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Book
Review Belleville, Ontario, Canada: Guardian
Books, 2000)
by Steven Yates
Prepare yourself for life in Bedford, a small and still somewhat traditional town in southern Alabama, in what remains of the Bible Belt – a place perhaps not unlike Ellen Williams’ own hometown of Leroy, not far from Mobile. Only the state’s official name is no longer Alabama. Although still called by their old names by (mostly elderly) residents, states are no longer recognized as governmental entities. They have been incorporated into larger units called regions. Alabama and what were other Southern states are combined into Region Six. The United States itself is now North America II. Its flag has been abolished and replaced by the World Vision Banner, now flying over schools and public buildings. A new "pledge of allegiance" is said before this flag. The U.S. national anthem has been replaced by a global anthem. Under World Vision, an ethos of egalitarianism and universal tolerance – for everything except Biblical Christianity – has been embraced. This ethos permeates every aspect of education and public life, along with belief in the inevitable beneficence of strong, centralized government. The global motto is tolerance today, tolerance forever. The main story is told in the form of an extended flashback, as Horace Adam Pruitt Jr. (who goes by Adam), a history professor and presumed member of the cultural elite of his generation, delivers a speech recalling the Bedford-in-transition of his teen years. That Bedford still contained pockets of unorganized resistance to the global vision of universal tolerance and equality. The occasional Baptist preacher still preached from an un-feminized or otherwise uncorrupted Bible. It was a time not far removed from when homosexuals could not wed or adopt children or collect benefits for partners from employers. As Pruitt invites his audience to remember with him, the story itself begins. The main plot focuses on the trial of Horace Adam Pruitt Sr. and his wife Virginia Pruitt, during the period of Bedford-in-transition. Adam Jr.’s parents are on trial for psychological and emotional child abuse. Their crime: having compelled their son, then 14, to attend traditional Bethel Baptist Church since early childhood. Adam has already been removed from his parents’ home by the government and placed in a youth facility – at his instigation. Children’s rights against their parents have been taken very seriously since the ratifying of the United World Children’s Rights Treaty. Adam had come under the influence of the Bedford High School chapter of the Alabama Independent Thinkers – who disseminate World Vision propaganda in government schools, conflicting with those of Adam’s parents and of the church they attend on such matters as universal tolerance, homosexuality and children’s rights. Interspersed with courtroom scenes are scenes from Bedford High School and a few from Bethel Baptist Church and a liberal church, Oak Park Baptist (which has "reinterpreted," e.g., Romans 1:24-27). Bedford High is a place simmering with rage. Nonwhite students – the majority – are allowed to vent spleen about the mistreatment of their ancestors; "Euro" students must listen wordlessly and lower their heads in shame. Some are so driven by guilt that they voluntarily go to the front of classes and tearfully apologize to minority students. They have learned this mindset in required sensitivity classes. It isn’t always enough. Occasionally the rage of non-"Euro" students boils over into a fight with weapons, resulting in a visit to the local emergency room for the loser. Other students are so inured to all this that they barely react. At Bedford High, every student has a computer. Teachers dispense bureaucratically approved lessons on diskettes and do not deviate from the World Vision party line – thus every student in the region gets exactly the same education. Ownership of certain books, especially history books, with too old a copyright date is illegal; the globalist educrats do not want people to be confused. One recalls Orwell’s adage that "Those who control the past, control the future; and those who control the present, control the past." The history lessons dispensed by one teacher stress the heinous nature of that period of history when their land was called the United States, colonized by purveyors of greed and imperialism from Europe who wiped out Native Americans and enslaved the ancestors of African Americans. The war that began in 1860 is now called the War of Southern Racist Rebellion. The America that preceded World Vision slaughtered hundreds of thousands of Japanese at Hiroshima and Nagasaki with atomic weapons. Thus the writers from that old and discredited Eurocentric culture of intolerance from Shakespeare to Hawthorne to Poe and its inventors such as Thomas Edison have been ratcheted down in high-tech, online texts to make room for manufactured claims about the high poetic achievements of the Sioux. As they dispense their approved lessons, teachers take care to avoid forbidden words like slave and plantation. They spend as much time keeping order as they do teaching. There is no tracking by ability or distinguishing individual differences (besides approved racial/ethnic ones) – this would violate egalitarianism. For the same reason, grades have been abolished in favor of computer generated "progress evaluations." Because everybody is equal, students who have not learned to read or use the computer keyboard are given computer video games to play instead. Teachers are expected to reproduce all their notes on audio tape so they don’t feel inferior. Because everybody is equal, even student government at Bedford High must reflect not student votes but the ethnic make-up of the student body – and also the ratio of homosexual to heterosexual students. Lesbianism is rampant; girls flirt openly in class with other girls. Teachers dare not open their mouths about it. To be sure, some students seem to barely respond to their surroundings at all. They sit and stare at their computer screens or off into space, terminally bored. Bedford High just reflects the larger culture-in-transition, which has "progressed" to the point where open homosexuality is accepted. Pedophilia, meanwhile, has become an "alternative lifestyle choice" clamoring to come under the banner