You're Too Human to Be Human

"In order for Life to have appeared spontaneously on Earth, 

there first had to be 

hundreds of millions 

of protein molecules 

of The Ninth Configuration.

But given the size of The Planet Earth, 

do you know how long it would have taken 

for just one of these protein molecules to appear entirely by Chance?

 Roughly ten to the two hundred 

and forty-third power 

billions of years. 

And I find that far, far more fantastic 

than simply Believing in a God."

Col. Vincent Kane

Colonel, what are you holding...?

Colonel, what are you...? Jesus! it is...

Maj. Groper :

Colonel, why do I have to wear this?

Under orders, he - Groper - and the whole staff of the U.S. Military mental asylum are wearing perfect replica Waffen-S.S. Uniforms.

Col. Kane :

What?

Maj. Groper :

I said why do I have to wear this?

Col. Kane :

Its psychodrama, Major.

Roleplay. A standard tool for Therapy.

The inmates are playing the role of Allied Prisoners of War, attempting to tunnel their way through to Freedom.

We are Their Captors.

Maj. Groper :

Bullshit, we're their prisoners!

A bunch of yellow-bellied goof-offs out there havin' a ball.

Why should I have to help their fun, I'm not a psychiatrist!

Its a goddam chicken-shit crazy idea.

Col. Kane :

Jesus! Jesus Christ, man!

Why don't you LOVE somebody just a little!

Why don't you HELP somebody! HELP them! HELP! For the love of Christ!!

You green-soaked caterpillar-torturing bastard!

You're going to wear that uniform, sleep in it, bathe in it.

Try to Take it off and You'll DIE in it! IS THAT CLEAR?!?

Astronaut Cutshaw enters The Commandant's office, wearing a Frankenstein's Monster Mask 

and plants His Flag.

Astronaut Capt. Billy Cutshaw :

I claim This Swamp for Poland!

Col. Kane :

Major Groper, please get out of here.

Immediately! 

And keep that uniform clean.

Astronaut Capt. Billy Cutshaw :

The man has a flag-fetish.

Now, then Major Strasser. 

Tomorrow night we're switching roles.

You'll be The Inmates and We'll be The Guards.

Here, study your part for tomorrow night's interrogation.

Notice, incidentally, that you'll crack on page 3.

Col. Kane :

Yes.

Astronaut Capt. Billy Cutshaw :

Who are you?

Who are you?

You're too Human 

to be human.

Col. Kane :

I don't know.

Astronaut Capt. Billy Cutshaw :

Maybe you're P.T. Barnum.

P.T. Barnum slaughtered lambs.

He put up a cage of side shows...

...and he stuck in A Panther and A Lamb together.

And there was never any Trouble.

Huddy, the public just went lollipops.

"Look, a panther and a lamb and they don't even argue!

They don't even discuss!"

But Hud, what the public never knew...

was that it was never the same lamb.

That fucking panther ate up a lamb every single day 

at intermission for three hundred days, 

and then they shot him for asking for mint sauce.

Animals are Innocent. 

Why should they suffer?

Why should children suffer? 

Will you tell me?

Why should any baby have to suffer and die?

Col. Kane :

Why should Men?

Astronaut Capt. Billy Cutshaw :

Oh, come on now. 

Don't try that thing on me.

You've got Answers for it.

Like: "Pain makes people noble"

And, “How could Man be more than a talking, tennis playing panda bear if there weren't at least the possibility of Suffering?”

But what about animals, Hud?

Does pain make turkeys noble?

Why is all of Creation based on dog eat dog, 

and the little fish are eaten by the big fish?

Animals screaming in Pain.

Our Creation an open wound, 

a fucking slaughterhouse!

Col. Kane :

We've talked about that. 

Astronaut Capt. Billy Cutshaw :

Not enough!

We said 'The original sin' might be the cause.

Astronaut Capt. Billy Cutshaw :

Then why doesn't the Foot 

just come down and tell us?

Is Foot running short of tablets of stone?

My Uncle Eddie owns a quarry; 

I can get them for Him wholesale.

Col. Kane :

You're asking for Miracles.

