know,* there is no-one claiming that the twin towers didn't fall down that day, and they are, in fact still there. But every other piece of information about that day has been lifted high or torn apart, worked upon and bolted together again, in a fascinating variety of ways to form a construction of ideas so tall and mighty as to rival the original Tower of Babel.

Background: The Tower. Foreground: The Confusion.

        Unlike that previous tower, those of the World Trade Center have done much to bring people closer. We all enjoy the company of those with similar ideas, and conspiracy theory is important oxygen for those wishing to breathe together. 9/11 happened just as the maddest and most crippled of ideas were taking lung-fulls of fresh air on the suddenly wide-open prairies of the internet.
       The internet would be fertile ground for those who wished to push their own particular ideas. Let's have a closer look at some of those ideas:



      Idea 1. There were no planes.

      Some people insist that no planes crashed into buildings on that day. The usual reasons given are collusion by the T.V. networks (using computer generated images) and/or holographic technology. The natural questions that arise from this theory are: If there were no planes, what about the passengers? Are their grieving families simply crisis actors? Are the witnesses who saw the planes also crisis actors? What about the airline employees?
     Basically, any explanation that raises more questions than it can answer is not a good explanation. But putting that idea to one side, here's John Lear (son of the inventor of the Lear jet plane) to tell us his own ideas-
       

                                  
                        This is presumably the real John Lear, rather than a hologram.

Idea 2. There were no hijackers.

      This scenario is based on the idea that the planes were not taken over by hijackers but were in fact flown into their targets by remote control. A lot of theorising takes place about the suspected role of the defense contractor Raytheon. As with a lot of conspiracy theories, some juicy bait is dangled in the form of interesting information that demands people to snap at it. For example:
       Early in 2001 five senior Raytheon employees were seconded from their normal work and their close relatives say that they refused to discuss what their new duties were. They regularly flew to the West coast for days at a time in the months prior to 9/11.

On 9/11 all five of those seconded employees were passengers on three of the highjacked planes and died. On flight 11 were Peter Gray ( VP Ops electronics ), Ken Waldie ( Sen Qual control electronics), and David Kovalian ( Sen Mech eng electronics ). On flight 175 was Herbert Homes ( Exec seconded to DOD ). On flight 77 were Stanley Hall (Director of project management-Electronics warfare) and Charles Falkenberg ( GPS expert working on the Global Hawk project) Raytheon had offices on the 91st floor of WTC2.             

(Original post here.)

       Of course, we are presented with no sources for the basic story of the employees "new duties". There is also no checking  of connected ideas such as: Was it unusual for these people to be on these flights? What actual evidence is there that remote-control flights like this were possible at the time?
      Furthermore, if there are no hijackers, were they on the planes, or not?
      But of course, there is no need for questions when you are fully convinced that you are stating the obvious:-

                                       
                                             When will people wake up?**

      Idea 3. The buildings were demolished by explosives.

     When I watched the second tower collapse live I had a couple of thoughts that were in no way unusual: that looks like it does when they demolish a building , and why did they fall down like that?
     The official explanation of why and how the towers collapsed the way they did can be read here. It is important to note that conspiracists are united in their dismissal of it. Without having even bothered to read it.
      All communication works as INFO ---------> IDEA.   If you don't want your precious ideas to change you must ignore information that offers different ideas and you must attempt to collate only that information that supports your ideas.

     And so, if you go hunting for evidence of controlled demolition, you can be sure to find information that sure sounds good.  And if you can't find that, just resort to speculation and inference: Imagine what bombs the shadow government has...   here's a big bomb, so big bombs exist, so....  people heard explosions, so there must have been bombs (because nothing else causes explosions, right?)  All of this and more in this fascinating lecture which explains how they EASILY (in big letters) rigged the towers for demolition.

                            
                                     "How more obvious can a cover-up be?" ***   
  

                               Videos that support the official theory are ignored.


      Idea 4. The buildings were demolished by secret weapons.

      The main proponent of the idea that the towers were pulverised by secret weapons is Dr Judy Wood. Her basic theory is that the amount of debris produced by the collapse of the towers was too small when compared to the material contained in the towers. Her own explanation for this is that some kind of directed-energy weapon was used to achieve the necessary pounding of the materials to turn a lot of it to dust. Why the top floors all collapsing down on the floors below, as is stated in the official story, does not offer an adequate explanation for massive pulverisation is not clearly addressed by Dr Wood.
     Nor does she offer any explanations as to how these weapons were employed, or even what they are.
     

     Idea 5. It was the American Government behind the attacks.

