Monsters of the ID

In the news everybody blames everybody else for what is wrong with this world. The real culprit is mankind's subconscious, the Id. There are monsters that bypass the conscious mind where most people have learned to deal with injustice, racism, and prejudice -- or at least that is what we tell ourselves. We are horrified by the savage and brutal treatment of women and children -- out loud and in public -- but revert to our pernicious and un-enlightened roots of ourselves where we push women and children aside as we, the males of the species, stride to the forefront to be tended to. After all, women and children being kicked and pushed aside as we trample on them and shove them aside is the way the world works. The strongest publicly claim that we stoop down and help the weaker to safer and more stable/secure positions. The strongest publicly claim they would take a bullet for a loved one, throw themselves in front of danger, and would lay down their lives, sacrifice a limb, give up their place in line so that women and children can be saved even if it means the strongest take the fall or give up their lives to make the future safe for women and children. Isn't that why women and children get the seats in rescue vehicles first? Isn't that what men tell themselves when asked for a poll or hold up their hands to be counted for their contribution to the future?

It's a lie.

In the secret recesses of the human heart -- or in the midst of the worst danger -- the truth comes out. Men shove women and children aside as they make a bee line for the safest and best seats in the rescue vehicles. They will not be left behind. As long as they survive, all is well with the world -- and with them. If the women and children die, so what? After all, they say when it is all over, at this point what does it matter? The women and children are dead and nothing these strong and virile men can do will ever bring them back. Dead is dead. At least when the cameras are rolling and their perfidious actions are done. If you don't see it on the news or in some edited footage that fits on the 11 PM news, you believe what you see. Their crocodile tears are real and the mangled, bloody, and dead bodies remain while they weep an ocean of tears and claim, "If only I could have saved them," or maybe, "Why God? They were so innocent, so precious. Why not take me instead?"

No one saw them as they shoved the weaker innocents aside. All that is left is the record of their tears and remorse and their dumbfounded shock at the injustice of it all. Oscar winners all.

As long as they survived, all that matters is the record. No one needs to know the truth as it is only the truth as they tell it while talking out of both sides of their mouths.

Somewhere inside their minds they may even believe their distress is real. The Id, the subconscious part of their minds, is silent, has submerged once again to the depths of the mind and has been replaced by that anguished cry, "Why God?" 

I recently saw a news report where a liberal woman talked about how her husband, one of the first volunteers going to the aid of Syrian refugees in Greece had changed when he came back from refugees. He spoke about how strong, virile young men shoved injured and drowning women and children aside while these young men surged to the front of the line, ignoring the calls for help and the drowning innocents as they helped themselves first. After all, to their minds, if not to the liberal volunteers' minds, women and children were expendable. They were not.

Here in the western world, we abhor and condemn such blatant disregard for the innocent and we say so loudly and often -- in public or in front of our friends and neighbors. Who knows what we really feel when everyone is gone and we are left alone or when we fall asleep and the subconscious takes the stage? Do all of our prejudices and indiscreet opinions surge forth as we imagine the worst? Do the monsters inside of all of us take over and revel in the deaths, blood, and savagery that take center stage? Do the monsters hidden in our subconscious gibber with unholy glee once the lights are off and the stage is open and waiting?

I was reminded of what lies inside of the most generous and helpful of us hidden in the deepest recesses of the subconscious mind as I watched an old favorite science fiction movie, Forbidden Planet,  with Walter Pigeon, Anne Frances, and Leslie Nielsen. Doctor Morbius warned the rescue ship not to land as he would not be responsible for their safety. Morbius did not need their assistance and would not welcome them if the crew refused to heed his warnings.

Morbius had been alone on Altair IV for 20 years with only his work and his daughter for company. He remember what had happened to the rest of the crew of the Bellerophon. They had died at the hands of some unknown and immensely powerful force that resided on Altair IV.

The crew landed and the powerful invisible monster killed some of the crew when it became apparent that the captain, Leslie Nielsen, was determined to take Morbius back to Earth to inform the authorities what had happened to the crew of the Bellerophon and what he had learned of the original inhabitants, the Krell. Morbius refused to share his findings and was adamantly opposed to returning to Earth. That is when the attacks began.

