Chapter 6
The Shadow Men.....1980
“Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? The shadow knows.”
-Walter B Gibson, “The Shadow” comics, Street &Smith. 1930
“Is everyone in attendance, Mr. Brown?” Blue asked quietly to his protégé.
“Yes. Well, all except for Vulcan.”
“Vulcan?” he asked incredulously. “Who the hell...”
“Opps, sorry. I meant to say Mr. Gray. I’ve...”
“Obviously have your own set of names for our dear friends, eh?” he laughed.
“Yes,” Brown said with a visible blush. “I’ll explain lat...”
“Later? Yes, we can talk later. Now to this circus we have today. Let’s focus on that, eh?”
“Uggmm, yes sir.”
“Don’t apologize to me. I’m sure your monikers are far more amusing than ours. We’ve just got to get through this meeting, o.k?”
“Sure.”
Raising his voice above his prior whispers to his right hand man, Blue’s voice boomed with subtle strength and authority:
“I now call this meeting to order.”
At that, the wall of TV monitors blinked to life; and displayed the disparate visages of the participants in the virtual meeting. He had everyone’s undivided attention, such as it was.
Speaking first, as to usurp Blue’s authority, Black began.
“How can we be assured that this meeting isn’t being monitored, Blue?” he asked in a sardonic voice.
Without hesitation, Blue responded. He had expected the typical outburst from Black, and natural skepticism from all the other attendees.
“My hold on technology and information systems is complete, my friend. There isn’t anyone on the planet even thinking of this technology yet, much less using it. I instituted this new method of meeting to assure safety and anonymity for us all. Our meetings now can be held more frequently than annually, if we so decide. We now can address urgent issues without too much distress. I so loathe making decisions without everyone’s blessing, and this system helps me avoid that thorny problem. So, once again, I prove my objectivity by reducing only my influence.”
“Sure. We’ll see...” grumbled Black.
“Well, with that business out of the way, we can begin! First of all I would like to welcome, and introduce everyone to, our newest member...Red. Welcome, Red we look forward to your contributions and participation in this most august group.”
Nodding like a Hawaiian doll on a dashboard of an old ‘67 Chevy, the elderly Chinese man smiled and tried to understand what his interpreter was telling him. Culturally, he was oblivious to the self-depreciating jibe Blue inferred through his choice of words, so he responded most seriously...thought with little sincerity.
“It is with honor that we participate. With much gratitude!”
Blue continued on with his introduction.
“For the edification of our members, Red fills the vacancy of White...at the advisement of Black. Since White’s death in 1978, his seat.... that of member at large.... has been vacant. Black, would you share your logic with us as to the shift in your perspective, since this position was yours in a manner of speaking?”
A look of pure hatred flashed over Black’s countenance as he considered Blue’s request. Thousands of miles away, through the nearly instantaneous, digitally transmitted, satellite network. The only one in existence.
“I’d much rather know about this new toy you are showing us today with this meeting. When can we have it to utilize?”
“First things first....” said Blue patiently. “Answer mine, and I’ll answer yours.”
Angry at being outmaneuvered once again by the coordinator, Black snapped back:
“As you wish! I felt it no longer necessary to replace White with the successor in his office. His first successor died within 33 days from taking office, and his replacement desires to return to the dark ages. My constituents, and partners, no longer feel its necessary to have the unnecessary presence of a religious ‘conscience.’ We feel these are new times, and we don’t need to hold back global commerce through unnecessary and frankly superfluous twattle. What will be will be, and the age-old hold of religions on our lives is forever gone.”
“Well, that certainly was edifying, Black. Although, personally, I felt that Whites’ moderating balance on your mafia activities was very productive.”
“Don’t needle me! You’re playing with fire, and my patience for this charade is failing!”
As the caustic comments were flying, Red’s face registered glee at finally getting Black’s statements about religion translated. Even as Black was registering his disgust for Blue, and the meeting, Red spoke joyfully.
“Black is most correct in his view. Religions are not good for business. Very intrusive...unnecessary.”
“Here, here,” Blue called for order.
“We have a full agenda for today, lets not get stuck in a fruitless discussion on ideologies...a discussion we will surely disagree upon - regardless of its length, or voracity of arguments.”
“I agree,” interjected Green.
“Always the conciliator, and nurturer you are,” Blue observed silently.
“Thank you, Green...” he said aloud.
“And as for your questions about my new toys, Black...” Blue offered, to further quell the disruption, and to avoid a stalemate.
“I will turn over the technology when the populace can deal with it responsibly. Also, it serves all our purposes to have channels of communications that are both secure and invisible to everyone else. Keeping the commercial technology well behind us will insure that is always the case. Anyway, there is enough to exploit without throwing these things out prematurely. Agreed, council?”