     As the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as the Patriot Act, were easily facilitated by the events of September 11, it is a simple step to the idea that the government must have conspired to produce said events.
     Further questions, such as: "How is government being defined here?" Bush/ Cheney? C.I.A.? F.B.I? FEMA? All of them? are notable by their absence.
     As all communication is INFO--------> IDEA, the less questions you ask, the stronger your idea will remain. You don't have to explain anything. Also, having an ill-defined idea of top-level malfeasance allows you to feel the moral satisfaction of being superior to them without the grind of having to do anything about them.
     That the government may be not entirely made up of evil geniuses but rather the exact caliber of people we work and live with ourselves is, of course, a scenario too chilling to contemplate.......
 

     Idea 6. It was Mossad behind the attacks.

     This idea is built on the fact that 5 Israeli men were arrested on 9/11 after a witness reported seeing three men on top of a van filming the events and seemingly "happy."Although an attack on the U.S. by Moslem radicals was indirectly a good thing for Israeli policy, it is a leap of faith to suggest that Israel was behind the attacks.
     Although they could, of course, have had fore-knowledge of the hijackers plans and refrained from letting U.S. authorities know.... And Aliens could have used their energy weapons....****
     And then there's this van .......   

  


     Idea 7. Building 7. (Building 7!)

      It is indeed interesting to note that people are generally unaware that WTC 7- a 47 story building- also collapsed on the afternoon of 9/11. That a major occurrence  of one of the best documented news events in history should pass most people by itself suggests the often vague relationship that human beings have with information. Of course, if the information is vague, then the ideas the follow have little chance of clarity.
     Better information ----------> Better ideas. But people do instinctively appreciate this, so you naturally present information in order to dazzle the audience-

                          
                        BBC reports collapse of WTC 7. 20 minutes before it actually happened.

      It is natural to be surprised by this kind of information. It's unusual, it's strange.  What needs to happen in order to have a better idea is to ask some questions in order to get better information: How could this happen? Has this kind of thing happened before? What was the situation at the time?
     The conspiracy argument is that the BBC had fore-knowledge of the controlled demolition of WTC 7. On the surface, it is an attractive idea. But disturb the surface with questions, and the clear image dissolves: So the U.S. government (or Mossad) told the BBC of their plans? Or Did one of the conspirators, who did such a fantastic job otherwise, make the error of telling the press of the collapse of WTC7 before someone had pushed the button?
    On the other hand, as the fire department was aware that the building would collapse, couldn't that information have become has collapsed, in all the confusion?

                                     
                                  News report of concern about WTC7 collapsing+
        
    Idea 8. It was the Saudi government.

      The U.S. government inquiry into Intelligence activities before and after September 11 contained 28 redacted pages that are suspected to contain information relating to links between the Saudi government and the hijackers.
      As reported here, by March 2003 45% of Americans believed Saddam Hussein was personally involved with the 9/11 attacks, an impression that the Bush administration was happy to encourage. However, this deliberate misdirection on the part of the government would lead some to suspect that the Saudis were being deliberately kept out of the spotlight. Which in turn suggests the idea that, not only were the Saudi government  behind 9/11, but also that the Bush administration knew this and were covering up for them. Of course, the simple fact that 15 of the 19 hijackers were Saudi citizens does nothing to dampen this particular idea.
    

    Idea 9. The U.S. government knew what was going on and let it happen.

      This concept is similar to the Pearl Harbour advance-knowledge conspiracy theory. It is interesting to consider that with this theory, the government is still in control. That the world's most heavily armed nation is not at the mercy of raggle-taggle terrorists with box-cutters, has an obvious appeal to anyone whose comfort zone has experienced total collapse while witnessing the terrors of 9/11.
      And it is here that we can ascertain an important human motive behind choosing to accept any particular idea or explanation.
      They make us feel good.

      If you are to accept any of the ideas above, then these ideas themselves become, in their turn, information that leads on to other ideas. One of the most basic of which is that the powerful forces behind 9/11 are such super-human magicians that any attempt to go against them is purest folly. Consequently, we can put our feet up and drink beer and enjoy our audio-visual entertainment; because there is simply nothing we can do.
     All of the basic information within the theories outlined above offer the same basic idea: someone's in control. To accept the official narrative, that a group of foreign hijackers out-witted the most expensive defense on earth is to accept that no-one is really in control, and that any promise of a better future relies on the efforts of people in general.
     You, me, representatives of Illinois' law enforcement community.......everybody.
  
      To breathe in conspiracy theory as oxygen is to abrogate one's own responsibility and ignore one's own power. The power to change things by ourselves, our birth-right as human magicians. The warm embrace of the conspiracy allows us a regression to child-hood, to be able to put aside struggle and surrender to unseen and all-powerful forces.
     
