AMERICA'S HEALING CRISIS: KILL OR CURE?

by Kirk Brothers

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INTRODUCTION
                                         
     A healing crisis, to put it bluntly, is a SHOWDOWN, in which
the outcome is either life or death.  In a healing crisis
inspired words and noble intentions count for nothing.  Only
action--and fate--determine its outcome, whether it kill or cure.
     Many writers have addressed the question of whether a cure
is necessarily beneficial.  Matthew Prior wrote:

     Cured yesterday of my disease,
     I died last night of my physician.

     It is our national tragedy that in these critical times so
many Americans, out of ignorance or apathy, continue to trust the
"physicians" who are in fact the disease which is killing us--our
politicians.
     In the cliff-hanger ending of our last chapter, entitled WHY
AND HOW AMERICA MUST COLLAPSE, we have the S.S. Titanic in the
process of sinking, while our alleged leaders make a frantic
attempt to do the impossible task of keeping afloat a ship which
is grossly overloaded, and which has sprung a predictable and
unpatchable leak in the hull.  At that dramatic point a wisp of
smoke on the horizon offers hope to those aboard--perhaps the
U.S. Congress, like the cavalry in old Westerns, will arrive in
time to rescue our heroes.
     At that point the serial ends, and the final installment is
yet to be written in the history books.
     In this article I hope to show that Congress has two options
--one of which is to close ranks behind our corrupt leaders and
try to bluff, bluster and muddle their way through a crisis that
will then certainly destroy the United States as a world power
forever.
     I'd like to explore that option first, in a last-ditch
attempt to prove to Americans that politics cannot solve the
problem--it IS the problem.  If this grim and totally depressing
picture persuades some new and still uncorrupted members of
Congress to bolt ranks and rebel against their leadership--by
following the alternative scenario which is later offered--we may
yet survive.

AMERICA'S REIGN OF TERROR - THE CIVIL WAR TO COME

     To examine this most negative of situations, let's begin by
recalling some parallel historical events--one of which has been
dramatized by numerous writers in many classic works of litera-
ture.
      In Charles Dickens' romantic novel, A TALE OF TWO CITIES,
the most memorable scenes for most readers, perhaps, are those of
the mass public executions by Dr. Guillotine's beheading machine. 
The triumph of the French people's revolution was followed by
bloody revenge, as tumbrils rolled through the streets carrying
the latest batch of victims condemned to death by a merciless
tribunal of retribution.  That period was aptly dubbed the Reign
of Terror, during which time friends and relatives of suspected
enemies of the people lived in fear for their own lives.  When
sanity finally returned after the bloodbath, one Parisian was
said to have asked a friend, "What did you do during the Reign of
Terror?"--to which his friend shrugged and said, "I survived."
     Some nations are notorious for political violence, and most
Americans seem to believe it is only in those lands that govern-
ment can fall to armed rebels--that it can't happen here.  But
what we call "civilization" is a very thin and fragile veneer
which may easily crack under strain, and reveal many ugly things
beneath it.  It is time for Americans to realize that if our
Congress fails to take corrective action immediately, our
national crisis MUST end in the downfall of America, and it is
likely that few governments will then escape a worldwide uprising
by peoples of all ethnic/racial groups who belatedly realize
their deadly error in ever trusting politicians.
     Once the people of a nation are united by HATRED--armed with
clubs and knives if necessary--they will wreak havoc upon their
former tyrants, because at last they've been hit hard enough to
fight back.  America had such a rebellion, led by a Massachusetts
farmer named Shays, after the War of Independence--but a few
pitchforks were naturally powerless against rifles of the many,
and the rebellion was handily put down.
     But there is evidence enough of widespread hatred of our
present government--one example being the deplorable bombing in
Oklahoma City.  From a military viewpoint it was a classic
example of strategic blunder--the wrong target at the wrong time
--an irresponsible act by loners acting on emotions and their own
initiative without consulting older and wiser heads.
     Clearly, any rebel group with experienced leadership would
have picked a more fruitful target, and organized the mission so
as to minimize casualties among innocent civilians.  A truly
unified and well-prepared militia group, for example, might
recruit a few dedicated pilots for suicide missions--such as
dive-bombing a large aircraft loaded with high explosives into
the U.S. Capitol during the President's "State of the Union"
address some January--thus eradicating with one fell swoop the
Administration, the Congress, and the Supreme Court.
     Such a blow if properly delivered could, like Heracles'
battle against the Hydra, lop off all three heads of our
monstrous and evil government before it could regrow them.  But
scattered and fragmented attacks on ill-chosen targets like the
one in Oklahoma City are clearly counterproductive to the goals
of any intelligent anti-government militia.
     Naturally, a meaningful act of overt rebellion like the bomb
ing of the Capitol would instantly provoke a military takeover by
Pentagon leaders, and where that scenario would take us is
fraught with uncertainties at all levels.  One thing alone is
certain--the imposition of martial law would at once provoke
further uprisings, and we would have our own Reign of Terror,
rather worse than the mere looting and burning of Atlanta near
the end of the first Civil War.
     When would it end?  Perhaps only after a third of our popu-
lation had been killed, one way or another--which would at least
reduce the pressures caused by too many people crowded into too
little space.  And, of course, the implications of America's
downfall for foreign nations can hardly be imagined, much less
calculated precisely.
     With this much cheerless background, I will now try to show
why such a pandemic reaction to political abuses by those in
power cannot be averted except by the alternative proposals
offered in the second scenario below--and that such a catastrophe
can be survived, if one uses one's intelligence and makes both
long-run and short-run plans for the various possible contingen-
cies.