Not even the immense power at the crew's disposal could stop the invisible monster stalking and killing them. Morbius urged the captain and his crew to take off and avoid further blood shed. The captain refused. Worst of all, Morbius's daughter, Altaira, was determined to go to Earth with the crew, sealing her fate and putting her in serious danger. Morbius begged his daughter to change her mind, but her fate was sealed.

The powerful invisible monster attacked Morbius, the captain, and Altaira at Morbius's home. When Morbius ordered Robby the robot to stop the monster, even after the ship's doctor told Morbius that he, Morbius, was the source of the danger, Robby the robot shut down, caught in a logic conflict programmed into him not to harm people. Even with further proof that the monster was a product of Morbius's subconscious, the same fate that the Krell discovered when they built the pinnacle of their science and technology and programmed a computer that work with the power of the mind, ending their technologically marvelous achievements in a day and a night, leaving on the products of their genius in the form of the machine encompassing more than a 40-mile square and plunging to the very depths of the core of the planet behind as evidence of their achievement.

The primitive subconscious mind teemed with their prejudices, fears, and imagination was unleashed by the power of their machines and spelled the end of their existence 200,000 years before the Bellerophon landed and Morbius discovered the power, boosted his IQ, and learned to access their machines. Morbius's subconscious mind was unleashed, given ultimate power, and murdered all who opposed him. Unstoppable and relentless in his pursuit of knowledge, the monsters of Morbius's Id were unleashed and he was left alone with his innocent daughter to live a life free of other people until Nielsen's crew landed on Altair IV and urged the monsters in Morbius's subconscious mind to life.

The only way to stop the slaughter and devastation was to blow up the planet and thus the Krell technology left behind.

The monsters of the Id are powerful and frightening and so much easier to see when we are faced with them in fictions and a lot less visible when they are too close to us. We see the same monsters when Babylon 5 was on TV when a university professor turned archaeologist enlists Dr. Steven Franklin's assistance in helping him to figure out what he found on Ikarra VII. It was organic technology, far advanced compared to what the Earth had, mirroring the technological advances of the Vorlon's that would propel Earth technology ahead -- far ahead.

The problem was that the technology bonded with the professor's assistant, who was willing to murder to further the advance of knowledge and science, setting loose the Ikarrans' doomsday weapon and endangering all life on Babylon 5 because the inhabitants of hundreds of worlds and civilizations were not pure Ikarran as determined thousands of years ago by Ikarran priests and politicians. The monsters of the Ikarran Id embodied in the organic technology and originating with the scientist who built the doomsday weapon were incompatible with the millions of aliens living on Babylon 5. After all, the Ikarrans died out a million years ago so pure Ikarran blood no longer existed and therefore all life was to be destroyed.

This scenario of perfection and purity has been the central theme of literature for science fiction and fantasy enthusiasts for a very long time and the ideal of purity is being played out before us right now in Europe and the Western world, and in fact all over the planet, today, right now. The measurement is determined by religion and inadequately  protected by law. Religion has done a very poor job of protecting and creating peace because the rules set for by different religions are wholly incompatible with peace as long as the monsters of the Id remain inside us and unknown to the more enlightened wisdom of the evolution of humanity. Muslims are stuck in the 7th century. Christians are stuck in an ever changing kaleidoscope of values and ethics that seldom keeps pace with modern sensibilities. The Jews do a better job of matching intent with power and generosity towards others. Buddhists with their long history of anti-violence and peaceful enlightenment lag are overturned by the origins of the people who have converted or lived their whole lives with the Buddhist teachings and succumb inevitably to the monsters of the Id. No religion currently practiced on this planet at this point in time is without its flaws and all are moot in the face of the subconscious where the monsters of the Id dwell and flourish hidden in the darkness.

