Nexus - 0110 - New Times Magazine-pages

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FUTURE The boy sniggered and declared, “No-one could be that paranoid... and anyway, you only need hot and cold water to wash.” “If they used soap as much as that, their own homceostasis would have to make acid oils in their skin to balance it out,” added another child. A girl crinkled her nose and said, “Wouldn’t that smell awful?” “Yes,” “Did they stop using the soap?” “No... they put other animals’ scents into the soap.” “But that's crazy... how would they know how each other felt if they couldn’t smell the scents that their emotional reactions caused them to give off?” “That’s just it... they didn't.” “Well how did they get along with each other?” “The young were told that they had to decide what was right and make everything else wrong so that everyone would know where they stood with each other.” “They were to become one thing,” said another elder, “decide then and there what kind of an adult to be... and to make the decision using only logic - no daydreaming.” “Who told them that?” “Parents and their teachers.” “Why didn’t the government stop them?” “The governments of the day were headed by the most competitive and aggressive politicians, and as aggression is based on insecurities, often the most insecure people ended up in the most responsible jobs, They thought it best if the population was kept at a certain level of ignorance so that they would be more easily led.” One of the boys retorted, “But that would mean that they'd get the lowest amount of productivity and quality from the people's work.” One of the older girls said, “You mean they actually tried to restrict the changes in the hormonal salts and allowed the people to carry their childhood patterns into adult life, where they would be inappropriate.” Nexus *10 It was raining outside, and the setting sun sent vibrant shafts of colour through the crops... barley, rye and other seed grasses intermixed with legumes and the occasional tree, on this level. A group of elders had just finished showing some youngsters how to take what was needed without disturbing the delicate ecosystem that supported this floor of cultivation, Now, as they sat down beneath atree to eat, one of the children asked when the great skyscrapers were built. After a space one of the elders spoke, “It was not always as you see it now with our people... It looks like we have always been happy... but at the time these buildings were erected there was a madness on our culture that we now call “the Great Unhappiness.” The children’s eyes were wide as the elder, as elders have always done, cast the spell of the story. “In this time different things, like food and tools, were made in different countries... and because each country or tribe saw the others as different and somehow not quite right, they fought with each other...” At that moment another elder stood up, and in a tone that told the children that she knew it was true but still couldn't believe it, she said, “They even dumped surplus food in the ocean while other people starved.” “| don’t believe you!” one of the children said, “I’m only small but even | know that people wouldn't... couldn't, live like that.” “Yeh... you’re just trying to bluff us...” said another. “You've done that before!” They all laughed... the children and their teacher/elders. “know it’s hard to believe, but it’s true... There was atime when the whole race... well most of the race...” “Yes, even then there were threads of consciousness.” “Most of the race believed that nothing else thought at all... and that all else was there just for them to own.” “They actually believed that everything else was either dead... or not quite as alive as they themselves were.” “But how could they believe that, when we all feel the life flow of the planet through us?” “Ah, but... they didn’t... Their energy and magnetic senses were shut off.” There was silence for a while, then an idea slowly formed for one of the children, until he said, “How could you inhibit all your auric and spiritual senses?” Then a very bright seven year old added, “You would have to bleach all the receptors on the skin... and they’re all over the body.” One of the grandmothers huffed, then said, “Their culture was caught in a conditioned fear of uncleanliness, so that they kept alkalising their skins with soap.” “But still, you’d have to actually rub it in 2 or 3 times a week for years.” “They did it every day, sometimes two or three times a day... from the day of birth.” aD 56