The Decadent Worker

“Kerry, do you believe someone can be subjected to mind control technology and yet retain their own identity?”

“Yes I do, because of the definition of man. We define man in terms of his behavior. So a man is everything that influences him to the extent that it influences his behavior, because that is what we mean when we say ‘he did this or that’ — the collection of impersonal forces, both within and without, causing him to do ‘this or that.’” This metaphysical realization first occurred to me intuitively, one night at Subic Bay in the Philippines, when I was standing under a tree in a light rain storm, watching lightning flash in the sky beyond a distant horizon. I discovered confirmation for it in The Upanishads and in discussions with fellow Marine, Raoul Gayon, and placed a rap about the whole notion in the mind o one of my fictional characters, Raoul Santana, in a novel I started in New Orleans — leaving it unfinished because my friends all said Santana was too intellectual to be convincing.

I regarded my discovery as the answer to the debate about free will versus determination — neither side being correct because the determining forces are what we mean by the will. And I was so proud of my great idea (which I fancied was heretofore uncontemplated in the West) that I could not be bothered, just then, with the common sense implications of what I was saying in sanctioning mind control — which seemed both to amuse and please Brother-in-law.

Recently I had written a poem about this experience of penetrating the relation of will to environment and when I tried to explain it to anyone who did not immediately grasp it, I became impatient. Swept up in the beauty of an abstraction, I was not paying attention at all to what was happening with this man in this room in this particular here and now. So I freely granted him permission, in effect, to brainwash me. (I imagine a Zen master could cite this as an example of the dangers of partial enlightenment!)… (pp. 72-3)

“Kerry, the Fascists are now experimenting with advanced thought control techniques. You know, there are Fascists in this country/. Among them is Henry Luce, who publishes Time and Life magazines. They are planning to build a society comprised of nothing but human robots, with transistors installed in the backs of their heads, so that they will be absolutely obedient to subliminal messages.”

“Yeah. There are people who say it can’t happen here. But I guess it can.”

“Remember the saying about how you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make him drink?”

“A friend of mine used to say, ‘You can lead a horse to water, but a pencil must be lead.’”

With characteristic unfairness about such things, Brother-in-law seemed annoyed at the irrelevant nature of my remark… (p. 141)
— The Dreadlock Recollections (c) by Kerry Wendell Thornley, 1984

A pathetic desire to believe I’m expressing myself cryptically continues. Unless I “tag” my communications with a clearing of my throat or by saying “quote end quote” they aren’t cant — to which I almost never resort anyway. Confusion often arises when what I say in plain English coincidentally sounds like I’m saying that I’m talking in cant. What is more, I’m telling the truth and the gullibility of people who believe those who say I am lying for some incredible ulterior reason not only makes me look like a monster who would lie (illegible after this point)

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