ACT 2 PART 2
Scene 1
[PLAZA HOTEL MUSIC]
ANNOUNCER: We interrupt our program to bring you a special report from Princeton University where CBS reporter, Carl Phillips, is about to interview Dr. Barbara Pierson on the faculty of the Department of History about the recent disturbing developments concerning the invasion of our country and its institutions by dark forces dedicated to destroying our democracy and establishing themselves as the autocratic rulers of a New Order. Carl, can you hear me?
PHILLIPS: Yes indeed, Bill, I can hear you clearly. I'm in the office of Dr. Barbara Pierson in the History Department at Princeton University in New Jersey. It's a rather cramped office, with books lining all the shelves and stacks of papers scattered everywhere on the floor. There's a small table with a dish of wrapped candies next to me by the door. Dr. Pierson is seated at her desk. There is another stack of papers to one side of her and a large map of the United States behind where she is sitting. There are hundreds of colored pins stuck in the map from coast to coast. I'm not certain what they represent. Perhaps I can ask Dr. Pierson about them.
Dr. Pierson, I'm curious about those pins in the map behind you. What do they represent?
PIERSON: Incidents of domestic terrorism, extremist threats, assaults on our state legislatures, our schools, threats to public officials and election workers, just about anything related to attempts to disrupt the upcoming elections, overthrow the government, turn our backs on democracy and give the country over to these destructionists. Those yellow pins mark where extremists and right-wing destructionists have taken over school boards or disrupted public education in other ways. We're tracking all that and more, anything related to fallout from the 2020 election and its spread throughout the institutions of the country.
PHILLIPS: And what is it you expect to find by tracking all these events?
PIERSON: Patterns, Mr. Phillips. Patterns.
PHILLIPS: Patterns? What kinds of patterns do you mean, professor?
PHILLIPS: Excuse me just a moment Dr. Pierson, there seems to be a breaking news bulletin coming in.
[NEWSBREAK]
ANNOUNCER: For late breaking news from the Supreme Court we turn you over now to our Washington New Bureau Chief, Hideko Koi. Hideko.
HIDEKO KOI: My producers have just informed me, with the overthrow of Roe, the Supreme Court has also decided to add two new justices to the bench, Justice Mathew Hale and Justice Edward Coke. In announcing the two new appointments, Justice Clarence Thomas noted that "These two eminently qualified jurists are noted for their expertise in laws pertaining to fetal homicides committed by quickened women, inalienable rights of husbands to rape their wives, and witchcraft." When asked by our reporter about the right of the Court to appoint its own Justices, Justice Alito remarked, "We find that the Supreme Court's expansion of its own bench is the equivalent of the processes of 'Advise and Consent' used by the President and the Congress." Besides," he added, "Nowhere in the Constitution does it say we can't." The Center for Constitutional Law has told our affiliates they did not know how sixteenth and seventeenth century jurists from Great Britain would be able to posthumously serve on the United States Supreme Court. "It appears, however," their Director remarked , "our Supreme Court now has eleven members and is divided eight to three in favor of the invaders." Asked what he thought overturning Roe meant for the country, Senator Tuberville of Alabama replied, "Well, son, it means slavery is back in business. Yup, that's what it means alright. Of course we know we can breed 'em, but we don't know if they can pick cotton. We'll have to wait and see. Doesn't matter, though. We'll get to that other branch of slavery soon enough.
ANNOUNCER: Thank you, Hideko, for that very informative report. Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina was asked why he thought the Court added two long-dead, English jurists to the bench. The Senator replied, "It's always good to have some inside expertise around when you make important decisions."
We return you now to the interview in progress with our correspondent Carl Phillips and Doctor Barbara Pierson at
Princeton University.
PHILLIPS: Doctor, you were saying about the patterns of behavior the enemy is exhibiting as they wage this war against us.
PIERSON: Yes, Mr. Phillips, the kinds that trigger violent reactive impulses in our citizens, Patterns in the behavior of the invaders that consume the minds of ordinary Americans and transform them into zombie destructionists. You see those yellow pins in the map behind me?
PHILLIPS: (ASIDE) Professor Pierson is pointing at the map on the wall behind her desk, the one I mentioned earlier.
