See
how beautiful and delicate they are. Notice how various are the
designs upon their wings, as if they are transmitting messages of
silent beauty individually and in combination, which we usually do
not see or consider, and how our lack of consideration bothers them
not at all. Regard their unhurried fluttering, moving short
distances, their apparently whimsical journeying and unpredictable
halts, with closed or gently opening and closing wings as they seem
to delight in the sunlight,the plants and the breeze, following some
combination of instinct and free choice which is to us mysterious,
yet evocative once we pay attention to it. Fragile, gentle, short
lived creatures, but
following a life cycle of astounding changes of form, and capable of
immense migrations, manifesting much greater strength and endurance
than we would at first sight be inclined to credit to them. If 'the
hand that rocks the cradle rules the world',
in a similar vein it was jestingly suggested that the causes of
events may be so small,
numerous, complicated,
entangled and obscure, that the slight perturbation
of the atmosphere caused by the unplanned and unperceived flutter of
a butterfly's wings might
be the trigger of enormous effects in the world at large.
That
at any rate may be as good a guess as we can make in attempting to
identify the causes of some events which appear to have sent the
world we know on a course different from that which expert and
informed observers confidently expected it to have followed.
'Brighter
than a thousand suns, I am become Death – the Shatterer of Worlds',
so quoted Oppenheim as he observed the first atomic explosion. Now
think what sort of butterfly would find its slowly flapping wings
gently warmed by such a sun.
It
was just after 9 pm. on
Friday 19th
January 2018 that President Hillary Clinton rose to give her first
State of the Union address, marking
the completion of her first year of office,
to the assembled
dignitaries in the House of Representatives on Capitol Hill. They
were of course all there, the 435 members of the House of
Representatives, 100 Senators, the members of the Supreme Court, the
Joint Chiefs of Staff, the senior members of the diplomatic corps,
the media, Uncle Tom Cobleigh and all. Of
course they were; it was a great occasion.
Not
that anyone ever compared Hillary Clinton to a butterfly. Contrast
certainly existed. Slug, shrew, scorpion, serpent were theriomorphic
metaphors which many people instinctively felt would better express
her character.
For
at least half an hour she ranted and hissed, cackled and droned,
congratulated herself and denounced her enemies- most of the world it
seemed, to loud, prolonged and repeated applause from her political
supporters. Her head
bobbed, her eyes rolled, her mouth grimaced and her body twitched. It
was indeed the Hillary of old, unleashed again after a period of
heavily drugged restraint. America and the world watched, fascinated
and appalled, as not only her body but her emotions escaped control.
She poured scorn upon her defeated opponents, Donald Trump, the
Republicans, heterosexuals and especially white males. Not
that Trump minded; he was far away, making money and playing golf.
The Wicked Witch of the
West gloatingly recounted her diplomatic feats; how she had spread a
renewed barrage of blood and fire over Syria, her threats to Iran,
her acceptance of Ukraine as an ally of the United States, and her
demand that Russia cede the Crimea to Ukraine and cease to support
the rebels in the Donbass, her
threats of sanctions against China.
She seemed barely able to
restrain herself from immediate declarations of war against all these
countries as she menacingly announced that the forces of the USA were
in the process of being re-deployed and that their defence readiness
had been raised to maximum. She
announced that if they listened carefully they could hear their air
force flying overhead to take up their positions of readiness.
It
was at 21:47 Eastern Standard Time that the Big Butterfly twitched
its wings and changed the
world. The skies over much of the eastern United States
were suddenly illuminated,
brighter than the
brightest noon, as
all these people, together with millions of others and the whole city
of Washington ceased to exist. Live
on air – so to speak. The fallout was spectacular- again, so to
speak.