Astronaut Capt. Billy Cutshaw :

I'm asking Foot to either 

shit or get off the pot.

Diarrhetic strange Gods have been waiting in the line!

Col. Kane :

Maybe God cannot interfere in our affairs.

Astronaut Capt. Billy Cutshaw :

So I noticed.

Col. Kane :

Maybe He can't because to do so 

will spoil His Plans for The Future.

Some Evolution of Man and The World 

that's so unthinkably beautiful...

that its's worth all the pain 

of every suffering thing that ever lived.

Astronaut Capt. Billy Cutshaw :

I say it's spinach and to hell with it.

Col. Kane :

You're convinced that God is Dead 

because there's Evil in The World.

Astronaut Capt. Billy Cutshaw :

Correct.

Col. Kane :

Then why don't you think He's Alive 

because of The Goodness in The World?

Astronaut Capt. Billy Cutshaw :

What Goodness? 

Col. Kane :

Everywhere! In Man.

Astronaut Capt. Billy Cutshaw :

You're commendable. 

Col. Kane :

If we're nothing but atoms... 

molecular structures no different 

in kind from this desk or that pen, 

then we ought to always be rushing irresestibly blindly...

...to our own selfish ends?

So how is it that there is Love in This World?

I mean Love as A God might Love.

And A Man will give 

His Life for another. 

Astronaut Capt. Billy Cutshaw :

Never happened.

Col. Kane :

Of course it's happened.

Astronaut Capt. Billy Cutshaw :

Give me an example. 

Col. Kane :

Happens all the time.

Astronaut Capt. Billy Cutshaw :

Name one example!

Col. Kane :

A Soldier throws himself on top of a live grenade to prevent The Other Men in His Squad from being hit.

Astronaut Capt. Billy Cutshaw :

That's reflex action.

Col. Kane :

A Shipwreck Survivor 

in The Middle of An Ocean,

 finds out that he has Typhoid,

and deliberately goes over The Side of The Lifeboat to keep The Others in The Boat from contracting The Disease.

Now, what do you call that? 

Reflex action?

Astronaut Capt. Billy Cutshaw :

No, I call that Suicide.

Col. Kane :

Suicide and Giving up Your Life 

are not the same.

Astronaut Capt. Billy Cutshaw :

You're so dumb you're adorable.

Col. Kane :

The Essence of Suicide is Despair.

Astronaut Capt. Billy Cutshaw :

The Essence of Suicide is 

You Don't Collect The Insurance.

Listen, who doesn't know 

what all these examples 

we keep on hearing about aren't bullshit?

And don't have some basically 

bullshit selfish explanation?

Col. Kane :

I know. 

Astronaut Capt. Billy Cutshaw :

I don't.

Now give me just one example - just one - 

that you know of personally.

Personally, just one!

Col. Kane :

....

Astronaut Capt. Billy Cutshaw :

I thought as much.

Tomorrow's Sunday. 

Take me to Mass.

Cut to Church, The Next Morning --

Astronaut Cutshaw is dressed like a Little Girl.

Astronaut Capt. Billy Cutshaw :

Would Foot give a shit about what I'm wearing?

The Priest stands up in The Pulpit.

Astronaut Capt. Billy Cutshaw :

Is that Edgar Cayce?

Priest :

If anyone enters by Me, He Will be Saved.

The Thief comes only to Steal, to Kill, and Destroy.

But I have come that 

They may have Life, 

Life in all its Fullness.

That The Father knows Me, 

and I know The Father, 

in the same way 

I Know My Sheep, and They Know me, 

and I am Willing to Die for Them.

I have given YOU An Example

I am The Good Shepherd. 

The Good Shepherd gives His Life for His Sheep.

Astronaut Capt. Billy Cutshaw :

standing up in Church, interupting The Sermon --

Infinite Goodness is Creating A Being

that You Know in Advance is going to Complain.

"To be or not to be"

Thanks, I dug it.

Later, outside --

Astronaut Capt. Billy Cutshaw :

If You Die First and There's Life after Death, 

will you give me A Sign?

Col. Kane :

I'll try. 

Astronaut Capt. Billy Cutshaw :

You're terrific.