PHILLIPS: Yes, professor, I see them. They appear to be spread out from clusters in the North East, from Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, New York.
PIERSON: (INTERRUPTING): That's right, the original colonies. That's where the pattern begins. Then, as you can see, it forks out to the South and the Midwest, not so much in the West.
PHILLIPS: Wait professor, original colonies? you don't mean to say the Founders were somehow involved in this invasion of these, uh.
PIERSON: Call them destructionists, Mr. Phillips. I think you will find that fits.
PHILLIPS: You mean Madison, Jefferson, Franklin? They were, ah, destructionists? Oh, excuse me, doctor Pierson, there's another news bulletin,
[NEWSBREAK]
HIDEKO KOI: This just in: Armies of advance destructionist shock troops are fanning out across the country ahead of the main offensive, to sabotage and spread terror in pre-election raids on innocent poll workers. Armed with fake challenges, Kansas deniers have pinned down vote counts on their abortion ban referendum. In El Passo Co, Colorado, snipers are targeting patriotic poll workers for being "unfaithful." El Passo saboteurs were caught attempting to breach secure areas. In other places around the country fake ballots, bogus voter challenges, groundless litigation, intimidation of vote counters and other election IED's that are being planted to insure no one has confidence in the November counts. A reporter recently asked an invading general "What is your objective?" "Why, to sew so much chaos, doubt and uncertainty that fake electors will be the only thing left standing to decide an election," the general replied. Major Steve Bannon, who is commanding the 4th Plotcasters Brigade of the invading destructionist army bellowed, "You ain't seen nothing yet. When we get done gumming up the works, you won't be able to tell who wins the twenty twenty-four election until the current Supreme Court justices are long since dead. We'll win every election by fake-electors, BY default until there are no more elections. Don't bother to count on it, there'll be nothing to count."
We now return you to Princeton, where doctor Pierson is describing what part the Founders may have played in the destructionist assault on our educational system, to our reporter, Carl Phillips.
PIERSON: No, not at all, Mr. Phillips. The Founders were sincere men, as were most of the others from the original 13 colonies. They had their imperfections, to be sure. But not at all part of the patterns of the early invasionary expeditions. They did invest in creating the first religious private schools in America, but what blossomed later had nothing to do with their good intentions. Even those schools did not consciously take any major part in destructionism. That comes much later. Back then they played a role in the matter, but not by design.
PHILLIPS: Doctor Pierson, I see a large yellow pin in Michigan, what is that about?
PIERSON: That's an interesting case in the early private school archipelago. It marks Hillsdale College which was founded in 1844. It was founded by Baptists wanting a college that reflected their own brand of Christianity. Its founders were abolitionists, and the college admitted black students the year it opened. It was also the second college in the United States to grant degrees to women. A large number of its students fought for the Union Army, three generals among them. Ironically, its second president was one of the Founders of the Republican Party. But that was the Party of Lincoln then, and remote from the destructionists that Republicans have morphed into now.
PHILLIPS: Are you saying they are part of (PAUSE), uh, I noticed you using the word 'Destructionists' several times. I haven't heard that word used to describe the invaders before. What exactly do you mean when you say 'Destructionist'? Just a moment, doctor Pierson, I'm getting a signal from our studios.
[NEWSBREAK]
NEWS ANNOUNCER: Florida: A trumpist judge has just granted the Trump destructionists their request for a Special Master to thwart the Justice Department's request to continue its inquiry into how top secret documents wound up in a private club owned by Donald Trump. Assessments are underway to see what damage has been done to our national security by the theft of these documents. Insiders say, Judge Canon, a Trump appointee, has dealt a serious blow to our system of laws if her rulings are let stand. They cite her incompetence and complete ignorance of the law as very useful to the extremist 'stop the steal' assault on our democracy. Other's suggest she knows very well what she is doing and has been an agent of the invaders all along. Back over to you, Carl.
PHILLIPS: You were saying, about the term 'destructionist', doctor.