The
Russians must have done it. At least, that was the initial assumption
as the remnants of the high command of the American military, hiding
under a mountain, frantically sought to establish the extent of the
damage, whether there were signs of further imminent attack by
Russia, China or anyone else, and whether any legitimate political
leadership had survived. This
assumption was soon overturned as it became clear that there were no
such signs and as they fielded frantic calls from the Russian
political and military leadership asking what had happened, assuring
them that they had had nothing to do with whatever had happened, and
expressing condolences on the disaster and offers of civilian
assistance should it be required. These calls were soon followed by
more, informing them that the Russian sniffers of nuclear residues
from the explosions, (plural), thought them to be characteristic of
American nuclear weapons. This
was reassuring in a way, although highly embarrassing, and
corresponded to a
sickening realisation growing from their own investigations, that
this was probably the world's biggest 'Oops, butterfingers!' moment.
How and to whom does one apologise for accidentally annihilating the
capital city and the political leadership of one's own country?
That's not something for
which they practice. It
still was not clear who was to blame and whether they were still
alive.
What
had happened? Those atomic bombs had certainly not been dropped by
butterflies. If not enemy action, had it been some sort of ghastly
accident or something more sinister? A whole series of simultaneous
accidents beggared belief. The actual number of explosions, almost
simultaneous, was not known at first, although seismographs soon
reported that there had been seven. It
proved difficult to discover exactly how many nuclear weapons (and
aircraft) were unaccounted
for, whether there were any more unexploded
bombs that had escaped
official control, and just which bombs these had been and how these
seven had been delivered and how it had been
done without official
orders to move and use them.
The disappearance of the
Pentagon along with the rest of Washington hampered investigations,
and the absence of the whole national
political and
senior bureaucrat classes
meant that huge additional burdens were placed on the surviving
military command. At least
they had avoided a war which would have destroyed the rest of the
country and much of the rest of the world; or if only a small one,
left them trying to manage that as well as deal with the chaos at
home.
The
mess got worse. Initial reports emphasised the destruction of
Washington and areas to the north of it, because that damage was
easily visible and
politically shocking, but that was not the full extent of the death
and destruction. The
winds were blowing northeastwards, so over the weekend the whole area
up to and including New York city received a heavy dose of radiation,
in time for commuters from further north to catch their death of it
when they went to work on Monday, although it would take some time to
kill them. Zombie Panic
spread up the whole east coast as people realised that they were
'dead men walking', and others feared that they had incurred or soon
would incur, the same fate.
Social order and
government services collapsed. A Hobbesian state of nature prevailed,
a war of all against all. Those
who had not fled inland or further north, often spreading the
disorder they sought to escape as they did so, were caught in the
auto-destructive frenzy. State authority vanished from several New
England states, the military command under their mountain were not
able to reassure the panicked politicians who called for their aid,
and local military units ignored or outright refused orders to go
into the affected areas, confining themselves to shooting anyone who
approached them or attempted to interfere with their own looting of
high value targets, or 'strategic redeployment' well away from areas
of radiation or riots.
The
military command of such of the military as remained willing to obey
their commands were too burdened to do anything about this,
especially as the catastrophe which eliminated the source of
legitimate authority had weakened their own. Formally
there had been a continuity of government plan. Some of the
Washington politicians had been supposed to stay away from the State
of the Union speech to constitute a kernel of government in the case
of some disaster wiping out the others. If that had happened it had
become irrelevant, because none had survived the nuclear catastrophe.
Plenty
of ambitious state governors and other politicians had demanded a
quick replacement of the Federal government, usually under some
scheme which would benefit he who proposed it. Consequently each was
opposed by the others. Quick elections were deemed impracticable, not
least because several important Democratic states were in chaos, (and
their populations much reduced so it was not clear how much
representation they should have) so their state politicians demanded
that they should be allowed to constitute a new Federal Government -
'that's what Hillary would have wanted' they claimed, but failed to
convince each other, let alone Republicans. Foreign governments and
financial markets were also keen to have a clear centre of authority
in the USA. Thus the military command felt obliged to constitute
themselves an interim government and to declare martial law in the
east coast states north of Washington. The rest of the states
vigorously denied that they had any problems which would justify any
such action, and disputed the competence of the military command to
take such action and to make itself a replacement for the Federal
government. Indeed,
California had the impertinence to suggest that as the largest state
still in good order that adhered to the dead President's programme,
they should assume the Federal government for the remainder of her
term, and that San Francisco should replace Washington as Federal
capital. This idea was not well received by the other states or by
the Interim Military Government.