Burrows

I just watched The Pilot [of A Brave New World] and noticed a running image of your work : The Human Centipede.

GM: (laughing) You know I haven’t seen Human Centipede. I can’t watch horror movies.

Well my guess is that those forms of one long continuous being, which looks like A Centipede, is your visual description of A Self, moving through Time, which you said you learned in Kathmandu in 1994 as How Things Actually Are. How does this experience still interact with Your Life?

GM: We can’t see any direction in Time. 

We can’t see Back, and 

We can’t see Forward. 

We can Remember Back 

and Imagine Forward, 

but that’s it. 

We’re trained to feel like ‘Individuals’ so we don’t actually see ourselves as the extended processes that we are, shapeshifters who transform through decades from small, plump baby things to large and horny muscular teenagers, to hard-working, middle age adults, and finally desiccated seniors dying on beds. 

If we sped that up and showed one human life over ten minutes, it would be a body horror werewolf transformation more outrageous and horrifying than any seen onscreen.

But to me it’s like the color of the sky, it’s so self-evident that to see a bird fly past the window is to imagine its skipping solid trail through the medium of time.  In Time, We are all Connected, there’s just no denying that. There’s nothing mystical about any of this. I’m talking about stuff that is Simply Real.

Imagination can give you the ability to look backwards and forward. So, when you run it backwards, think how your grown-up mature body was once smaller, less massive, less capable of interacting with the environment – that’s real. Run it back to the beginnings of life on earth ad it’s clear that we all are one thing. A Singular organism made of many parts, just like a human body with its billions of individual skin cells – which die and fall from the body every day.

So, what does that mean? If people learned this in school, if we understood and accepted, we were all the same fucking thing(!) it might help prevent The Collapse into mad Division that’s occurring, just now. It’s just a Matter of Perspective that could change everything.

But The Organism We’re Part of might be sick, who knows? 

When cells in A Body turn against one another and The System that supports them starts breaking down, it’s cancer…

You had the gnostic experience. To just hear it or read it is one thing but when you have the experience that seems to be the most convincing thing.

GM : Well, it seems to become self-evident. It’s really like someone turns your head around in Plato’s Cave and you realize that there’s A Light and someone’s doing Shadow Figures with their fingers. Once you’ve seen it, you’ve seen it.

And it’s ‘Oh, of course’! Of course! There’s no denying it. 

But I guess to have that experience is its own confirmation. It’s like living by the sea all your life, then having to explain that to someone living inland who’s never seen The Ocean and doesn’t believe an ocean could exist because they’ve never seen one.

To me it can be confirmed intellectually by just Thinking about Time and how You are Embedded in Time --

You Know You Had to be Six Years Old to be here. 

So, Where The Hell is ‘Being Six’? 

A.) In The Village.

A.) It's be-hiiiiiind YOOOU...!!

A.) Behind The Walls.

A.) Some where -- 

Beyond The Sea.

Well, 'Being Six' exists,

in a Time Direction 

that You Can’t See 

or Point to, 

but it’s still there. 

 

To misunderstand that is equivalent to Flying from Los Angeles to London, then, after touching down at Heathrow, insisting that Los Angeles no longer exists!

And once You’re Truly Aware of Time 

as The Medium 

through which We Transmit Our Physical Signal, 

then there is no denying 

that Your Personal Track  winds its way,

Back into Your Mum 

and She goes back to Her Mum 

and it all goes back to 

That single Dividing Cell 3 1/2 Billion Years ago. 

 

To me, that’s just basic mechanical shit. That’s not Mysticism. 

I’m not interested in ghosts and spirit worlds. 

If I’m going to have Transcendence, I want to be able to Touch it.

JOSEPH CAMPBELL: 

What is the meaning of The Virgin Birth? 

In India, there is This System of The Kundalini, 

as it’s called, the idea of The Centres, 

Psychological Centres up The Spine. 

And they represent the psychological planes 

of concern and consciousness and action. 

The first is at the rectum, 

and this is that of alimentation. 

 

The Serpent represents this, 

you know, a travelling oesophagus

going along just eating, eating, eating, eating. 

And all of us are — we wouldn’t be here 

if we weren’t eating. 