PIERSON: Our Lingustics Department came up with that. They'd been noticing an uptake in the use of the term "conservative" popping up in contexts having nothing to do with conserving anything. Quite the contrary. It was being used to indicate things that were targeted for dismantling or destruction. Norms we took for granted and presumed were just the way things are to be done, always will be done, were being completely ignored or reversed. Institutions we relied upon to do their job as the people and the law required of them are being destroyed, even as we speak. The Supreme Court, of course, has been captured and everything we thought settled and decided about how the law, itself, was to operate, is being systematically destroyed. That's what is meant by 'Destructionist.' The Destructionist Party sent its wrecking crews to take over and destroy every agency and function of government they could. Headed by incompetent appointees without a shred of experience and staffed by ideological clones, some have already fallen, many more are in grave peril. Destruction is the only word to describe what the invaders are doing. We agreed with our Linguistics Department, 'Destructionism', 'destructionist' and the 'Destructionist Party' were far more accurate terms to use than 'conservatism' or 'conservative' or even 'Republican Party' which has fairly well declared itself to be an enabling arm of the destructivist movement.
PHILLIPS: I see, yes that makes good sense. It's something I'm sure our listeners will agree is a much better description of these invaders than words like 'conservative' or 'Republican'. Still, that little college sounds pretty much like it sought to preserve some of the fundamental values of our nation-abolishing slavery, educating women, respecting rights and liberties, serving the country. That's all pretty much in line with what we all want, isn't it?
PIERSON: Of course, but it didn't last. Hillsdale college has always been relatively conservative and religiously disposed but generally insulated from most of the streams of political agenda that have since wound up in destructionist hands. They did what any well-behaved religion ought to do, they kept to themselves, served their members and stayed within their boundaries. But the destructionists saw an opportunity and seized it. For most of the last century the destructionists flew under most people's radar. We didn't even notice them until 2000, when we began to follow the spread of a number of destructionist influences in education from sources such as the Heritage Foundation and Federalist Society and other right-wing think tanks, along with the dark money that fuels and surrounds them. That was when we first started to wonder what such a small, out of the way college with little more than a thousand students was doing with a seven-hundred million dollar endowment.
[NEWSBREAK]
NEWS ANNOUNCER: We now bring you the latest news headlines from our front-line correspondents.
HIDEKO KOI:
. Whitehouse aid tells January 6th Committee how President watched t.v. while rioters invaded the Capitol. She said he showed no desire to stop them.
. Court gives the go-ahead for smokestacks to keep belching. Amputates EPA authority to do anything about it.
. Trump's intent to lead mob to the capitol revealed. Security detail stood firm, to prevent the former president from joining his insurrectionists, a move that could put him in jail.
. Putin rattles nuclear sabers as he seizes a Ukrainian nuclear power plant.
ANNOUNCER: Those are the latest headlines from New York. We give you back to Carl Phillips at Princeton University, where he is speaking with doctor Barbara Pierson of the History department.
PHILLIPS: So the destructionists are waging a war on our schools. What about that little college, uh, Hillsdale, that you were talking about? What is their part in this?
PIERSON: We now can identify that small, not well known, Southern Michigan college as the spearhead of the destructionist assault on education and their plans to take over the American mind. Most recently they are serving as the hub of efforts to capture and collapse the public educational system with their enabling models and brands of charter schools spreading throughout the nation-schools which qualify for public funding, skim students and dollars from public education, and turn out ideological clones that will turn the stock of degree-qualified applicants into their zombie graduate job seekers in civil service, law, medicine, law enforcement and other professions, as well as business and finance. In short, the mind of America is being hollowed out from within and replaced with front-line troops from the destructionist invaders. It is an agenda much more serious than even the capture of the Supreme Court or putting another Mad King in charge of the country. Important as those battles may be, taking over the mind of America is far more permanent. It insures those institutions will be in the service of the destructionists for a very long and painful Dark Ages. There is no counter offensive that can be waged against that. If successful, it will mean this zero sum game has come to an end.
[NEWSBREAK]
NEWS ANNOUNCER: We switch now to our Washington anchor, Hideko Koi and the latest CBS news headlines. Hidko,
HIDEKO KOI: Here are the lastest invasion reports from around the country and around the world,
. Washington--Trumpist invaders threatened violence in the streets in reaction to FBI-Mar a Lago search. Trump throws more gas on the fire, says the FBI littered his floor and planted secret documents.