The
disappearance of Washington and its political establishment evoked
horrified fascination by the rest of the world and by
the surviving American media. This was quickly matched and surpassed
by the horror and disgust with which the collapse of civilisation in
New York, Philadelphia, Boston and adjacent areas was viewed – and
it was viewed around the world, 'live' as it happened. It made
Somalia, Rwanda, Cambodia, - previous exemplars of savagery - appear
civilised, mild and sane by comparison. These
were the areas of America best known and loved by the liberal media
and bureaucratic and political establishments of the western world.
They were mortified by the speed and extent with which all traces of
decency had been sloughed off
by the people they had
idolised.
Nor
could their usual recourse of ignoring and then denying anything
which ran counter to their 'narrative' of lying propaganda be
effective in this case, because the interest of the world was so
great and the number of competing sources of information so large,
that it could not be ignored or denied.
Day
by day, night by night, the world and the rest of America watched as
their
worst post-Apocalyptic nightmare fantasies were realised in
blood-spattered technicolor on their screens. Drone
borne cameras and microphones were cheap and plentiful. The state
and military authorities were not able to prevent their deployment in
enormous numbers. Not even
the most liberal application of liberal lies, cover-ups and
distortions could conceal the truth shrilly shouted by their
opponents in the alternative media, that the lead and greatest part
in these gruesome atrocities were taken by the blacks, illegal
immigrants, social justice warriors, Muslims, feminists
and degenerates who had been lionised by the liberal establishment
and their lickspittle media and politicians.
At
first it had been those who were dying of radiation poisoning, or who
expected to do so, who had started the riots, murders, thefts, rapes,
drunken destruction and arson. Soon this behaviour spread as the
police fled and social and civil order collapsed. Armed blacks were
always eager to go on a rampage. Now they had nothing to fear, and
quickly took the chance to hunt and torture, rape, loot, enslave and
kill all the whites they could reach after
breaking into liquor stores and supermarkets.
Not that they treated each other or decent
blacks much better. Publicity
soon spread this behaviour to other big cities and areas infested by
blacks far from the east coast radiation plume. Generations
of liberal programming had their predictable effect. What the
liberals were this time not able to subvert was the natural outrage
of the rest of the country and the repugnance of the rest of the
world. This time the
rioters got their just desserts
in the more civilised parts of America and many of their sympathisers
and enablers were then hunted down and slaughtered to prevent a
recrudescence of such outrages. Martial law has its uses, whether
declared by a state governor or an Interim Military Government.
Reflex
calls for emergency aid and international assistance were issued by
the usual suspects. Soon their irrelevance was revealed. The problems
might be solved by hot lead but certainly they were not ameliorated
by soft soap and bottled water. Films of naive aiders being tortured
and slaughtered by those they intended to help quickly spread around
the world and helped to awake world and American opinion to the true
nature of the problem.
Demands began to be
received by the IMG that they should deal briskly with the east
coast. Better controlled applications of atomic weapons, poison gas
or death rays from space were seriously suggested. By this time the
rest of the country was out of sympathy for the east coast. They were
adjusting to life without Washington and New York on their backs, in
their ears and on their cases, and discovering that they liked it.
State politicians and
bureaucracies were swelling with new found pride and self-importance,
eagerly taking up as much as they could of the power and prestige
that had been purloined by Washington. States Rights were of new
found relevance, and were ridden for all they were worth, with
frequent references to the original intent of the Constitution to
limit the powers of the Federal government, and suddenly bold
declarations that the rights of the states had been usurped by
tyrannical liberals and Democrats. States busied themselves denying
and excluding most Federal legislation and bureaucracies and
programmes. This was
encouraged because it was entangled with the basic question of who
had the right, and importantly
now – the ability- to levy and collect taxation.