SURVIVAL TACTICS--PLANNING AHEAD

     In order to survive a future crisis, you must PLAN FOR IT
NOW!
     It is my observation that most Americans are congenitally
too stupid or too lazy (or both) to make such an effort--but for
the minority with IQs higher than 120, here are some basic ideas
which you must explore on your own, using these as pointers in
your own survival scheme.
     Farm people always plan ahead--city people almost never do--
in really important matters.  Why such a difference?  Because
farmers live close to nature, and know that nature does things on
its own schedules and not at our convenience.  Farmers survive
because they flow with nature, and take the lumps with the good
things.
     Let me give you an example.  When I was in college, my room-
mate invited me to visit his farm home for a week during summer
vacation.  When I arrived, the family had just finished making
hay and were preparing to store it in the barn.
     The weather had been too rainy and the crop was small--and
very poor quality.  My roommate's mother complained about all the
hard work for a bad crop.  I, being a dumb city kid, asked her
naively, "It it's such bad hay, and there's not enough, why
bother with it?"
     She smiled at me and gently explained the reality.  "The
cows will like it better than snowballs next winter."  I laughed
so hard I cried, and I never forgot that lesson in practical
economics.
     Now I'm going to tell you some things you'll have to do,
which are a lot of hard work, and you might think about it for a
day or so and then forget it--that's your decision.  I give you
the facts.
     In this crisis you'll need to have a year's supply of food
for every member of your family in safe storage (Mormon families
have done so for a century).  I don't mean supermarket conveni-
ence meals and sugary snacks.  First, assume you'll have no
refrigerator and maybe no running water.
     So you'll need things like big cans of hard winter wheat you
can (a) plant, and (b) sprout as a salad vegetable and a substi-
tute for bread.  You'll need powdered eggs and powdered milk
(you'll like them better than snowballs next winter).  You'll
need things like dehydrated vegetables and meats in vacuum-sealed
cans you can soak with water that you've carried in a bucket from
somewhere.  Don't forget the bucket--which will be used to carry
water, mix and cook the meals, and perhaps serve as a dinner
plate if you live alone.  If you've never camped out with a back-
pack and fishing tackle, try it--to learn what reality is when
you're forced to live by nature's rules and not on "civiliza-
tion's" more liberal choices.  It's not a picnic!
     When I was a newsman in New York, I was greatly amused
(nobody else in the newsroom appreciated the humor) by the report
that a Long Island Civil Defense Unit demonstration--open to the
public--on How To Survive a Disaster, had been canceled because
of rain.
     Don't count on going shopping anywhere--how can stores be
open and well-stocked with everything you like to buy, with the
country in turmoil and normal communication and transporation in
shambles?  And how would you pay for it, if money is no good? 
And, as a side-thought--while we're on the subject of food--the
French people have always regarded cat meat as a delicacy, and
Filipinos feel the same way about dog meat.  So watch your pets,
and don't be surprised if the population of stray animals
suddenly disappears.
     Do you think it can't happen here [probably yes]?  Do you
remember reading about the Donner Pass tragedy [probably no]?  In
Donner Pass a pioneer group in wagons were trapped by winter
snows before they reached safety in California.  Their food ran
out.  One by one they died of starvation.  The survivors, facing
the same fate, ate the bodies of those who had died before them.
Most of the survivors were seriously disturbed mentally there-
after--"long pig" is reputed to disagree with sensitive people.
     There are other plans to make--and implement--in advance of
a showdown.  One is to join with other like-minded people to form
food cooperatives and/or barter groups.
     Food cooperatives might consist of individuals who cultivate
small home gardens (one book on a "five by five" garden for city
dwellers is very informative, but there are a great many paper-
backs on the subject, and you should have at least one, well
thumbed and familiar to you).
     By growing some crop you can handle well, you can barter it
for other crops through your co-op--or save on the cost of stock-
piles by group purchases.  Barter groups are a way to trade your
services for monetary credit within the group, and use your
credit to buy the services of others in the same group.  Beware--
the IRS is always snooping, as usual, to get a "cut" of the
action.
     Finally, you and your neighbors would be well advised to set
up--and mean business in doing so--neighborhood patrols, with
guns if at all possible.  We are talking life and death in a
situation where all normal civil order is in rubble, and it's
every man for himself.  In a time of civil war, forget the civil
rights of thugs and vandals--be vigilantes and let God sort them
out, as the old saying goes.  These tactics may be necessary at
any time, no matter which option the Congress might, in its
incompetence, choose to impose as divinely inspired wisdom.