. Ukraine--Ukrainians dig in for long battle against tyranny. Gorbachev remembered.
. Indiana. Abortion reactionists push fetal personhood in order to charge enslaved Hand's Maid's Tale women with murder if they dare to have even a miscarriage. Church remains silent on the matter.
. Father sends picture of child's penis to pediatrician for life-saving diagnosis. Gets flagged for distributing child pornography. Mississippi considers prosecution. Google responds with, "It happens."
Those are the latest headlines from the U.S. and around world. We return now to Princeton and Carl Phillip reporting on the right-wing invasion.
[STATIC, RADIO NOISE]
PHILLIPS: I'm speaking with Doctor Barbara Pierson of the History Department of Princeton University, just a few miles from Grover Mills, where her father, the noted astronomer, Professor Richard Pierson, observed the first landings of the Martian invaders nearly eighty-five years ago. As some of you will recall, he was the only surviving witness to the Battle of Grover Mills which began the Martian War of the Worlds. Doctor Pierson, I would like to ask you a slightly odd question, if you don't mind.
PIERSON: I don't mind at all, Mr. Phillips.
PHILLIPS: It's just this. You certainly must have had many conversations with your father about what he knew and witnessed of the Martian invasion. Undoubtedly you've read his notes and journals about those events.
PIERSON: Indeed, I have. Many times.
PHILLIPS: I'd like to ask you if you see any parallels between that war and the one we are fighting now with the destructionists? Is there anything in those patterns your research is uncovering that would tie these two historically remote tragedies together?
PIERSON: An excellent question Mr. Phillips. Of course they are entirely separate events. There is no causal relationship between the Martian invasion and the invasions of the destructionists we are experiencing now. There are similarities though.
PHILLIPS: Such as?
PIERSON: Well, for one, they land, if you can think of the destructionist assaults as landings, in small groups. Often groups of three, just as the Martians did. That large yellow pin that marks Hillsdale College on the map. Well, after serving awhile to establish their destructionist credentials-first as a feeder school, supplying zombie candidates for Trump Administration appointments, then serving on his 1776 Commission to replace the liberal arts curriculum in America with destructionist-tailored lesson plans based on Christian theology and capitalist free-market economics, they began to hook up with other machines that were also poised to invade our educational institutions. You see that large yellow one in Miami, and that other large blue and yellow one just west of Dallas, at Southlake, Texas?
PHILLIPS: [ASIDE]For our listeners, Doctor Pierson is pointing at two other large pins on the United States map behind her desk, one in Florida and one in Texas.
PHILLIPS (continuing): Yes I see them Professor.
PIERSON: The one Florida is Academica, the largest educational-management corporation in America. It's headquarters is in Miami. They manage everything from the revision of text-books and banning books in school libraries, to the recruitment and training of teachers, financing, counting staplers, everything. At the moment, both of these destructionist strongholds are concentrating their efforts on the establishment of charter schools, a beachhead they expect will finally bring down the entire public education system. The third leg of their tripod is that one over there, the large blue and yellow pin just west of Dallas, Texas. That is a more recent destructionist landing, the Patriot Mobile machine. It is an internet provider service, at least that's what it pretends to be. They funded and engineered the takeover of several county school boards in Texas and have their sights set on doing the same to local school boards all over the country. It is a destructionist agenda set to turn the entire educational system of the country into an exercise in unenlightend conformity.
PHILLIPS: Can they do that, Professor Pierson? Can they really invade and take over the entire education system of the country?
[NEWSBREAK]
NEWS ANNOUNCER: We interrupt this program momentarily with the latest news headlines,
HIDEKO KOI: The Center for Insurrectionist Activities warns that veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars are falling prey to zombie recruitment and being turned into vigilantes, threatening state and federal lawmakers, public officials and others who they don't happen agree with them. Officials and poll workers have also received death threats and have had their homes attacked, along with nurses who wear masks and liberal Facebook users. Some of the vets are armed and dangerous. Scientists at The Institute for the Study of Abhorrent Behavior have warned that these traumatized, dysfunctional individuals all have inner-childs that feel unwanted and are looking for new things to kill. A noted psychiatrist who treats cult disorders has advised us that there is a psychiatric term for this type of mental disease . "Its right there in the DSM five, its called, 'bat-shit crazy'". We now return you to Princeton and our program in progress.