This
was a further and fundamental difficulty for the IMG. It had little
ability to raise revenue and huge payrolls and other expenditure to
meet. Raising revenue
depends on the presence or imminent prospect of armed men to enforce
compliance. In modern times their reach had been vastly extended by a
huge and intrusive set of bureaucracies – but the greatest and most
intrusive of these bureaucracies had been decapitated and most of the
states were not willing to see them reconstituted at their expense.
The states indeed employed
their own armed forces, less heavily equipped than the Federal
military, but better suited to revenue collection and
riot suppression than were
those riding the marvels of hugely expensive modern technology.
Just
as those who claimed authority needed armed force to impose their
will, however thick the fog of demagoguery obscuring that basic
political fact, and needed to be able to pay them; so the armed men
needed employers with some semblance of legitimacy who could pay
them, if they were not to become mere bandits working on their own
account, probably with a short life expectation. This was awkward for
the IMG and those who wished to be paid by them. It
resulted in a rapid dwindling of their initial political and military
capital as more and more had to be ceded to the states, and as their
personnel increasingly followed the loyalty of their stomachs and
accepted such employment as they could get from whichever state or
company could feed them. Soon the mighty engines of the US military
were mostly consigned to junk heaps or sold abroad. The authority of
the IMG become ever more
nominal. Foreign
governments scented this decay and transfer of power and authority to
the states, which they started to treat almost as independent
countries; a process which the egos of the state politicians and
their rivalries with their neighbours encouraged.
This
process of constitutional breakdown and re-organisation might be seen
in terms of our butterfly metaphor as the equivalent of the
caterpillar's change into a chrysalis, but would a beautiful
butterfly emerge from it?
We
left the story without resolving the question of how had the atomic
explosions been caused. The normal procedures for the movement and
arming of atomic weapons were very stringent, so it was particularly
puzzling that not one but several had been detonated without
authority. This and the location of the explosions suggested
systematic subversion of normal safety procedures and hostile intent,
perhaps by quite a large number of people. Military
counter intelligence was frantic to discover any plots by the KKK,
the Alt Right or any other Democratic bogeymen, until dissuaded by
the IMG pointing out their complete failure to discover any plausible
plots and by a lack of obvious
beneficiaries “unless you're accusing us of course, Ha! Ha! Thought
not.” Also by the elimination of the previous political class, the
dire emergencies of the current situation,
and the consequent need to “get with the new program, Colonel”.
As
the IMG reduced the defence readiness level, calmed the fears of
foreign governments, and returned units to their previous positions,
a couple of mysteries were resolved. One was the identification of
the bombs and the planes carrying them. The other was why they had
been flying over Washington in normally restricted airspace at that
time. That was simply because of Hillary's ego, she had overridden
the normal procedure and ordered a flight over the Capitol at that
time as part of the deployment to attack positions, just to be able
to generate applause at that point in her speech. That
was characteristic of her hubris and consistent with her previous
career of refusal to abide by security procedures for handling
classified information and work related emails, and generally in
misusing her office to advance her personal interests. So far indeed,
so predictable. Had some persons unknown who had known this not
very well guarded information, been able to exploit access to nuclear
weapons to cause such well targeted destruction, a classic
Decapitation Strike? If the IMG had suspicions in that direction
they were not shared with the public.
The
official explanation, released under tremendous national and
international pressure, was that in the haste to comply with sudden
deployment orders, corners had been cut, safety procedures ignored,
mistakes had been made, and lessons had been learned. It
was assumed that pilot error had been the inadvertent cause of the
first explosion, directly over the Capitol, and that the other planes
of the flight had been caught in the blast and their weapons had
'cooked off'. Certainly none of the crew survived to confirm or deny
this story. Shortly thereafter
the base from which they
had flown was closed, the formation was disbanded, the ground crews
and administrators left the service. They and the families of the
aircrew disappeared from public view. Embarrassment? Punishment?