CONGRESS' CHOICES--THE KILL OPTION

     Let us suppose that the Congress adopts an intransigent
attitude and chooses to "tough it out" against the people.
Assume that Congress does nothing to fix the Social Security mess
in the one and only way it can be fixed--by abolishing it in a
series of gradual and orderly steps to be described below.
     Social Security cannot be saved.  The inexorable laws of
mathematics, ignored by Franklin Delano Roosevelt and his
flunkies in Congress and the Supreme Court (which failed--
willfully--to declare Social Security a coercive contract), must
finally burst the bubble of wishful thinking, as all other Ponzi
schemes have burst.
     Politicians will TALK about saving it, of course.  They
excel at promises--all lies or mistakes.  They deny the hard
facts that Social Security only LOOKED good when our population
was 120 million, and not too bad when we reached 130 million
after World War Two.  But the scheme is now clearly seen to be as
worthless as a little yellow hole in a snowbank.  There are 266
million of us, proving Malthus' theory that the world must suffer
through horrendous conflicts, because there are too many fornica-
ting people, and too many people fornicating.  The one defect in
birth control is that it can't be made retroactive.
     Back to the crisis.  Just for a moment imagine you live in
any major city in the nation, with a sizable ghetto of one or
more minority races, in which economic survival depends upon
monthly checks from Uncle Suck as benefits in a welfare program
of some type.  What do you imagine will happen the first day the
welfare checks stop coming?
     No, don't imagine it.  Your first thought should be to make
plans--NOW--to GET OUT of your city!  If you stay in your city,
you will be among the first to die in the rampage of blind
violence, like the Reign of Terror, that must erupt.  The first
victims will be the old, the sick, the weak, those who live
alone, and those who are otherwise helpless.

THE FINAL OPTION
     
     If this discussion of gloom and doom makes you yearn for
doctor-assisted suicide, you may save yourself that trouble and
expense by using a do-it-yourself kit which I have designed (and
keep in a bureau drawer for future consideration).  Its few needs
are to be found in every home and the end is absolutely painless
--with no discomfort of any kind.  The elements are two (2) large
plastic garbage bags, one (1) large kitchen strainer, and one (1)
long shoelace or similar cord.
     Should you choose this option, put some music on the stereo
you especially like, and lie down on the bed or lean back in a
recliner chair.  If you are sensitive to the tasks of others, lie 
on a rubber sheet, because death causes the bladder and bowels to
empty their contents.
     Shake the bags open and place one inside the other--to be
sure they are air tight.  Place the strainer over your face from
nose to chin, and then slip the bags over your head.  Use the
shoelace to tie the bags snugly around your neck.  Then enjoy the
music.
     The purpose of the strainer is to hold the bags away from
your face, and not let them settle over your nostrils and mouth,
sealing off normal air flow.  You will fall asleep easily and
naturally, as the oxygen in the bags is gradually replaced by
carbon dioxide.  Sleep will become coma, and coma will become
death, with no choking sensations or other unpleasant things.
     Do not try to rehearse this.  It works the first time.