PIERSON: Mr. Phillips, you asked if the invaders can take over our schools. Well, unless we find something to stop them they can. A handful of Montessori schools and a few private liberal arts colleges certainly aren't going stop them.
PHILLIPS: What about our public schools? Certainly they are the front-line of keeping our people educated, alert and imaginative?
PIERSON: It's right there in the word 'public', Mr. Phillips. That is exactly why that side of our educational system is falling prey to the destructionists as easily as it is. 'Public' is an open invitation to attack, through school boards, governing boards, tax-supported funding, text-book approval, and other We the People devices, which every one is entitled to influence and alter if they can. Especially big money. Especially big, dark money that no one can trace or question. There are dozens of portals through which the destructionists have as much right to access our educational system as we do. But we can't do the same to them and their private-school archipelago precisely because it is private. Even more dangerous are the hybrid charter schools that stand somewhere between public and private. As quasi-public institutions they get to tap public funds for support, but as quasi-private schools they find all kinds of ways to insert their theocratic-fascistic indoctrination curricula that is cranked out and supported by machines like Hillsdale College.
[NEWSBREAK]
NEWS ANNOUNCER 1: Here are the latest invasion reports from around the country and around the world.
NEWS ANNOUNCER 2: A House Subcommittee on Coronavirus is expected to release a report later this month detailing the corruption, manipulation, doctoring of scientific information, falsification of data and disregard for public health and safety done by the Trump administration for the personal and political gain of Mr. Trump. Wrecking crews appointed by Trump were sent to the CDC with the sole purpose of putting pressure on the agency to do the bidding of the President and to destroy the scientific integrity and reputation of the world's premier public health agency,in the midst of a deadly pandemic.
NEWS ANNOUNCER 2: ANNOUNCER 2: This just in to our science desk. Z-axis Solutions has announced that it has discovered a method to substantially reduce the amount of disinformation and dangerous messaging that has overwhelmed our social media platforms without the need to censor or block accounts to prevent the expression of ideas no matter how toxic or uncomfortable they may be. Says a company steward, "Our primary focus is not on the content of messages, but on the four elements which all experts have agreed are at the root of the problems created by distorted and misleading messaging that are spiraling out of control- amplification, echoing, rapid distribution and reactivity. "Those are the four-horsemen of the information apocalypse," a spokesperson for Z-axis stated, "and we have found a way to tame them without going near the first amendment. The technical means of dealing with the problem is well within our grasp. What is out of our control is the fact that, given the political structure a good idea cannot get past the first or second wastebaskets of public officials who are completely walled off from any messages that cannot be assigned to "ayes", "nays" or campaign donations. That's a problem we have not been able to solve. But we're working on it.
NEWS ANNOUNCER 3: This has been a CBS news brief. Back to you, Princeton,
PIERSON: Mr. Phillips, your listeners may not know this, but the plan for taking over our schools was forged more than a hundred years ago. It has been a long-term strategy, much longer than the one that brought down Roe v. Wade. It is a plan intended to endure far longer than the lifetime appointments of destructionist judges. Whatever battles are being won or lost now, and the destructionists are making significant gains, it's the future of a very long Dark Ages they look towards. A Dark Age which they completely control, because they will control the minds of our children, our future citizens.
PHILLIPS: Total control? How is that possible? We have elections, we have democracy. Certainly we can get rid of these invaders whenever we wish. Is that not so?
PIERSON: I'm afraid, Mr. Phillips, you're not considering what part education plays in every election and in every feature of our democracy. The Destructionists know this very well. They know all about it. You only have to listen to what they say themselves to understand that. The current president of Hillsdale, Larry Arnn, leaves no doubt about what they are doing. Listen to a sample of the things he has said,
[ARN: QUOTE] "The public school is arguably among the most important battlegrounds in our war." "The war will be won in education. We will win it back." "Teaching is our trade; also, I confess, it's our weapon."