And then the second,  

The Second Centre

is at The Sex Organ Centre, 

and that’s The Urge to Procreation. 

The Third Centre's called, 

is at The Navel, and this is where 

You Eat and Want to Consume. 

And it’s not the alimentary eating, it’s 

The Mastering and Smashing 

and Trashing of Others, do you see? 

This is the aggressive mood.

Now, The First is an Animal Instinct, 

The Second is an Animal Instinct, 

The Third is an Animal Instinct, 

and these three centres are located  

in the pelvic base, do you see. 

The next one is at the level of The Heart, 

and this is The Opening of Compassion.

 And there you move out of 

The Field of Animal Action 

into a field that is 

properly human and spiritual. 

Now, in each of these centers there is a symbolic form. 

At the base, the first one, there is the form of the lingam and yeni, the male and female organs in conjunction. 

At The Heart Chakra, there is again The Male and Female organs in conjunction, but in Gold. 

This is The Virgin Birth. 

It’s the birth of spiritual man out of the animal man. 

Do you understand?

BILL MOYERS: 

And it happens?

JOSEPH CAMPBELL: 

When you are awakened at the level of The Heart to Compassion and to 

suffering with the other person. 

That’s the beginning of Humanity. 

And the meditations of religion properly are on that level, 

the heart level.

BILL MOYERS: 

You say it’s the beginning of Humanity, but in these Stories, that’s the moment when gods are born, 

The Virgin Birth, it’s a god 

who emerges from that chemistry.

JOSEPH CAMPBELL: 

Yeah, and you know who that god is? It’s you. 

All of these symbols in mythology refer to you. 

You can get stuck out there and think it’s all out there, and so you’re thinking of Jesus and all the sentiments about how he suffered and all; 

what that suffering is, is what ought to be going on in you. 

Have you been reborn? 

Have you died to your animal nature and come to life as a human incarnation?

BILL MOYERS: 

Why is it significant that this is of a virgin?

JOSEPH CAMPBELL: 

Well, it is that the begetter is The Spirit. 

It is a spiritual birth. 

The Virgin conceived of The Word, through The Ear.

Kirby on Survival

  

“Now, the idea that A Story is a form of Communication — and entertainment — is one of those facts that appears self-evident upon first consideration, but that becomes more mysterious the longer it is pondered. 

If it is True that A Story has A Point, then it is clear that it is pointing TO something.

But What, and How? 

What constitutes Pointing is obvious when it is an action specifying a particular thing, or a person by a particular person, but much less obvious when it is something typifying the cumulative behavior, shall we say, of
A Character in A Story.

“ There is an old saying: "That which doesn't Kill You, makes You Stronger." I don't believe that. 

I think the things that TRY to Kill You, make you Angry and Sad. 

Strength comes from The Good Things : Your Family, Your Friends, The Satisfaction of Hard Work. 

Those are the things that will keep you Whole. Those are the things to hold onto when You are Broken.

— Jax Teller

"What Happens to People when they are acted-upon by Powerful Ideas from Outside Them?"

AND...

"What Then Happens to Those Powerful Ideas, when They get inside Those People's Heads..?

There are Tigers in The Night.

Creatures bearing great scars inflicted by wrenching confrontations -- lethal rushes on dark, unyielding ground where the body pours all it's strength into fitful instinctive thrusts.

This is The Real Thing! The primal struggle. Throughout history it has cried out for dramatisation on A Cave Wall, The Written Page, or The Panel of a Comic Book.

In my attempt to create a serious novel for our medium, I have chosen that most basic of experiences, one we have all shared at one time or another -- SURVIVAL. I have taken this innate response to danger and have portrayed it in mythological terms.

The concept is simple. Friends and Enemies squaring off in various ways, for various reasons, on some Eternal Battleground where all is won or lost and the debris is cleared away for the next conflict. THEY are Evil, WE are Good. THEY are Plotters and Traitors, WE are Loyal and Clever. THEY are eternally responsible for Our Woes, so WE will someday pull up our guts, stop the shadow-boxing, and go in for The Kill.

Thus I am doing what mankind has always done. I've turned these emotions and reactions into gods, and brought into view the awesome images that haunt our dreams. So it has been throughout the centuries. 