of equality and universal tolerance; a pedophile lobby, Love of Children, is working to have laws against pedophilia overturned. There are hints that one of the characters testifying at the trial of Horace Sr. and Virginia Pruitt on their son’s behalf, a coach at Bedford High, might be a pedophile. Against this background is Bethel Baptist Church, whose pastor John Winston still preaches without compromise that homosexuality is wrong because of the Biblical condemnation. In this new culture, such teachings amount to "religious indoctrination" at best, and at worst, raw and open hate. (Adam learned about "religious indoctrination" in his Establishing Values course.) Preachers must now be careful what they say in pulpits; otherwise, they receive a visit from a Department of Human Equality social worker, their church’s tax exempt status is endangered and they could be arrested for violating hate speech statutes. Pastor Winston finds himself with a choice – stop condemning homosexual conduct from his pulpit or face arrest. He sticks with the Bible, is arrested, tried and imprisoned, and finds himself tending plants for a living when released months later. In the meantime, the Pruitts have won in court; their son has moved back. But their victory is Pickwickian. They face periodic visits from a Department of Human Equality bureaucrat who goes from room to room and compels them to remove books and religious symbols that violate the court agreement that returned their son home. This is a society in which "intolerance" is severely punished, and includes not just speech but attitudes and thoughts as revealed through, e.g., one’s facial expressions and body language. Black youths receive "bondage rep" checks from the government until they reach age 22. Not only is prayer at public events the most distant of memories, but Christian groups are carefully monitored, unlike other religious groups (which have names like Islam for America, Light for Lucifer, Mother Earth’s Children). The war on "intolerance" long ago reached into the workplace. An employer can face a civil rights lawsuit for allowing an employee to keep a nativity scene on his desk at Winter Solstice. In this society-in-transition, the divorce rate is up to 62 percent. Seventy percent of the incomes of those who work go to pay taxes. An economic system controlled by the internationalist regime has continued exporting well-paying jobs outside of what was the United States, furthering North America II’s descent toward third world status. Firearms, of course, are strictly controlled; gun owners and all those living with them must be fingerprinted and photographed. School counselors drive girls to abortion clinics, and no one gives it a second thought. Finally, the elderly (example: the woman born in the 1920s referred to in the first paragraph) and others to old to work can be involuntarily euthanized; the practice is called "age dispatchment." One such "dispatchment" occurs late in the novel, the flashback having ended. It is Adam Pruitt’s own mother, a now-elderly but still traditional-minded Christian widow. Adam signed off on the order; and it is clear that he senses he’s lost something profound. Despite all his elite education, he can’t express it. The scene could be viewed as symbolic of a callous and suicidal society’s "dispatching" its entire history and heritage. For Bedford’s transition is complete. World Vision dominates; those on the "religious fringe" are warehoused in Regulated Religious Residences (RRR’s). Pedophiles now demonstrate for removing their last remaining legal restriction: parental consent. What was Bethel Baptist Church is now the Bethel Museum for Human Rights, where exhibits include photos from the first homosexual wedding in Bedford. In the new Bedford, neighborhoods are gated and property is surrounded by electrified fences. Security is a booming industry, because crime has skyrocketed. Police are everywhere, but do little except for nudging every working person’s taxes up still higher. Bedford: A World Vision is the most compelling work of dystopian fiction to appear since the PC era began. It is this era’s 1984 or Brave New World. The characters are well-drawn, and could be the people next door. Interestingly, we never meet or encounter references to whoever is running the World Vision empire. There are occasional flashes of sardonic humor – as in a reference to the U.S. Attorney General of the 1990s as "Jane Reynolds." That reference, however, makes a serious point about how you-know-who, the actual attorney general who really did brand Christians as "cultists" and outlined her conception of who "cultists" were: people who believe in the Bible, support Christian causes, homeschool their children, believe in the Second Amendment and distrust large government. The book’s only drawbacks are some occasional editing problems – perhaps a sign of an independent author working with very limited resources. The text needed one more proofing to eliminate a few bugs (an occasional typo, several uses of a wrong name for one of the characters, initial difficulty in ascertaining who is speaking in certain scenes). Clearly, too, this book was written before September 11. This being the post 9-11 world, I find it difficult to believe we will reach a point where the American flag is actually illegal to fly. However, I’ll build a hesitation into this criticism: people are fickle, and times do change. Perhaps given the right kind of media campaign delivered under the right circumstances (e.g., a blitzkrieg about how "a single nation cannot carry on the war against terrorism by itself" following another attack somewhere), an eventual assault on our national symbols in favor of global ones does not strain credibility so badly after all. This is a hugely important work, the occasional typo notwithstanding. I’ve no doubt it would never have been issued by a major publisher even if it were technically perfect; nor will it be written about by any of the usual reviewers for highbrow magazines and journals. The product of a Christian as well as Southern thinker, it violates too many taboos. But it successfully portrays the road this culture is presently on. Bedford: A World Vision is a warning. Either we make a 180-degree turn or the real World Vision will soon be here, and it may not take 20 years. January 18, 2002
Copyright © 2002 LewRockwell.com |