PIERSON: [CONTINUING] When you take the defenseless mind of a child, hollow it out and replace it with rigid, absolutist, theocratic certainty, it is nearly impossible to ever undo or reverse the damage that has been done. You've created a mind that has no capacity to think, only to react. Moreover, you have created an individual that will turn around on its own children and do exactly the same thing to them as was done to themselves. This machine is not only a perfect recruiting tool, it is a self-cloning device of conditioned, compliant destructionist zombies.
PHILLIPS: That is an absolutely chilling image, doctor. It leaves no other option for us but to win this war and drive the destructionist from our midst (PAUSE), or suffer the consequences. (PAUSE, HESITATES) I find that thought almost too terrible to contemplate. A tripod of three destructionist machines that are now sweeping across the United States to conquer our educational system and convert our students into destructionist zombies, much the same as the Martian invaders did when they captured humans and either consumed them or put them to work building more of their machines to widen their conquest. Doctor Pierson, you informed our audience that the pattern of attack on our schools was weaker in the west that in the rest of the country. But I see a few yellow pins in California, one of them larger than the others. Can you comment on that? Is it another destructionist landing?
PIERSON: Yes, but not so recent. That one is in Orange County, Costa Mesa to be exact, which has always been a fairly right-wing, wealthier, conservative suburban area characteristic of those areas more easily captured by the destructionists. One individual in particular had already been recruited into the destructionist camp, a rather charismatic figure, Doctor Jeff Barke. His own launch of a local charter school, the Orange County Classical Academy, brought him into close connection with the Hillsdale machine and its charter school agenda. Rather than be absorbed into the Dallas-Hillsdale-Miami tripod, doctor Barke seems to be attempting to establish his own tripod which we believe may have its other legs in Nevada and the Pacific Northwest. We're keeping close track of what is happening there.
PHILLIPS: And what about that Dallas pin that seems to be both yellow and blue, instead of just yellow, like the other educational assault pins?
PIERSON: That indicates the dual nature of the tactical missions of Patriot Mobile. At the moment, it is primarily committed to attacks on our school system and the takeover of local school boards. But it is also, and principally, an internet provider with addresses in Wyoming, Massachusetts, Oklahoma and other places, all having different agents in different states. We are fairly certain that it will soon be making hook-ups with the enemy's efforts to capture parts of our digital systems and media, and be active in those assaults as well. We have some reason to believe the destructionists will attempt to establish a parallel internet with their own version of things like Google, Facebook and other social media platforms. Platforms which they will entirely control, censor, surveil their users and use as a litmus test for loyalty and recruitment. Of course this alternate internet will also siphon off right-wing enterprises and dollars from existing networks, effecting their collapse, just as it is now doing with charter schools by starving the public school systems of needed funds.
PHILLIPS: Hallowing out our educational systems from within, supplanting the internet, capturing our legal and political systems? Is that what is really going on? Granted, things look pretty grim right now, but how can you be certain that's where it is all going? They say they're lifting all boats, protecting us from an overreaching government, defending liberty. How do we know the grim picture you have given is where this is all headed, and not just some wild dystopian fantasy?
PIERSON: Mr. Phillips, you only need to read the contracts that Hillsdale is making with Florida and other states to establish its brand of charter schools, or Patriot Mobile's financing the taking over county school boards, to know how real the destructionist agenda is. That's all a matter of public record. For the bigger picture, If you read the recent New York Times report you also know that the proliferation of destructionist digital platforms has exploded as the prime purveyors of disinformation, firing propaganda and destabilizing conspiracy theories all over our social media like so many cluster bombs. Parler, Gab, Truth Social and dozens of others have metastasized so rapidly their destructionist disinformation already reaches an audience of about ten million people daily. It is only a matter of time when they will hook up into one large MAGA-net, spewing false information faster than anyone can keep up with them. Patriot Mobile? Well, there are about eight million school children that are already enrolled in private and charter schools in America. It isn't some futuristic dystopian fantasy to guess where Patriot Moble and its kind might be heading as digital destructionists. I'd say Patriot is in line for being the kid-capture branch of the Destructionist Web, piping its brand of lies and indoctrination into our classrooms and the defenseless minds of our children. You ask if there's anything more to it than wild speculation? I would ask you if there's any such thing as being a little bit pregnant?