When Zeus' and Hercules' time had passed, Mercury and Mars arrived on the scene. France sent Napoleon's Grande Armée on tour; England subsequently hailed the unshakable heroes of Rudyard Kipling. 

Idols rose and fell all over the world with an odd and fantastic nobility that fairly flipped our history books. 

How we loved them all -- our Horatios at the bridge, our Transylvanian Draculas. 

Grandiose figures such as these symbolized The Real Thing. Territories immemorial have been covered with Average Joe types doing what they've always done "in the name of (fill in the name of your choice; all sides have continually offered so many). 

When my turn came at the draft board during World War II, I chose Superman as My Guardian. Tarzan, at that moment, seemed somehow related to my early teens. Superman was the electrifying hero of the day. Who was going to rub out a guy who hid behind such a patriotic and invincible image? There was even talk in the army about General Eisenhower trading pulp magazines for copies of Action Comics. How could I have landed in a better outfit? It eased my trepidations about having my hair parted by a twenty millimeter shell. 

Experiences like these seem to stimulate and guide one's thoughts into avenues where one's humanity must be examined in relation to The Past, Present, and Future. Darkseid, Highfather, and the rest of the cast have always been sincere expressions of my feelings - reactions to all the things I knew were out there in The Night, like the scrabbling of an unseen army of claws, or the beating of wings in nocturnal vigilance over sleepers in repose. 

Today The Real Thing is something we've never known before, a new something not yet devised, shaped, or defined. It is something we must deeply consider, since Darkseid looms ever larger, like a great, monumental cobra moving ceaselessly and vengefully. 

Ever-present, he is thwarted, sometimes outsmarted, but always eager to swallow us en masse and integrate us into his push-button paradise where his every wish is fulfilled. 

For Darkseid is the god of the silo that houses the death-package. He rules the toxic wastelands and merrily increases their rate of expansion. He seeps into our hatreds and prejudices, and nurtures our biases until they become time bombs --primed and ready to activate The Worst in us. 

Darkseid is playing for keeps in a cosmic minefield that's never supposed to blow After all, isn't that where we all are? Isn't that where we live? Aren't we at the apex of the Big Blast? Well, that's the backyard I'm playing in. 

How is it going to turn out? Suffice it to say that like Darkseid, I too play for keeps. You see, I'm walking that same cosmic minefield. What I have in mind for the Hunger Dogs graphic novel will make your blood race. What will they do, these gods whose situations so strangely resemble our own? The bottom line involves choices. 

Neither gods nor humans have ever stood calmly in a minefield forever. 

Good or Evil, they are bound to choose. And when they do, you will see The Truth of all that motivates us. As a thinking being, you have the obligation to choose. If the fate of all mankind were in your hands, what would your decision be? 

As a Writer and An Artist, I've drawn my answer.

The Survivors

 

 

For the last time, SPRINGER,

I am NOT an Autobot!

I’m a Decepticon WARRIOR!

Saving Humans might be YOUR idea 

of FUN, but it ISN’T mine!

 

Crashed Trains, Hijacks, Burning Oil Rigs...

Is this what it’s come to?

 

When I agreed to join your little group of SURVIVORS, 

I thought we might get a fight or three in!

Maybe I should have STAYED with The Decepticons!

 

Blast! Why’d I blow my top like that?

Springer means well, but…. 

He just DOESN’T UNDERSTAND!

 

This Do-Gooding stuff 

doesn’t come EASY to me!

Though I don’t consider myself EVIL….

I’m still a Decepticon at Heart.
The Need to Fight is in My Oil!

 

Maybe I was WRONG to defy The Decepticons

They won’t rest until I’m DEAD!

Yeah, and all of this High-Profile Rescuing of Humans...

will probably lead them RIGHT TO ME!

 

PROWL :

Well, you’ve certainly proved yourself 

worthy of our Trust, Carnivac. 

Here we were, out for blood, 

and it took a Decepticon 

to remind us we don’t kill.

With that merciful act, 

I welcome you the ranks 

of The Earthforce!