Blue received unanimous nods in confirmation of his remarks. Outnumbered, and always outmaneuvered by Blue, Black accepted defeat while fuming with hate.
Sensing his mentor’s volatility, and the negative repercussions that could result if he exploded in anger, Tan spoke up:
“Yes, I think we all agree with you Blue. All of our futures look quite bright. I want to proceed onto our next strategic issue, managed global commercial expansion. Black and I, and many of you daresay, believe that we need lieutenants and captains to execute a thorough and reliable expansion.”
“Are you speaking of a new political tack, and the revised agenda that implies?” asked Yellow inquisitively.
“Well yes, in a way. But only as a support mechanism. In order to transfer technology, engineering, and predictable business practices, we need to build a professional army of leaders.”
“Well, aren't corporate executives what we decided work best?” responded Yellow.
“They’ve provided predictable and reliable results for my financial markets. We’re more solid now than ever, and I think any chance of stock market instability has been effectively eliminated,” she continued.
“Yes, and no,” commented
“Isn’t that good? How creative do you want the banking systems to be? For stability, and reliability...”
“Yellow,” Black interrupted, “listen to Tan, he and
“Ok,” she replied quietly, but kept a worried look on her face.
“We have tremendous growth opportunities ahead of us, the sky truly is the limit. But, we need people to carry it out. We need to grow ambitious and hungry leaders to inspire the working populations to develop new territories, leverage old assets, and provide for a stable expansion of economic activity. We want them to be bright, ambitious, and to lack experience so that they won’t be encumbered by conscience. Our present corps of corporate executives are too few, too old, too stuck in the past, and too conservative.... unwilling to change. We believe that we all need to provide funding for graduate business schools, and law schools, as factories for ruthless and aggressive M.B.A.s and attorneys. We need to encourage them with power, position, and money. Let them share a bit of the pie...under the direction of our corporate boards, of course.... so that they’ll feel empowered to rise above present corporate administrative functions and become growth leaders. This will provide the necessary incentive for the thousands of people below them, to fuel global expansion.”
“Isn’t that a bit risky? Giving them a little too much insight as to the bigger picture?” asked Yellow.
“No,” responded
Jumping in, Tan said joyfully:
“They won’t see anything but profit sharing and unbridled growth!”
“Won’t the politicians have to change as well; and see this as a threat to their power?” asked Blue.
“Not until its too late,” relied Black with a sinister laugh. “By then the power will be shifted fully into our corporations, and we’ll let them manage the politicians. That should free up a lot of our time and aggravation!”
“You said it,” chimed in Green.
“Thank God Carter and his yokels are finally gone!” added
“He only got there because of that bumbling fool Nixon got caught. How could he be so dumb? Well, at least he opened up
“Your banking practices and finance policies are very different from mine, we can be good partners, eh? I’d like to see your currency traded on the open market.”
“Yes, we see,” was Red’s guarded response.
He was having trouble with the whole concept of this group of people.
“They seem to control everything not Asian,” he worried. “Yet, I see no specific country. This is most troublesome. I miss something. I must be quiet and observe. Patience. I must retain patience. They cannot do so much, they are silly people. We see. We will see,” he said to himself.
The conversation continued to swirl around him, as he tried to retain his sense of balance...
“Glad to get Carter out! Human rights? Ha! What a fool!”
“He hamstrung things a little, but we can recoup. We’ve discredited him enough that no one will take him seriously.”
“Are you serious? He wouldn't sign anything that he didn’t read first, and agree with. Imagine the impudence!”
“Yes, he provided a bottle neck that gummed up the works a little. Damn moralists! When will they ever understand the way the world REALLY works?”
“Never! That's why you have to make sure that they never get too much power. Let them keep the image of the meek and disenfranchised. As long as they and their adherents are seen as weaklings, business failures, and romantic idealists, people will never take them seriously. They will listen better to more money, more things, and more power. Use that as your bait,” instructed Black.
Blue was at his limit, the meeting was degenerating into a sick display of greed and inbred bragging. “It’s time to end the meeting,” he decided, silently.
“Well, I think that we all agree with your proposal, Tan. Don’t we, people? I think I speak for everyone here in our support for your initiative of leadership training. We will all do what we can to support and encourage a significant shift in educational resources from the humanities to business and law. We’ll continue our shift from traditional academic pursuits to pragmatic professional trades with significant monetary incentives. Additionally, we’ll endeavor to bring status and reward systems to our corporations that will facilitate and financially support these changes. This will provide the expanded leadership necessary to implement our global expansion, and to achieve the integration of disparate elements. Can I have a vote?”
With a resounding “yes,” the group unanimously voted for the strategic shift from politicians to corporations as the leadership for their diverse, yet interrelated enterprises.