WHY GOVERNMENT CANNOT SAVE US

     Big cities even nowadays are close to ungovernable--the fact
that they survive at all is evidence of the fact that most people
are mostly good most of the time.  It is only when a major inci-
dent of violence breaks out that Americans become slightly dis-
turbed in their lethargy toward the real problems in urban
society.
     In Los Angeles, after an all-white jury in Silicon Valley
acquitted the white police officers on trial for beating Rodney
King, the black section of the city erupted in outrage.  The
whole country witnessed videotape of the violence on TV for
nearly a week before "the lid" was put back on.
     In New York City, when terrorists bombed the World Trade
Center, normal activity in the Wall Street area came to a virtual
standstill as emergency crews and police converged on the scene
of the crime.  And in Oklahoma City, the bombing of the old
Federal Office Building riveted us to television reports, as one
lead after another proved false.
     Now, just for a moment, imagine that in New York City alone,
Harlem is burning in outrage over the demise of Social Security--
and Spanish Harlem is rioting--and rival gangs in Chinatown are
rioting--and there are troubles in Brooklyn, Queens and the
Bronx--and THEN someone bombs Wall Street again.  And in Green-
wich Village a group of fag-bashers roam the streets beating up
gays and looting gay businesses.  And anti-abortion fanatics
begin to shoot people near abortion clinics.  And Christian
fanatics go on a rampage against Islamic Temples.  And Islamic
fanatics go on a rampage against Christian Cathedrals in
retaliation.  And someone else blows up the Statue of Liberty.
And so on.
     Now imagine that the same type of violence has broken out in
Boston, Philadelphia, D.C., Chicago, and so on--all the way from
Maine to California and Florida to Washington State.  How the
hell can you believe any mayors and a police force could restore
order?!
     Remember that the first wave of violence would be disorgan-
ized rioting by loners and/or mobs forming spontaneously.  But
that kind of violence would encourage urban guerrilla terrorists
to use the time to strike to fulfill their own agenda.  Terror-
ists would not be impressed by police--the uniforms worn by
officers would merely conveniently identify the targets to be
shot at.
     Terrorists wouldn't bother to shoot fleeing civilians
seeking refuge in New Jersey or other rural areas.  Urban mobs of
looters would simply take advantage of the exodus to pillage and
steal the property abandoned by the refugees.  Naturally, there
are other very real and practical problems--the traffic would be
horrendous in the tunnels and on the toll bridges, and you'd need
to have plenty of gas, because you might not be able to buy any
more for a while.  Do you begin to grasp the significance and
scope of the horror in this scenario?
     Once you're out of the city, how do you live and where to
you go to do so?  If you have the capital, getting a country
place NOW would be a good idea--but you need space where you can
farm, and perhaps you'd need to form a commune with neighbors to
set up such a retreat.  That's why so many people move to Idaho
and Montana these days--and so many Americans snicker at the
"crackpots" and lull themselves to sleep with the pipe-dream that
"it can't happen here--this is America!"
     That's what we can expect if Congress does nothing to begin
a change from the old to the new--starting this month, not next.

CONGRESS' CHOICES--THE CURE OPTION
                              
     You're not going to like this one very much, either--but if
you can think of a better idea that will work, let's hear it! 
And let me preface my remarks by quoting from my favorite Demo-
cratic President, Grover Cleveland--who in his Inaugural Address
in 1893 made the following inspired, but politically disastrous,
statement of Libertarian principles:
     
     "The lessons of paternalism ought to be unlearned and the
     better lesson taught that while the people should patriotic-
     ally and cheerfully support their government, its functions
     do not include the [economic] support of the people."

     Cleveland's conservative viewpoint cost him the next elec-
tion, and control of the Democratic party fell into the grasping
claws of the radical left, where it has remained to this day.  On
his death-bed Cleveland's last words were, "I have tried so hard
to do the right."  His downfall was in telling his party an
unpleasant truth rather than a pleasing lie promising something
for nothing.
     It is clear that only a major overhaul of people's attitudes
toward government and their expectations of free rides as patron-
age will restore responsibility, sanity, and stability to our
country.  And Congress must take the first step now--or it shirks
its duty in this time of ultimate crisis.
     
