Storytime Tapestry Newsletter

The newsletter devoted to spreading love and cultural awareness throughout the world.

Special Treat – Bruce Newman

March 20, 2007

Dissent From Frankenstein’s Body

By Bruce Newman

Is your television set on so much that even when it’s off you can still sense its flickering strobe? Can you jog without headphones? Can you get in the car and drive anywhere without turning on the radio? If you lose your cell phone or cable TV does it feel like somebody died? Does being alone with your own thoughts and where they might lead hold unarticulated terror for you? If so the sooner you learn to become friends again (if you ever were) with the “I” walking around in your skin the better off you’ll be. That way when you say “I” you won’t be lying like you often are. Because for a change somebody will be there to support the pronoun.

            So why should you subject yourself to such discomfort (only initially)? Why should you arouse yourself from the stimulatory drugged stupor of the average person when it is so much easier to go with the flow? One reason: so that you can LIVE and not just live. And if you don’t get the sense of that sentence nothing more can be said to you. But if you do get it, it’s past time for you to dissent from Frankenstein’s body.

            If you’ll remember Frankenstein was assembled from body parts. Dr. Frankenstein gave the composite body life (small life) by passing massive amounts of electricity through him. In other words Frankenstein came to life (small life) through excessive stimulation. Now just think about the culture we live in. Constant stimulation is the norm. Some of us have to turn on the television as soon as we get out of bed. The “news” (which is generally about hatreds and scandals as old as mankind) is always on. Commercials, (especially car and medication commercials) bombard us from television and radio. At the gym music always plays and multiple TV’s hang from the ceiling, bathing you with stimulation to save you from tasting the mystery of yourself. Everything is designed to keep you from actually feeling anything deeply enough to absorb its meaning. Now that’s the real news never reported, that things have meaning we really don’t need “experts” to tell us. Because the word “expert” comes from “experience” and most so called experts are too much a part of Frankenstein’s body to experience anything deeply enough to tell you what something really means.

            How do you know if you’re part of Frankenstein’s body? There’s more than one way to tell. Do you feel like you’re always running from something vague or that you should be doing something important without being sure what? Those are signs. One sure sign is that you’ve never noticed the hypnotic state you’re in. When I say “you” I speak as one who also struggles to stay out of a trance state. I’m not speaking from superiority. Hypnotized subjects repeat what they’re told on cue. That’s why it’s called the power of suggestion. Check out your speech. Do you say what everybody else says without thinking? Here are some of the choice words and phrases that the hypnotized say without thought.

“I need this ASAP!” Even though ASAP means “as soon as possible” the parrot really means he or she wants it NOW. But meaning, which should be primary, is secondary to going with the current flowing in Frankenstein’s body.

            “Last time I checked…” Everybody says this. The next time you hear it ask the person for the exact time they checked and watch the blank stare you get.

            “THEY will do something.” These are the folks who put their faith in a nebulous THEY (often meaning the government) to take care of problems. When you’re hypnotized you don’t notice how much THEY have already done to create more problems than they ever solved. But THEY depend on you being so comfortable and used to having the current running through you that you’ll never use the ten seconds of common sense it would take to see that THEY are like the man behind the curtain in the Wizard of Oz.

“I’m giving back to the community.” This line shows a deep hypnosis. If you are fortunate enough to have grown up in a real community in America then you are the only one who can truthfully use that line. But there is hardly any community around these days. Most people in most “neighborhoods” don’t even know each other. How is that a community? It’s a conglomeration. Now, the folks in New York with the hundred plus feet of snow are experiencing a little community right now because it’s forcing them to help each other. Whether they keep it going when spring comes is another thing. For years now everyone has been living in their little autonomous worlds. What do you think the catalyst is for road rage? For most there’s no community to give back to. It just sounds nice to say and it’s good for a self-pat on the back, which is just another way of getting secret pleasure from Frankenstein’s Taser. If you want to give, which is certainly a good thing, just give and shut up. If you really did come from a true community highlight it so the rest of the diseased body can see what health looks like.

“There ought to be a law…” If you find yourself saying this more than once a lifetime only kindness prevents me from telling you what part of Frankenstein’s body you function as. Believe me when I tell you (better yet check for yourself) there are so many laws now that even the lawmakers don’t know at any one time what the most current ones are. That’s why the law books in law libraries have what they call “pocket parts” on the inside covers to hold the folded copies of the most recent law they know of. Under our current system you and I will both be criminals whenever sufficient need arises to dust off these statutory versions of micromanagement on steroids. Yeah, I hear ya laughing. You’re just drunk on electric current. I’m your designated driver.

It would take a book to do justice to the various stimulating currents flowing through Frankenstein right now that make us unconscious neon signs in a social body bound together without stitches. One of the strongest currents right now is global warming propaganda. You may ask how I can say it’s just propaganda. How do I know global warming isn’t fact? I don’t. But I do know when I’m being manipulated and lied to. When authority figures said eggs were bad you stopped eating them. When they said eggs were really ok you didn’t throw off the chain. They told you that coffee contributed to heart attacks but that was wrong. Now they applaud its antioxidant value. They told you cholesterol was bad but didn’t inform you of your need for good cholesterol. On June 24^th, 1974 Time Magazine ran an article on the urgent need to fight global cooling. But they know the current stimulates everything but memory. Now they’re singing a different song but it’s coming out of the same Frankenstein’s mouth. If you wanna believe ‘em… go ahead. As for me if I’m gonna be a chump it will be because I fell for some good old fashioned deception like money, sex or power. Not because I fell for lies told by people with open track records of lying and a success rate as bad as the Iraq War.

People love to talk about “making a difference”. What they really mean is making a big difference overnight. That rarely happens. When enough people became interested in healthy eating then and only then did McDonald’s introduce salads and vendors produce low fat products. When enough people dissent from this dead body then and only then will the difference that really matters be made. They will accuse you of blocking the current and expect you to cave under the guilt. But guilt is part of the current so you’ll easily be able to call it a badge of honor.

Whenever a Supreme Court justice disagrees with the majority opinion they write a dissenting opinion. The stimulation required to keep you a part of Frankenstein’s body only works for you while the power is being applied. As soon as the current is cut, usually by a crisis of some kind, you find that you don’t have the strength to deal with it, a strength that only Life, not life, can give. Begin writing your dissenting opinion on your heart through small acts. Wrestle with what it means to Live. There is no one formula that fits all except that you must resolve to try. Develop your instincts. Wean yourself off the current and learn how to feel things in depth. Let it take time. Microwave mentalities won’t make it. Take the time to roll some Life on your tongue and savor it like an after dinner mint. Secede from this union of slavery by inertia and dissent from Frankenstein’s body. And don’t underestimate your power to twist everything I just said into a disguised way of remaining part of a dead body.

Bruce Newman

Rbnewman55@netzero.net