ACCORDING TO  CONSERVATIVE CANT,  THE MILLIONS OF  PROTESTERS OF THE SIXTIES AND SEVENTIES WERE "UNWASHED, UNGRATEFUL EFFETE MIDDLE CLASS DROP OUTS." THEN ONE  DAY...                                                                                      
                                          
                               "our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate,
                                   but that we are powerful beyond measure."
                                                          - nelson mandala

...THIS PICTURE FLASHED ACROSS THE WORLD.  THE DICTATOR THAT THE U.S.A. AND EACH AMERICAN'S TAXES INSTALLED IN POWER IN SOUTH VIET NAM, LIKE ALL DICTATORS, THOUGHT THE BEST WAY TO PRESERVE THAT POWER WAS TO KILL ANYONE WHO MIGHT THREATEN HIM, MEANING ANYONE AT ALL, BUTCHERING THOUSANDS DAILY. HE BEGAN THE INFAMOUS "TIGER CAGES", ROUGH CEMENT CELLS WITH A FEW BARS ACROSS WHICH WERE WASHED OUT, IF YOU WERE LUCKY, WITH A FIRE HOSE.  THIS BUDDHIST MONK THOUGHT ENOUGH WAS ENOUGH, AND CAME TO THE CITY SQUARE TO SAY SO.

FOR ANOTHER HISTORIC EXAMPLE TRY THIS LINK.

hold that thought
when afro-americans during the civil rights era rebelled against institutionalized racism, this was called the “negro problem” to obscure the origins of the situation. likewise, incidents like that pictured above, and there were many, were officially called, and are still called in veterans publication, the “buddhist problem.”

WHAT HAVE YOU GOTTEN YOURSELF INTO?

                                                                                  - johnathan swift  -  17^th-18^th century

people go through their lives not suspecting that there may be a different way, each person thinking their way is normal and in each era people consider themselves  to be “modern” or “civilized”. most people, today, when they consider them at all, are conscious of larger forces around them. throughout history there have been many social critiques, most either very specialized, naïve, or in some way simplistic, and sometimes brutal. each has a name to set itself apart.

what we wish to show is that there is a worthy idea not heretofore given much credence. all the smaller stories of peoples’ lives are swept under the rug, but all of them taken together can form a single analysis. in short, previous critiques hide three factors:

 (1)     that in some ways these critiques are woefully inadequate.

 (2)    societies on the whole make no sense.

 (3) where a society makes no sense the most brutal aspects of human nature will prevail.

if these concepts are correct, then HISTORY is nothing more than an endless sequence of nonsensical systems. what is proposed is not the addition of a social or religious principle, but:

(4) the drawing of a line, the end of idiocy.

taken together, these concepts plus the collective of stories seem worthy of a name, which is:

“the understory”.

the understory consists of things that people:

don’t know
have forgotten
don’t understand
can’t put in perspective
think they can’t help
in some cases, hold sacred
frankly, don’t care about
don’t want you to know about.

when all philosophies are thrown aside and complete facts marshaled, what remains hasn’t the glamour of “civilization” or any sort of “good life”, but ranges from just plain sad to nothing less than

horrific,

equal to any recognized atrocity.

still, here, throughout there has been an attempt to keep an obvious sense of humor, as representative of the form of intelligence that seems to be the only recourse.

                                                                                                                                 

ain't old timey stuff kinda nice,
despite what's underneath? 

WE'D RATHER NOT
what follows for the most part: (1) eschews intellectualism, which is not synonymous with intelligence, (2) except for the first page (actually page # 3), any sort of rant or partisanship is deliberately avoided, (3) even more graphically disturbing images, which might momentarily hold the attention, are avoided in favor of the persistance of reason, (4) the more current events are avoided since they might detract from the emphasis on generalities. this rule is broken more than the others not only because we lack sufficient older references, but also in order to show that madness is boringly repetitive. (5) also deliberately, all internet sophistication has been eschewed (gesundteit!), to avoid confusing the message with the media, a very common pitfall. simple html has been used, with graphics inserted in same, without employing even css or the commonly available site builders. 

instead it is a collection of facts and illustrative graphics, mostly from mainstream media, arranged in rough catagories. these could be called major clues intended to spark interest. by necessity of presenting so much in one place, sometimes these hints are densely laid and occur in only one place. no doubt some details are in error, but the general picture is correct.

the foregoing is not just a declaration of style. in any era, among those who resent change, what is amazing is the incredible degree to which they love to hear their own voices going on and on, not to argue or plead, but with OBVIOUS PLEASURE to vilify, to dismiss, to hurt feelings, to treat someone as though they were not human. the clincher, the embarrassing point, is the total lack of discussion on any aspect of culture, as if they were satisfied to spend their whole life talking about how evil some other person is. 

YOU WON'T FIND ANY OF THAT HERE - perhaps a little mild sarcasm used for humorous perspective, and very little naming of names.

SOME STARTER CLUES

from the “reading list”:

“about an hour later she came back into the living room holding the volume i had given her. there were tears in her eyes. patricia said, “this is the language of  torturers. these have to be exposed. you have to do it.”

two from the “large print” section:

g

the originator of the expression “military-industrial complex” was not a wild eyed revolutionary, but president eisenhower, which institution he called called the

single greatest threat to democracy.

for a classic filmstrip of the president's televised farewell speech, try the site for the movie "why we fight," click:

"why we fight". 

then enter the site through "ENTER SITE." it will start automatically, 
but may take a little bit to load. we don't think this is strictly "stealing bandwidth". someone let us know.

and finally

“there is no way to peace.

peace is the way.”

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