Blacks blame whites and whites blame blacks. Browns blame browns and everybody blames everybody else. We try our best to live good lives keeping the touchstone of religion in the forefront, but religions made by man are also corrupted by man depending on who has the most power, the most insight, the most control and all religions made by man and purportedly based on the word of god or Allah or Jehovah, Jesus Christ, or Buddha are still the work of man and thus subject to revision and interpretation. There are moderate Muslims and there are extremist Muslims. The same is true of Christians, Buddhists, Hindus, native Americans, and every version of religion that begin and end with man. The stories abound about the origins of religion, but ultimately it is mankind writing the words down and mankind following the dictates with less and greater success. Miracles happen and are reportedly of the deity [insert name here] and thus sacrosanct . . . as long as the deity conforms with your personal views . . . and is untouched by the most basic of human emotions or view or mind or thoughts or dreams or imagination. The only thing left is LOVE.

LOVE is at the heart of all mankind and trumps everything else. Wherever you begin, if the answer is not LOVE then the answer is wrong and will end in tears and often death.

Look at a situation where you and your opponent disagree. Whatever your position, the moment you offer violence instead of listening and working together, you have failed. Even if it is an idea you disagree about or a possession you both contend over, the moment you refuse the option of sharing or using the possession or looking at the idea from each other's viewpoint, you have failed. It may seem successful if you end up with the item or the idea in contention, but you are not successful. If you win by resorting to struggling over possession or having the upper hand -- or the moral high ground -- you lose. You have failed.

The moment you lie or obfuscate or keep things to yourself, you lose. You have failed.

The moment you default to quoting chapter and verse from your religious book of choice to prove you are right and they are wrong, you lose. You have failed.

Whatever triumph you feel is fleeting. You have already lost. You have failed.

If the end result deviates by an amoeba's cell, you have failed. You lost.

LOVE is the only answer, the only law, and the only success in life.

There is no first in LOVE.  There is no choice if LOVE is at the heart. There is no wrong if there is LOVE. Ultimately, LOVE is the only answer, the only response, the only success. There are no winners and no losers when LOVE is at the heart and soul.

The rest is Ego and the broad road to allow the monsters of the Id to take control and destroy everything.

LOVE is the only answer.

Whatever deviates from LOVE is failure and you have lost. 

We cannot afford purity. The only thing we can afford is LOVE.

That is all. Disperse.

Forbidden Planet

Forbidden Planet has always been my favorite science fiction movie since I first saw it as a child at the theaters and on television. I was captivated by the story, which is what was meant to happen by filmmakers who took some liberties with the original book by Irving Block and Allen Adler, a fact I didn't know until I found the book earlier this week.

I am no stranger to the way Hollywood changes books to fit the Hollywood version of happily ever after when there is no happy and sometimes no ever after. Very seldom does Hollywood stick to the script, except in the case of Cecil B. DeMille, and that is mostly because he remade his blockbusters at least three times and used the same script each time. The problem is that even DeMille changed the script to fit his vision of what the book should look like; I know that because I actually read Ben Hur:A Tale of the Christ, for instance, by Lew Wallace, who also wrote several other historical novels. That is a story for another time.

Although director, Fred M. Wilcox, stuck pretty closely to the book's dialogue and story, he softened Edward Morbius and left out the dialogue that covers the real reason why Morbius was such a danger to mankind and the universe and chose to die with the planet. Morbius committed the ultimate sin; he wanted to create life.

Do you remember the scene at the Gateway -- it was called the Teacher in the movie? Morbius at down at the machine with the probes touching his head and he "sculpted" a figure of Altaira, his daughter. Morbius said the figure was alive because Altaira was alive in his memory from moment to moment. Big lie! And what about Alta's friends? How did they get to Altair IV and remain exactly the same for 2000 centuries (that is 200,000 years in Earth time when math is applied)? Would not animals brought from Earth to Altair IV have adapted to their new world with protective coloring and attributes? Wouldn't they also have been destroyed in the night and day that destroyed the Krell? And yet there are monkeys (one of five different species, all males), two female deer obviously in their first year of life, and a Bengal tiger roaming the planet far from any other herds or visible life, and they just happened into Morbius's compound. Funny how the men from Earth spaceship C-57-D never glimpse any movement or signs of herds or life of any kind on Altaira IV when they arrived.

Also missing from the movie is Major Ostrow, the doctor, dissecting a titi monkey Captain J. J. Adams just happened to back over when they were trying to uncover Morbius's secret meetings with the Krell still alive and kicking on the planet. The rest of the monkeys were also absent, but that may be due to having to deal with five monkeys on the set. They weren't really needed since the point of the monkeys in the first place was deleted from the script.