 

CARNIVAC :

Mercy? HAH! These SCUM murdered 

My Friend, Catilla — they deserve NO MERCY.

I just know that denying them their ‘Warrior’s Death’ 

is the WORST fate I can think of!

 

I may now a member of EarthForce, but let’s not forget --

 

I’m still 

an EVIL DECEPTICON 

at Heart!

EMH: 

We have no time to waste. 

According to the computer, we're at warp. 

We've got to figure out some way to slow the ship down before we get too far from the crew. 

That would seem to be our first priority. 

And then we have to get some weapons. 

Mister Suder, are you listening to me? 

SUDER: 

Yes. 

EMH: 

Oh. I see. Perhaps you consider 

this an opportunity. 

SUDER: 

Opportunity? 

EMH: 

To obtain your freedom from confinement. 

How foolish of me to think you would want to help. 

SUDER: 

You're wrong. 

I do want to help. 

EMH: 

Then what? 

SUDER: 

I'm going to have to kill 

some of them. 

EMH: 

...it is possible. Violence might 

be required to retake the ship. 

SUDER: 

I've worked so, so hard 

over the last few months 

to control the violent feelings. 

I'm almost At Peace with Myself. 

I mean, I see the day coming 

when I could be. 

EMH: 

Mister Suder. If Lieutenant Tuvok were here, 

I know he would tell you there are times when 

violence is required to defend yourself, 

to defend Your Ship, 

to defend Your Crew. 

SUDER: 

Yes, there is A Logical Use 

for Biolence — 

For everyone else. 

With me, once it begins….

EMH: 

We must do this together, Mister Suder. 

If You Don't Trust Yourself yet, 

then Trust Me. 

I will help you anyway I can. 

One hologram and one sociopath 

may not be much of a match for the Kazon, 

but we'll have to do.

The Man :

Hello?

The Father :

What's going on?

I haven't heard back from Max Price.

The Man :

We pulled out at the end of last week.

The Father :

What?

The Man :

Yeah, I didn't like the terms.

The Father :

What fucking terms didn't you like?

The Man :

Excuse me?

The Father :

Why didn't you tell me?

The Man :

It happened last Friday.

The Father :

I could have fixed it, 

why didn't you let me fix it?

The Man :

There was nothing to fix, Rory.

It just wasn't a good fit.

The Father :

Arthur, I had everything riding on this deal —

Arthur, I NEED The Deal.

The Man :

What are you going on about?

I Don't CARE What You Need.

This is MY Company, just move on.

The Father :

You're killing Your Company 

by not listening to me.

So small-minded.

Jesus, that's why I had to get away from here, 

small island, small fucking mentality.

The Man :

Watch your MOUTH in MY office, Sonny Jim.

Did you have any idea what they were going to DO here?

Shit. Did you even bother to look at the details?

Or were you too busy celebrating?

There wasn't a chance in hell 

I was gonna let them come in here 

and fuck with what I've built.

The Father :

None of that matters, 

The Bottom Line is what matters.

 

You brought me in, to make you money. Right?

You brought me in to make you money, 

and the best way to make money 

is to SELL the company.

Make The Deal.

The Man :

I've known you a long time you little bastard.

So I'm gonna be honest with you.

You have a great mind, 

and endless charm, 

but you don't pay attention 

to the detail.

I thought you'd changed, but you haven't.

Oh, you know how to ride a wave in an Up market.

Well that doesn't impress.

What impresses me, is how you deal 

with a DOWN market, 

because that's how you build 

a successful company.

You focus on the one percent at a time — 

It's boring and it's ugly.

But it's the bit of the business 

I LOVE the MOST.

The Father :

There won't be any business, 

there won't be any company.

We'll be finished within a year.

The Man :

And we can have 

ALL the information in The World, 

and STILL be WRONG.

Come on.

Get back to trading, Rory.

You're good at it.

VERY good at it.

For Christ's sake, do yourself a favor, 

and stop trying to make a killing overnight.

Bring me something stable.

Find solid footing on some good deals.

The Father :

.....there is something.

The Man :

Oh.

The Father :

I wasn't gonna say it until it was further along, 

but I might as well tell you now.

Yeah.

Norwegian fish farms.