      And then maybe.....maybe the greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was actually to convince people that they didn't exist.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 
     The truth about 9/11 is that you can take any idea you want from it. You can believe it was the U.S. government or Mossad or the Illuminati. It can be a Rorschach test to confirm your deepest prejudices, or it can be an opportunity for your ego to bask in the warm glow of self-righteousness. You can even believe the fantastic idea that the grinding plates of history spat out a group of people who went half-way round the world to murder people they didn't know.
    But like anything else, better information gives better ideas. We get better information by asking and checking while looking for better describing and explaining.
   Alternatively, we can just choose the idea that makes us feel good and switch off.
    But when we do that, it makes it a whole lot easier to fly planes full of people into office buildings.
    Or tacitly support sending people half-way round the world to kill people they don't know.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------


*     On 9/12 I went to the travel agent to book my flight to China. They were surprised to see me and said: "You do know what happened yesterday, don't you?"

**   And be more like me, because I'm right.
***  The final commentators just about sum the whole video up.


**** With Israeli assistance.

+      And a random white van is definitely a demolition van. ++

++     Whatever that is.

Breathing together: Oxygen-rich conspiracy theory.

Friends nowhere to be seen....

    Conspiracy theory is, most basically, an alternative explanation. It offers a different idea from that which is most widely accepted. In some conspiracy theory, no man has ever set foot upon the moon, 9-11 was organised by Mossad, and the entire world is in thrall to the world's worst secret society: the Illuminati.
　　　  Coming into contact with conspiracy theory often elicits the question: why do people believe this stuff? A more useful question, however, would be: Why do people believe anything?
        
         As all communication works as info -----> idea, our ideas can only ever come from information. Traditionally, human culture naturally encourages information that supports the ideas of the ruling class and attacks and often attempts to hide information that might give rise to awkward new ideas. Children are encouraged down certain communicative paths from a young age, and this happens everywhere.
        When I was young, the story of Noah's Ark was presented to me as a simple tale of the wonder and magnificence of existence as produced, arranged, composed and performed by God.. Looking back, it is noticeable how the bit about Noah being 600 when the heavens opened wasn't mentioned. For that's the kind of information that could give a child ideas.
         Yet such is the way that communication works that I find myself in agreement with most of the (often perfectly sensible) 11 ideas that follow.....
       

The clearest view?.......or......

A God-awful large affair?

       
           .....and of course, from the story of Noah we can also get the idea that God is a vicious  psychopath; A raving maniac killing 99.999% of all life on the planet, who should be safely locked away in some kind of cosmic Arkham Asylum.*
          
             In most of human history, our ideas were programmed directly into us by our own culture. Generally, the further back into history you go, the tighter the control of ideas. Also, it is traditional within a culture for those in charge to most often seek to maintain their status and position by controlling information to ensure control of ideas.
          Compared to say, 500 years ago, the modern world allows for much more communication about everything in general and Bible stories in particular. It has thankfully become a lot rarer for people in Christian cultures to be attacked or executed for criticising the Bible. The basic reason for this is that the historical rising tide of communication has consistently pushed forth new and strange ideas that tumble on to shore, and the strongest of them survive the heat of the Sun and the pecking of the gulls. One of the strongest ideas turned out to be science itself, and that is most basically better communication.
          The ideas of the scientific revolution, including such odd notions as the Earth revolving around the Sun, would take root and overcome resistance thanks to their superior explanatory power, and the late 20th century would see the greatest and most recent communicative wave  bring the god-like power of the internet crashing onto the land in the greatest information revolution in history.
          More and more traditional gates that have long prevented better communication are buckling, and some are now wide-open and will never be shut again. Information flows in a vast all-encompasing tsunami, and kings, priests and tyrants are all driven before it.
          However, as in any storming of a Bastille, the lunatics and the deviants are freed as well, so now anyone can log on and make 2 + 11 + sun + celeb = illuminati.
           

On America's tortured brow.**

 

       25 years ago, anybody interested in the John F. Kennedy assassination would be stung into action by any documentary that promised a quick look at that sacred Kodachromatic shroud of Dallas: The Zapruder film. This historical document wasn't even shown publicly on television until 7 years after the event. The situation now is somewhat different.
     When Abraham Zapruder+ decided to sell the rights of his film he demanded that the most graphic scene should not be published. Zapruder had had a nightmare in which he saw a sign in Times Square, New York announcing : "See the President's head explode! " One can only imagine his astonishment and disappointment at the multiple versions of his film available to all and watched by millions on YouTube.
     It must be increasingly difficult to find anyone who hasn't seen the President's head explode.
 