Are you beginning to get what is missing? What Hollywood thought too shocking for the American family in 1956 to grasp and see splashed across the scene in Disney's best special effects?

The real reason for the Krell's demise in the book is hinted at in several ways on the screen, and the annihilation of an entire species becomes more of a punishment for usurping the Universe's -- or God's -- power. It is the same power that Dr. Morbius usurps and why he wants to hold onto the planet without Earth involvement. He has gone beyond Earth's power and he wants to keep it that way.

Major Ostrow dies in the movie after using the Krell Gateway to expand his mind, but in the book he does not do so rashly. He is detailed, at his own request, to watch over Morbius and Alta, while the captain makes the ship ready to rocket back to Earth with Morbius and Alta in tow -- even if they have to be tied and gagged. Doc takes the opportunity to expand his own mind slowly and safely over the course of the night while Morbius is in the hands of psychotropic medication that keeps him awake -- mostly because Morbius is afraid to sleep -- and blissfully drugged. Short bursts from the Gateway give Doc what Morbius missed when he was first exposed and lay in a coma for a night and a day -- knowledge. What Morbius has spent 20 years trying to achieve Doc gets in his safe short bursts of Gateway use. Doc understands what really destroyed the Krell and what is at the heart of the Force that has torn apart some of the ship's men. At least Hollywood left that part alone and got most of it right.

It was Morbius's souped up Id that was sneaking out when he was asleep to tear the ship's men limb from limb and sabotaging their ability to contact Earth. That monster of the unconscious mind no longer ruled by social convention or reason and fueled by the unlimited power of the Krell furnaces is determined to keep Earth from knowing what Morbius has done and wishes to continue doing -- create life.

There it is, the reason behind Morbius's furtive actions and his warning to stay away from the planet or be destroyed by the Force. (This is a different Force from the Force that a Jedi uses, although it could be a taste of what perverted Anakin Skywalker into Darth Vader, but that's another story altogether and happened much, much later.)

Alta's friends are Morbius's attempt to create life, life that when dissected could not live. The vital organs are missing and what is left between what organs are part of the animal's makeup is a kind of stringy gelatinous mass like bloody stuffing. Remember, Morbius is not a biologist for a philologist, a scientist of words and languages. He has probably the most basic knowledge about how life is put together and thus he fills in the blanks in his knowledge with the bloody stuffing. It is unlikely that the animals even eat and certainly couldn't procreate since that would take a more profound understanding of biology than Morbius possesses.

In the book, Alta tells Captain Adams that her friends just appeared one day when she was a child and had been there ever since. Animals that do not age or procreate or kill for food or grow old and die, but what a life is the absence of true life. Life means growth and change and inevitably death. Morbius hasn't gotten that right yet.

The book is a good one and I recommend it for fans of the movie and for fans of science fiction.

While I enjoy the movie still, I find myself looking for clues in what Hollywood decided should be on the screen for what was central to the book. Morbius confronts his monster at the end and Doc does die, but Doc dies of exhaustion and not from a single blast of using the Gateway. Doc was much smarter than that. Morbius is alive and still on his feet at the end of the book. He sets the self-destruct sequence and choose to go down with the planet while Captain Adams and what remains of his crew fly away with Robby the robot and Alta, thus destroying the might and power of the Krell and their drive to create life that killed them -- and Morbius -- in the end.

While the idea of creating life without a god's sanction might have been anathema to the mind in 1956, it is all too familiar in the 21st century where life can be -- and has been -- created in a test tube and the technique for cloning and growing human cells in Petri dishes and test tubes. Modern scientists regularly create life from retroviruses and lethal strains of bacteria to used as weapons to cloned sheep and very like humans as well as growing skin for burn victims. I wonder how far we are from creating a furnace powered by the heart of this planet that will fuel the dreams and nightmares of our collective Ids and Egos and end our race in a night and a day. Moreover, I wonder if that is what happened to Atlantis. Did Atlantean scientists tap too deep into the Earth's core to fuel their experiments with creating life and awaken the volcano on their island to their destruction? Who knows? Not all such scientific imaginings are the realm of fiction.