Flight?
Retrenchment? Cover-up? Coincidence?
You may think as you
please but you'll get no
more comment on this
matter from the IMG.
There
are always those who claim that 'an official statement' is the very
definition of a lie. Of course there may also be those who will
counter object that the officials whose statements gave rise to such
cynicism were those who were incinerated in the Washington
Catastrophe, as it came to be called. (Or
The Great Deliverance, as others came to call it.)
Speculation
continues. What really happened, and why? Did simple carelessness
bring down a great nation at a crucial moment and at the same time
preserve it? The consequences continue to proliferate. Could such
significant events have followed from insignificant causes?
Rumours
abounded. Some wondered whether Allan had wormed his way into the
American Air Force, and dropped some Snackbars, but no jihadi group
claimed the deed. More usually it was regarded as some sort of 'own
goal'. Too much attention to 'Diversity and Equality Coordination' and
the various lunacies of the multi-culti left, vigorously promoted in
the military and everywhere else by the Clinton Administration,
rather than to 'health and safety'; resulting in a grand case of
petardic self-hoisting, was a popular view. The Fuck-up Factor was
strong in that one.
To
those more delicately attuned to the gentle flutter of tiny wings
came a whisper on this faintest of breezes, that the crucial
butterflies had been those which had fluttered in the stomachs of
hypothetical and certainly anonymous Generals in the Pentagon. These
had known that the President or her dominant group of advisors was
mad, and that MAD would terminate their lives and those of the rest
of the world 'with extreme prejudice' and very soon, because of their
extremely prejudiced, ignorant and distorted views of life. They had
known, it was averred, that her illusion about being able to force
the submission of the Russians in particular without them being
willing and able to fight back, even knowing that the consequences
would be like Samson pulling down the temple of the Philistines in a
general holocaust, was indeed delusional, as had been her
vituperative rejection of all sane advice and prudent warnings. Had
they taken a Samson Option to sacrifice their own capital and
leadership, possibly including themselves, in order to save the rest
of the world and the rest of their own country? Courage,
self-sacrifice and loyalty were always the virtues most admired and
expected of the military. Was perhaps this rumour the shadow of such
hope and expectation without sufficient regard to the more usually
admitted view that what 'generally' rose to the top was scum, not
cream. General Officers had the reputation of being those who had
most cunningly and abjectly played the games of flattery and
political correctness. Those with too much of the old fashioned
virtues and competence were assumed to have been filtered out at an
earlier stage of selection. All the same, 'depend upon it sir, the
knowledge that a man is to be hanged in a fortnight concentrates his
mind wonderfully', and this could apply at least as much to rogues as
to honest men.
It
is easy to imagine the likely sequence of events, at least in
outline. The sickening understanding that if one does not do
something, no one else may act; and the maniacs around the White
House will actually cause the destruction of the world in only a few
days or even hours. A career of supine obedience and craven flattery
to secure self advancement ends at that moment. The sudden luminous
knowledge of a brief opportunity wherein brutal devastating action
would be effective. How could it actually be done? Who would need to
do what? Who could be trusted? The sidelong glances and estimations
of those around. The mental search for those further away whose
participation would be required or who could be wangled into the
crucial positions at the necessary times. The hurried yet apparently
casual renovation of old acquaintance. The secret meetings, striving
not to look furtive, the anxious sounding of opinions, deciding to
risk exposure and execution by inviting the succession of other
people to participate in treason and mass murder in order to save the
planet, each of whom must in turn take similar risks recruiting
subordinates who will do the deed. The possible murders of those who
refuse to join. The fear that those who accept may immediately
betray. The movement of decision from the initiators downwards and
outwards to those in command of those who will assign crews and
tasks, those who will load and manipulate the planes and weapons,
those who will perform checks – or not, issue revised orders,
create diversions, change a crew member at a crucial time, maybe
recruit at least one pilot or air crew who will be the unknown
kamikaze.
