Darkness in the Times, Brightness in the Skies:
Can Perpetrationalism Survive Persecutionalism?
3/26/97
The news is awash with the reports from Rancho Santa Fe, CA,
where a group of people have collectively taken their lives
in willing and orderly fashion...
Problem is, the internet itself seems to be bearing the
brunt of the blame for the whole thing. The Higher
Source crewmembers made their living largely from
web design and consultation, and maintained an existence
there as well as publishing essays and doctrinal beliefs
on a separate website, much like the 1cP's webresentation
in operationality, if not belief. The mysterious manner
in which these events have unfolded so far has made the group's
website the most authoritative explanation of their
actions (mirrored currently at
www.artbell.com),
and much of the media coverage has been very negative
in regard to the net's role in the demise of this group.
One "expert" on tv was saying, "First we have these child
pornographers, and now these cults luring innocent people
in through the internet. It has to stop." It's weird,
but it's not new: killing the messenger is a traditional
theme of society. Imagine if the telephone had just been
invented, and at the same usage level as the internet is
now--you might have one, you might not 'cause "I just
don't trust those things. How do I know somebody else
isn't taping everything I say?" Then the 900 sex numbers
would come in, and you'd have "experts" going on tv and
saying, "these telephones allow children to access
pornography, and give people a way to find out your
address, and give robbers a way to tell if you are at
home or not. We've gotta rip 'em out of the wall..."
But I digress. Where we were headed: the unfortunate side
effect of the freewill religious decision acted upon by the crew
of Higher Source could very well be that a subsequent period
of high-level scrutiny will begin involving online sects,
religious and spiritual
organizations, and cyberreligions such as P^ism, on the scale of
the recent attention being paid to American militia groups
and survivalist advocates...
I should probably stress at this point that Perpetrationalism
is by no means a "cult", and is not interested in the deliverance
methods employed by Higher Source and recent similar actions by
other sects. Perpetrationalism is a spiritual Flintstone Vitamin.
It shuns rigid belief structure, 'cause in the end you've gotta
figure out the best way to do your thing, or else whose thing
are you doing? The truth is different for everybody. The path
is different every time...
At any rate, we'll Represent 'til they shut us down, I suppose.
But we hope you'll take this idea with you, even if you take nothing
else: go out there and do your
own thing, and do it to death
until it's a Thang, and if you wanna you can take it to higher
states until you reach an ecstatic 'n' rapturous place in your
soul that can put you in that orbit where words are just as
meaningless 'n' silly as the stuff on this website, and then
you'll know you don't have to leave Here to visit There for
awhile...
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