“Well, thank you for your attendance and participation today. I will notify you of our next meeting in the future. Goodbye all, ” Blue said, as he wrapped up the meeting, and cut off the outgoing video feeds.
*******
“That certainly was an interesting meeting,” commented Brown to Blue.
“Yes, as always. It disgusts me to see most of them, as I am sure it does for them to see and hear me.... but, we have no choice now, do we? This is the lesser of the evils, to run it once a year like this.
Thank God for this virtual meeting format. The one-on-one meetings were excruciating, and lasted days, no matter what I did. I needed a month to recover from them. This, well... Its not so bad.”
“Yes, having the ’off’ switch is kind of handy isn't it?”
“Whatever do you mean?” Blue said coyly, as he flicked on his bank of monitors on the opposite wall. They all came alive with animated faces and voices talking simultaneously. Brown laughed.
“I knew that you took it a little further than it was when I gave it to you! You left theirs on, while making it look like they were all shut down. Clever, very clever!”
“Well, I am the information broker am I not? And to do that adequately, I need constant inflows of information, eh? They won’t say much, and probably nothing I don’t already know, but it doesn’t hurt...”
“I suppose that you tapped their calls to each other as well?”
“But, of course! Again, it won’t be much of a surprise to them. But still, over time, people tend to forget or stop caring, if I observe things.
So, on a different subject Mr. Brown? What is this name ‘Vulcan,’ for our dear friend who controls industry, Mr. Gray?” Blue said with a humorous grin.
“I get bored at times, and I thought the names were silly; so I decided to give them some of my own.”
“You are a wonder to me, my dear and loyal friend.”
“Friend? I owe everything to you.”
“Please, you flatter me unduly. On your own, you are formidable...I simply assist. If it weren‘t for you, how would we implement anything? Your communications networks are simply brilliant. Newspapers, magazines, movies, TV, radio? What don’t you control?”
“My heart.”
“Please...you are too much. Tell me of your new humorous names?”
“Well, I think the colors are cheesy. Don’t they sound like they’re from a cheap international spy movie? They’re barely a step above letters...’Q,’ ‘X,’ etc.” Brown said with an elfish grin.
“You are so much like your dear father, my boy,” complimented Blue.
“Anyway, lets stay focused here, ok?” he said with a wide-open smile.
“I think its better to give them names appropriate with their character.
Black, obviously, is closer to Hades than anyone of us would want to be, eh?
Yellow is Hera . She was a wife of Zeus . That's you, of course!”
“But, Of course!” Blue said laughing.
“Red is Hypnos, because of the patience of time and the hypnotic nature of propaganda.
Apollo is of course my darker half brother. That name fits Tan, who is under the tutelage of Black.
Hephaistos was the Greek precedent of the Roman God Vulcan, and was the God of fire. That suits Turquoise fairly well since he controls most oil and energy concerns.
And, since Ms. Green controls most agriculture, I thought IO was appropriate.”
“That's all well and good, but what about you? I haven’t heard your mythological equivalent?”
“Well, I’m kind of shy about that. Its all an inside joke to myself, to give their huge egos a name.”
“I think I know the right name for you. It’s certainly better than Mr. Brown,” said Blue. “I think you would be Eros !”
Blushing visibly, the younger man stammered: “Why would you say that? I’d much more prefer to call myself Hermes .”
“Lets just say that I know more about your proclivities than you might imagine.”
“Does that bother you?”
“No. Why should it? Love is love, people are people. What matters about genders? Their attributes change so much over time, anyway. All I know is that some people are forced into a quiet and sometimes lonely place, due to the fact that society forces them to live outside of it. In order to be truthful to themselves, and who they really are, they are forced to make a choice no one should have to make. It puts one in an observer’s role, no?“
After gauging Brown’s response to his words, he added:
“Quite!” with emphasis. “Yes, maybe Hermes is more appropriate for you. Better yet, the Roman equivalent is Mercury! He was the one that was so very clever, possessed a wonderful wit, and was the messenger for the Gods . But I don’t understand all that stuff with cows? Can you help me out there?” Blue said laughing.
“You’re too much,” countered Mercury.
“Yeah, I know. After all, I am Zeus, aren’t I? I’ve got to keep up the image, n’est-ce pas?”
“Oui, mon Maître.”
“Oui, mon Dieu!”
©Tibet, Lamplight Unto a Darkened World…the American Delusion, a Parody of life ( L'illusion Américaine, une Parodie de Vie); is copyright protected, by author, Patrick Mahoney. Online Internet Reproduction/Propagation/Quotation Encouraged, with this citation. Any Printed reproduction, other than for personal reading, requires written permission by author, patrickm at http://patrickm.gather.com/ or patrick1000000000@yahoo.com
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