     With more information available to more people, new ideas inevitably follow. The ringing gunshots of 22nd November 1963 continue to call to congregation those who are interested, even 50 years later.++
   

         Information leads to idea which is itself information which leads to idea which...... 
                                           - we are built this way.

Asking you to focus on.....

The Best Selling Show.

     
    A vital part of  better communication is understanding that: all information depends on context. The better we understand the context, the clearer we can understand any ideas connected to any information. Quite simply, this is why education and culture have long been determined to keep Bela Lugosi in his box..
    As human beings, we react very naturally to context. This is why a king wears a crown and a high priest a daft hat. Because if they didn't, people would much more easily ask awkward questions: he's no different to our Stan. Why should I listen to him?

   Thus, if you really want to sell your conspiracy theory, rather than bother with boring old describing + explaining + asking + checking, the basic skills of communication, just get yourself the equivalent of an Arch-bishop's mitre - the punters will be well impressed.


 In April 2014  U.S. Marine Captain Randy Cramer announced publicly that he had served 17 years on Mars as a member of the U.S. defense force, protecting Earth from hostile alien forces including Grays and Mantids.
    Captain Cramer is supported in his claims by Sonia Glick, the great-granddaughter of a dock-worker.

    Actually, that last part is definitely not true. For the fact of the matter is that Captain Cramer's assertions are supported by Laura Eisenhower, the great-granddaughter of President Eisenhower.
    Honestly, doesn't the context of the relation of a respected President make all of this sound  a little more intriguing? Regardless of whether Laura Eisenhower is or isn't just a daft hat.

 

    


                              Laura Eisenhower - spitting in the eyes of fools.
   
          
          Anyway, as people generally find it pleasant to hang out with like-minded individuals, so the conspiracy theorists cram together in pockets of the internet where they can breathe together and enjoy what is essentially the normal oxygen of friendship.
         It also helps that, among any tribe of conspiracists, everyone will muck in to keep Bela's coffin lid safely nailed down. In the following interview,  British local councillor Simon Parkes, who claims his mother was a Mantid, clearly states at 59: 52 that "I can shape-shift." Does the interviewer, the rather credulous Alfred Lambremont Webre, ask Mr Parkes to demonstrate? He does not.


         Personally, I'd love to see someone shape-shift. Alf is staggeringly uninterested. And the obvious idea here is that he is uninterested in his own ideas. And in order to be so uninterested, we must necessarily degrade our own communicative ability to the extent that our own ideas are cruelly buried alive, away from the light, interned alongside Bela Lugosi.


    

                                  
                                                  A saddening bore.
                               
        But then.....

      What if there are human bases on Mars? After all, I've never been to Mars, and, unless you served with Earth hero Randy Cramer, or you are a Martian, neither have you.+++ Maybe Laura Eisenhower is right, maybe Simon Parkes mum is an 8 foot-tall insectoid alien. Maybe we should all be Nazis.
                         How do we decide these things?

                        We decide them the only way we can, through better communication.

                        Because communication is the only thing we ever do.

                                                  ------------------
    

And if there were Martians observing us, our culture and our conspiracy theories, what would they think?++++  Looking at the cave-men on Earth might they not just shrug their shoulders and consider it all the freakiest show?


         

                   
                      But then, there are always other ideas......
                              And then, there are those conspiracies that are real.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------


* Mind you, that place is one of the most insecure secure facilities there is. God would be out and causing trouble in no time.

**  This picture shows the Umbrella Man. His use of an umbrella on a fine day in Dallas naturally led to people asking questions. An early favourite of conspiracy theorists, he was accused of either signaling the shooter#, or shooting the President with his special fancy umbrella dart gun. Eventually, when called before The House Select Commitee on Assassinations in 1978, the Umbrella Man a self-declared conservative, would declare that he was using the umbrella as a symbol of appeasement, wishing to heckle Kennedy for his father's support for Neville Chamberlain. ##

+ Zapruder was a 33rd degree Freemason. Conspiracy theorists, start your engines!

++ And the question not usually asked: Why is it important who killed Kennedy? Don't we have better things to think about? And from that, might the powerful not have a vested interest to keep people interested in parlour games rather than how things actually work? And might it not suit certain parties to dismiss sober analysis as conspiracy theory?

+++  Or a being from Zeta Reticuli, or Adamski, or Billy Meier or someone in Alternative 3 or......###

++++ As long as they are not too busy enjoying a pleasant chat with Rock Hudson, that is.

# Whoever he was...

## But then of course, he would say that, wouldn't he?

### And technically, Martians can only have been to Mars if they were born on another planet. I wouldn't be at all surprised if Martians are emigrating and raising their children elsewhere as their home planet is by all accounts getting a bit crowded.