[THERE IS A GROWING NOISE-SHOUTING/COMMOTION-COMING IN THROUGH AN OPEN WINDOW NEXT TO PIERSON'S DESK.]
PHILLIPS: What is that noise, doctor?
[ASIDE] I'm now standing at the open window next to Dr. Pierson's desk, looking out on what appears to be an angry group of students.
[MORE PROTEST NOISE]
I can't quite make out what their signs say, but they are clearly upset about something and pointing at our building.
[MORE PROTEST NOISE]
PIERSON: Protesters. Destructionist protestors.
PHILLIPS: What are they protesting?
PIERSON: One of our faculty was teaching a class on the history of the Crusades. A person in the class said it made her feel uncomfortable.
PHILLIPS: That's it? What did she want him to do, rewrite history?
PIERSON: No. She wants him to be fired. Rather, the destructionist Christian group that put her up to it wants him fired.
PHILLIPS: Well that can't happen. It sounds like a lot of noise about nothing.
PIERSON: Don't be to sure. A couple of large donors to the university's endowment also fund some destructionist causes and are threatening to pull their donations. The faculty is standing pat behind our colleague, except for a few who got here by way of the archipelago. They may well put enough pressure on him to get him to quit. He wouldn't be the first.
PHILLIPS: That's pretty ugly.
PIERSON: It's more common than you think. See those white pins on the map? Those mark such instances of faculty getting fired or charged with being out of step with destructionist agenda, or making some student "uncomfortable". You asked if there were any similarities between the Martian invasion that my father witnessed, and the one we are all witnessing today. As you can see, the systematic destruction of a culture, its form of governance, its economy and social structure, its educational system will always exhibit certain similarities, callous disregard for citizens, use of force to achieve their ends, and unconstrained ambitions for power among them. What is more important, though, is the singular difference between the Martian and Destructivist invasions.
[NEWSBREAK]
NEWS ANNOUNCER: Our Washington Bureau Chief, Hideko Koi, is signaling me she has a memo from our Legal Affairs Department. Hideko,
HIDEKO KOI: The House Subcommittee charged to investigate the government's handling of the coronavirus pandemic during the Trump presidency has found widespread corruption and political malfeasance in the Administration's politicizing of the CDC. The doctoring and editing of scientific reports, the demands for the CDC to only release information favorable to the President, the removal of key personnel who would not comply with the Administration's falsification of their work all resulted in a serious and deliberate mishandling of the crises and the untold, unnecessary deaths of many Americans. Pressure is mounting to have the ex-president charged with half a million counts of negligent homicide. If successfully prosecuted, that could result in a sentence of life in prison plus five-hundred years. Much more than all the other crimes he is charged with. We give you back to Carl Phillips at Princeton University where he is speaking with Dr. Barbara Pierson of the History Department.
PHILLIPS: What is that, doctor Pierson, the difference between the Martian invasion of the early 20th century, and the one we are facing today?
PIERSON: The difference is, Mr. Phillips, this time there will be no microbe, no little germ that suddenly appears and saves the day. We are entirely on our own. In fact, the only germ in this story is the HISS virus. And that is the one that has been killing us all along.
PHILLIPS: HISS virus? What's that, I never heard of it?
PIERSON: HISS--'H-I-S-S' Human ignorance, stupidity and selfishness. The deadliest of all viruses. There is no immunity, no vaccine, no treatment and no cure. It has been around since the beginning of history and has killed more of us than all other diseases combined. It is an equal opportunity disease. Every one of us is infected to some degree and neither race, nor gender, nor education, nor good-intentions offers any protection. That is the difference between the Martian invasion and the Destructionist invasion, Mr. Phillips. This time there is no germ to save us. It is the little germ that is killing us. Either we stop this barbaric attack on our government and our society, an attack by ourselves on ourselves, or the forces of destruction will succeed. America as it was, as it was meant to be, will cease to exist.
PHILLIPS: Dr. Pierson, let me see if I've got this right, the destruction of our educational system, our internet, our economy, our political system, our democracy, and now a virus we cannot escape. That's not a very pretty picture.
