Eye of the Beholder

"There is a fifth dimension beyond that which is known to man. It is a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity. It is the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition, and it lies between the pit of man's fears and the summit of his knowledge. This is the dimension of imagination. It is an area we call... the Twilight Zone."

That's how I feel after the surreality of the health care vote.  And surely we need some imagination right now.


There have been many people who have said they will not participate in the socialized health care that's been passed. And we can be sure there will be a slow, piecemeal effort to intimidate everyone else and bring down stragglers in the herd until all acquiesce. It they refuse to participate, my understanding is that the IRS will be charged with prosecuting them, though the government will attempt to avoid anything with the smell of mass arrests or significant publicity. But I remind you of what Ellsworth Toohey said:

"I don't want to kill him. I want him in jail. You understand? In jail. In a cell. Behind bars. Locked, stopped, strapped--and alive. He'll get up when they tell him to. He'll eat what they give him. He'll move when he's told to move and stop when he's told. He'll walk to the jute mill, when he's told, and he'll work as he's told. They'll push him, if he doesn't move fast enough, and they'll slap his face when they feel like it, and they'll beat him with rubber hose if he doesn't obey. And he'll obey. He'll take orders. He'll take orders!"

The point to these people, the essence of what they are, is to control us while diminishing us.

They will go for the chinese water torture of time. This allows everyone to forget the controversy, to forget they were ever free. For example, if Citizen Joe decides he won't participate, he'll get progressively more sternly worded notices over a period of a year, informing him that he hasn't joined the national "plan". Warnings will be given of consequences, like those FBI warnings on every DVD--"Failure to comply could result in fines up to $$$ or XXX years in jail".

Ignoring them, a few months later he'll get a notice that a fine has been assessed, but he has a chance to get it reversed if he switches sides and plays ball.

Ignoring those, a month or two later he will be ordered to appear at some innocently named review board to hear his case.

Imagine this dragging out over 3 years, while the rest of the smurfs in our society come to complacently conclude that socialized health hasn't drastically changed their lives and gee, what's the fuss about?

Finally, his back against the wall, our conscientious objector refuses to pay his fine, or the additional fine for refusing to pay the first fine. He even has the temerity to refuse to go to his administrative hearing.

He is charged with tax delinquency, and doesn't show up in tax court.

Armed deputies appear on his doorstep one day, holding an arrest warrant. In front of his wife and kids he is handcuffed and carted away. The charge is something innocuous like "failure to appear", and he gets out on bail, but now the lawyers get involved. Maybe in 4 years (when socialized health care is fully implemented) he's been through various overnight stays in county jail, administrative hearings / tribunals / kangaroo "health" courts (but never a real court) and he's finally ordered to serve some real jail time. They might only give him a year with a chance to get out in 6 months on good behaviour, but are more likely start out with a simple "contempt" citation with a chance to change his mind (again), on the premise that a few weeks in the slammer with some serious offenders will soften him up.

Fear is the key, here. If he's stubborn, they'll ratchet it up, and probably pile on additional charges for obstruction of justice or god knows what. They can concoct any charge they want under the non-judicial system of arbitrary administrative judges and tribunals in this health care bill. But maybe the health commissars get impatient and go for broke -- they give him 5 years for bucking the system, on the premise that he'll just disappear from view till everyone has forgotten -- except the underground word of mouth.

That works to the advantage of the government. Tyrannies exist on such whispered fears, and our guys in government won't give up--our one, lonely conscientious objector is a threat to all of them. He might get out on parole on the condition that he sign up for health care. If he doesn't, he can spend some more time with the thieves, killers, rapists, pedophiles and bunkbed sodomists.

But when his sentence is finished, the same stipulation will still exist: if he refuses to participate, it starts all over again.

Imagine this happening in slow motion for dozens of other objectors. For every conviction based on trumped up charges of "injury to the social welfare" or some such contrivance, the government may trumpet it in the press as a warning to every one else--but they are more likely to pursue those objectors who commit violence or real crimes, out of anger at what's being done to them and their country, because the press associated with punishing violent people works much better to their advantage -- it discredits all the non-violent ones as social non-conformists, outcasts and trouble-makers.

Ever see the old Twilight Zone episode, "Eye of the Beholder"? It's about a woman in a bed at a state-run hospital after reconstructive surgery on her face, which is wrapped in bandages--which we can't see, any more than we can see the faces of the concerned doctors and nurses, who are always concealed in shadow. All we hear are their voices. But outside the patient's room, they talk about the patient's grotesque disfigurement, and one nurse remarks,

"If it was mine I'd bury myself in a grave someplace. Poor thing, some people want to live, no matter what."

The patient is desperately frightened of what will become of her if the surgery hasn't worked, and the doctor strives to reassure her, while preparing her for the worst, based on disappointing results from people of "her kind". Finally the bandages are removed and doctors and nurses recoil in horror: the surgery has failed: and the patient is as ugly as ever.

The camera pulls back and the patient's face is revealed to the audience: a face of overwhelming, innocent beauty.

The camera pulls back again and the doctors and nurses are revealed: deformed creatures of pig-like features, exuding malevolence.

The girl opens her eyes, sees the doctors and nurses and screams in terror. They attempt to drug her and she flees down empty corridors as the supreme leader of their nation delivers a hate-filled speech on televisions suspended overhead:

"...There must be a single purpose, a single norm, a single approach, a single entity of people, a single virtue, a single morality! ... We must cut out all that is different, like a cancerous filth! It is essential in this society that we not only have a norm, but that we conform to the norm! ...Conformity is the key to survival!"

I won't hold up the philosophy of this episode as without reproach (it advocates an odd mix of freedom and subjectivism), but you can't help watching it and coming away with the eerily overwhelming feeling that it captures the essence of the health care debate and the world we are moving into.

As I said, the government won't pursue hundreds or thousands of objectors at once, for damned sure. They don't want the expense and effort, and more important *do not* want to give objectors the appearance of being part of a widespread movement, even if they are.

My point here is simply this: there needs to be an organization in place so that every single person who refuses to participate in socialized health care has a place to go so they won't be forgotten--a place providing support, legal and otherwise, so it won't be too frightening and devastating to stand up against the Goliath, so they can't be easily picked off as stragglers in a herd by the wolves in government.

The goal is this: make every case a cause celebre, so each victim who has the courage to stand up can inspire others to stand up themselves, so the movement grows rapidly and without the ability of the government to control it or tame it. The goal is an organization to keep the fire of resistance burning in people, and to fan it, encouraging more and more people to "opt out" and "drop out" of socialized health care, with a message to the government and the socialists who created it: get the hell out of my life.

There's still some chance that the bill won't become law (though I wouldn't count on it). There's still some chance the courts will invalidate it (though I wouldn't count on it). There's still some chance the Republicans will acquire some backbone, take control of Congress and repeal it--though I wouldn't count on it. I'd start preparing anyway, and figure out how to promote mass civil disobedience on a scale this country has never seen before, if we are to get reversed this horrible rush to bald, pig-faced statism.











http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9dwKQ6xyIs&feature=related (part 1)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tEpMomBvPVQ (part 2)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bMev5QQxs00&NR=1 (part 3)