A
variant view was that if the Generals had not been up to the task,
perhaps some Colonels had taken action. Coups usually seem to be led
by Colonels, although, as for instance in the case of Nasser, often
with a general or so as temporary figureheads. Against this was the
fact that no such junta had stepped forth to claim credit and power
after the event. The IMG appeared to consist of unhappy survivors
reluctantly fumbling with a situation for which they were not well
fitted, not the usual wannabe Presidents For Life. Still it might be
thought that was a reflection of their ambition exceeding their
ability, although their relative modesty would seem to deny this.
Maybe American coups were just different. No tanks in the street, no
seizure of the national tv and radio broadcast stations to broadcast
martial music and patriotic addresses, no self promotions and cult of
personality – yet. Maybe they were more concerned with getting an
unpleasant job done than with taking personal credit – or wisely
decided that the destruction of a significant portion of the
population and territory of their country was not something for which
credit would be given and that it would be more prudent to modestly
avoid responsibility and blame.
Let's
not overlook another possibility – quick thinking and action by
those too junior to assume subsequent leadership. Maybe the lightning
had struck some techie or spook who had discovered the not very
secure plans to send nuclear armed planes over Washington took
matters into their own hands and had contacts which could quickly
get to the right people to doctor at least one bomb before or after
it was loaded. Perhaps at least one of the air crew was complicit if
there were supposed to be checks carried out before take off. It
should be remembered that even in better times, there had been
rumours and scares about unauthorised transport, and even loss, of
nuclear weapons. People were alleged to have been dismissed from the
force as a result. At least one nuclear bomb was whispered to still
be missing, although if so the smart money was on it having been
found in Israel.
There's
even the possibility of something similar having happened on the
other side. The Russian and Chinese intelligence services must have
known of the movement plans. Perhaps one of them inserted an asset to
doctor or explode the bomb, a risk worth taking in the face of
imminent war. The Russians were known to have electronic warfare
equipment which could suppress the electronics of American radar and
ships. Maybe they also had something which could set off an American
nuclear bomb, perhaps from the ground beneath the aircraft carrying
them at quite a low altitude. There's no need to doubt the sincerity
of the Russian assurances. Their government may not have known of
the action.
It
did not escape comment that all instances of the use of atomic bombs
had been American, and that there was some justice matching the
destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki with that of Washington and New
York. The angels of karmic retribution may be terrible indeed, but
who would have thought that the delicate wings of butterflies could
have borne those chariots of fire?
Baal
Zebub Lord of the Flies, was a powerful demon; but more terrible and
beautiful is the Lord or Lady of the Butterflies. Respect then the
butterflies. Know that in some manner beyond our ability to
comprehend or imitate, the apparently weak and uncoordinated beats
of their multitudinous wings, may be bearing forces of greater power
and influence than our bustling world acknowledges.
I
like the butterflies. Not that I think that individually,
collectively or archetypically they had the slightest knowledge of
humanity or concern for our follies and activities or their
consequences. It may be more a matter of what their existence means.
Butterfly winged Psyche was the symbol or goddess of the soul and
wife of Eros. Who is to say that she was solely the soul of humanity?
Other life, and not necessarily only that physically manifest, may
have a share – and a concern that humanity does not destroy this
planet, which guardianship with elegantly minimal action may here
have been performed.
'Wyrd
bith ful aread' as the Saxons said. We might be saying it too, had
the butterflies fluttered slightly differently at Hastings in 1066.
Fate is inexorable, but perhaps the weavers have some freedom in how
they weave the tapestry of life, or in how the figures are displayed.
That tapestry, or actually embroidery, at Bayeux, might be in
Winchester. Instead of depicting Harold with an arrow in his eye it
shows William hacked to pieces. Life on this earth has not run its
course. The butterflies must play awhile.