PIERSON: I think you are beginning to see patterns in the strategies of the destructionists, Mr. Phillips. You're a very quick student. I wouldn't mind having you in my class. As you see, there are many more colors of pins on the map behind me. Missions attacking our election systems and democratic processes, others to capture our legislatures and public agencies. One that turns liberty into an excuse to commit hundreds of thousands of cases of negligent homicide during a pandemic and collapse our health care system. Even more dangerous machines are intent on converting the establishment clause of the Constitution into a portal for the establishment of a theocratic-fascist government in which, of course, the Constitution as we know it will play little or no part at all. Other branches of the assault will strip the rights we now enjoy and reduce them all to a single right, the right to comply with destructionist authority. The enslavement of women and the installation of a Hand Maid's Tale in America has already begun. If not checked, will make slaves of 99.9% of the women of America. The right to be silent is all that will remain of anyone's free speech rights.
PHILLIPS: That is a sad prospect indeed. Not something any of us would like to contemplate. I can only hope the work you and your colleagues are doing will help to put an end to this war of the worlds. I and my listening audience can't thank you enough for so generously offering us your time and your expert knowledge.
PIERSON: Not at all, Mr. Phillips. This has been a most engaging interview. I'm impressed by your excellent questions. I only hope my responses have helped you and your listeners to understand a little better what we are up against. If you have any more questions, please don't hesitate to come back. I'd be glad to try to answer them.
[COLOMBO FASHION, PHILLIPS TURNS TO ASK ONE MORE QUESTION AS HE IS LEAVING]
PHILLIPS: Uh, professor, there is one more thing I'd like to ask you.
PIERSON: Yes, of course. What is it?
PHILLIPS: Well, these invaders are not Martians from another planet. As you mentioned, they are ourselves, our own kind with whom we are engaged in this war that may well determine the future of our planet, and certainly the future of our species. What I wonder is, how did we get to the point where we find ourselves in a savage battle with ourselves? When did this all start, and why?
[ASIDE TO THE LISTENERS: ] Dr. Pierson is rising from her chair and leaning over her desk. She's writing something on a slip of paper and now walking over [SOUND OF FOOTSTEPS] and handing it to me.
PIERSON: I think you should put that question to this person, Mr. Phillips. I believe he knows more about the answer to your question than anyone on the earth. I'm sure he would be glad to talk with you. Oh, and Mr. Phillips, Don't forget to vote.
PHILLIPS: Thank you again, Doctor Pierson. I will be sure to check it out.
[SOUND OF OFFICE DOOR OPENING AND CLOSING, ECHOING FOOTSTEPS]
PHILLIPS: I'm standing down the hallway from Professor Pierson's office at the head of the stairway to the first floor of the Dickinson Building. I think I'll take a look at the note the professor just handed me.
[READING ALOUD] Julian Barnhardt, U.C. Berkeley Archeological Research Facility. Archeology? I wonder what that could possibly have to do with [PAUSE] oh, there's a little personal note beneath the name she wrote. Hmm. Well I'd better be on my way before they start putting journalists on the no-fly list. California is a breath of fresh air, but it's a long walk from New Jersy. This has been a most interesting assignment. "I'll turn you over to our studios in New York. Over to you, New York.
ANNOUNCER: You have been listening to the voice Carl Phillips on assignment from Princeton New Jersey and the CBS presentation of ACT 2, Part 1 of "War of the Trumps". We now invite our listening audience to take a brief intermission and mind-cleaning at our War of the Trumps Lounge, high atop the Facebook swamp, overlooking the smoldering ruins of Elon Musk's Twitter Building, where good friends meet to chat and gnosh, Asahi beer is on tap, and Jameson is always close by for any emergency. Jack? Well, we got that,too. See you there.
[CUCKOO SONG]
[MUSIC]
next stop →
↑ back to the future.
Now it's time to say good-bye ↓
←start over, if you like..
We invite all of you to visit our War of the trumps ('WOT Lounge') Lounge, facebook group, where Asahi beer is on tap, a bottle of Jameson's is always on hand for any emergency, and chatting with friends is the best show in town. See you all there. Thank you, and good night.
←New bones in old caves.