CONVERTING SOCIAL SECURITY TO IRA PENSIONS
                             
     As the first priority, Congress should declare that Social
Security as it now stands is a coercive contract, and is to be
immediately converted to a consensual contract with appropriate
controls to ensure as much security as can be ensured (I'll have
an article on this subject at some future time).
     As a first step, all unilateral benefits (paid to persons
who have not paid into FICA funds) must be terminated.  We must
be prepared to take rational steps (details later) to minimize
the wrenching dislocation this will have on the recipients of
these payments, who have come to look on them as "entitlements".
     Social Security defenders have never explained satisfactor-
ily to me why I am not entitled to my own earnings, and why some
other person IS entitled to them.  The scheme of mandatory redis-
tribution of wealth based on some unproved economic theory and
vague moral philosophy (a la Robin Hood) MUST COLLAPSE--in a
controlled crash.
     All accounts must be temporarily frozen while Social
Security computers calculate exactly how much each beneficiary
paid into the funds, how much compound interest was earned (at a
rate comparable to private IRA accounts), and how much the tax-
payer has received in benefits.  Such benefits should be tax-free
income, to sugar-coat the extremely bitter pill inside.
     When a taxpayer has drawn in benefits a sum equal to pay-
ments plus compound interest, his pension ends.  At that point we
must have a mechanism in place to assist crisis cases, similar to
those assisting "disentitled" unilateral beneficiaries mentioned
above.
     Taxpayers should be given the option of staying with Social
Security, as an IRA pension plan, and continue to pay into the
funds as before.  Those who wish to drop out may stop paying in,
and their paid-in funds remain on deposit as an IRA pension to be
paid upon their retirement.  Those whose benefits have already
exceeded the amount due them under the above must be terminated,
but not be compelled to pay back their windfall.
     While we are on the subject, here are some of the options
for lending a hand (rationally) to those whose lives will sudden-
ly be disrupted by implementation of Social Security as a LIMITED
pension (limited by amount paid in and interest earned by stan-
dard banking procedures).

EASING THE CRASH

     The Pentagon has a number of military bases in mothballs,
and every one still in existence must be re-opened as temporary
homes, or permanent communes, for persons who would otherwise be
homeless.  In these bases, residents would have as liberal bene-
fits as can be afforded, but must also (if able-bodied) share in
the communal work load to minimize the expense (and give them
some sense of pride and responsibility in their own lives).
     State and City governments must share in the task of setting
up mobile kitches using civil defense equipment and personnel, to
provide at least one hot meal a day, such as a hearty soup--and
to distribute excess bread free to those in need.  Churches and
other humanitarian social organizations should be prepared to
help their members who are handicapped and cannot stand on a line
to receive soup or bread.
     Since Congress has authority to issue legal tender, we
should at once recall all present money and replace it by new
coinage and bills, using the rock-hard scheme that one cent of
the new money is equal to one minute of time spent on minimal
labor (hear me out!).
     First, let's assume that our present minimum wage is (for
the sake of easy math to demonstrate the theory) five dollars and
forty cents, or exactly nine times the new minimum wage of sixty
cents.  All debts, public and private, must be paid with the new
money--but by statute the new money is worth nine times what the
old was.
     Therefore, as far as "wealth" is concerned, everybody would
stay exactly where he is now--relatively speaking.  Savings of
nine thousand dollars would instantly shrink to one thousand, but
all prices and debts would also be shrunk to one-ninth what they
are, so his relative financial standing would be unchanged.
     The new money would adamantly preclude any attempt to change
its value by a hair.  There would be zero inflation, and zero
deflation at any and all times.  Furthermore, foreign currencies
would all be worth exactly the same, should other nations adopt
the time-is-money principle.
     The Congress should put before the people the Constitutional
amendment proposed earlier in this series of articles, and there
must be a Constitutional amendment mandating that government live
within a new and stringent budget, or close up.  Period.  No
loopholes.
     Now, how likely is it that Congress will vote for a rational
and logical approach to make our government accountable to the
people?  One of my correspondents from the U.K. remarked in a
letter that "turkeys don't vote for Christmas".  To which one can
only reply, "If the turkeys in Washington don't vote for these
proposals, there won't BE any Christmas, for anybody."

SUMMING IT UP
                           
     Starting with the first article in this series, we've proved
beyond reasonable doubt that Social Security is a coercive
contract and therefore unconstitutional under the Fifth Amend-
ment.
     Next we proved by preponderance of evidence that Federal
Judges are so politically corrupt that they deliberate suppress
the constitutional rights of 266 million Americans to keep the
icon of Franklin Delano Roosevelt intact upon its throne.
     We further proved by the standard of probable cause that we
have had no valid constitution for at least 150 years, and that
our so-called leaders are a pack of impostors and traitors
screwing up our lives, with no legal authority to do so--they are
in power only by bluff and default.
     We next showed that America must collapse in one of two
ways: political revolution first, or economic crash first--unless
the Congress chooses the bitter pill of real and lasting politi-
cal reform, as suggested in a proposed Constitutional amendment
for peoples' referenda every seven years on Constitutional
revision or ratification.
     And finally we've showed that the horrors of economic crash
or armed revolution/civil war may be averted if Congress takes
action as recommended here--to convert Social Security to IRA
pensions, and to convert our monetary system into a work-time
value basis, rather than merely the present "full faith and
credit of the United States", which is clearly an example of
oxymoron.