An article by Sha'Tara, local writer and friend.

Who are "They?"

[thoughts ~ by Sha'Tara]

Once you learn how to dream, and have some idea what dreaming is for, or why you dream, you wake up mornings with some rather interesting thoughts which you cannot just dismiss because you know that as a dreaming entity, you are as real as your 3-D self, and your dream worlds just as alive as the one you enter in to have breakfast.

Today's dream challenge: who exactly are "they" people talk about? There's a loaded question. I try to imagine what it would be like, waking up one morning and knowing exactly who "they" are! I don't mean just imagined, as some nebulous "they" that can be anything anyone wants them to be, but to know, for fact, what "they" look like. What "they" is. What "they" does. What "they" stands for.

So who are "they"? That depends on who you talk to and what their hot topic of the day happens to be. The only fact available regarding "they" is that they exist. I know this simply because everyone has some connection to a "they" one way or another. Ask anyone and there will soon be a "they" in the conversation. They may be nebulous, but they exist. So this isn't a wild goose chase, Sasquatch hunt or search for Nessie: we have a definite starting point.

Some common "they" people go on about.

There's that excessive plethora (yes, by all means, let's be redundant!) of government flunkies and sub-flunkies: the bureaucracy of misnamed civil servants, those "they" that have the power to render government laws and general edicts null and void simply by ignoring them, or re-interpreting them. And while another set of "they" known as lobbyists wine, dine and prostitute the gallant members of the elected governing farce in any regime, it is the nebulous non-elect "they" that really make the decisions that affect you and me. So there's a whole slew (I was going to type slough, and probably not far off) of "they" uncovered, though they remain invisible because they are so seldom personal or individual.

There are the military types now generally morphing themselves into security organizations; the "they" who foment fear of terrorism and endless war as the result because, well, that is their mandate, their business. They too remain quite invisible, although a name may surface now and then, when a hero is called for, or there's need for a sacrifice to make it look as if justice is served when some grossly illegal politically motivated war gambit fails and is exposed.

Still in the realm of earth and dirty deeds, there's those ubiquitous CEO's, of whom so many documentaries have been made recently, and on whose shoulders the health of the planet's economy seems to rest. These have names, and are often in the limelight, but are they really known? They are just more of "they" who as individuals come and go into irrelevancy, but as functions, remain to guide the machinery that sucks the lifeblood from natural resources, workers and consumers, thus inexorably turning this stupefied world into what must become, barring major change of global policy, a poisoned, despoiled, desertified lifeless morass.

Then there's the "they" of the money changing world; managers and mismanagers of global funds who are called bankers and more popularly now, banksters, a much more appropriate handle. They too remain in the realm of "they." As unscrupulous as they remain invisible, they are the ones who make it possible for the previous "they" to carry on their greedy and murderous business.

Of course that's just the tip of the "they" iceberg. If you extend your questions into the world of ufologists, new-agers, conspiracy theorists, religionists and probably some fifty percent of the more active aspects of the Internet, you will encounter a whole lot more "they" and of a much more interesting Twilight Zone variety.

The ufologists: the aliens are coming! Alien bases under Antarctica. The aliens have taken over the Pentagon. The President's wife's an alien. Alien technology used by security forces. Einstein was an alien.

Interesting about aliens. Who, of those who follow this kind of tabloid offering, has ever seen one, talked to one, been introduced to one by any of those thousands who claim to have had alien encounters, or been abducted to be subjected to various sexually stimulating or unpleasant experimentation? Despite a dearth of physical evidence of alien presence on this world, "they" are very much present in millions of peoples' minds. The stories I've read; the fake photographs I've seen! Laughable and sad. I have seen ufo's and so-called aliens, talked to some of them, interacted quite normally with a few. But it's not something you need to go on about. In my world, they aren't a power cabal of "they" whose goal is to enslave mankind, take over the earth, exploit it, or save it for that matter. More akin to fortuitous or interesting bumping of shoulders with strangers at an airport or bus station. Maybe you talk a bit until it's time to board. And maybe the stranger is going your way and happens to be a teacher. You don't call the media and you don't corner him and call the cops. You aren't held in a tractor beam and ordered to "take me to your leader." I am just as much an alien to them as they are to me. And how many are there I have not noticed? I hope I make the distinction obvious enough.

Conspiracy theorists: now there's a group that knows who "they" are. "They" are the hidden powers; the Illuminati or various secret societies or occult underground organizations who, in theory, control all aspects of Earthian life (according to whomever proposes these arguments that is.) Connections to "real" people are often made but for all practical purposes, these "they" remain just as elusive as they must remain invisible. Which makes me wonder out loud why, being in possession of that much power, it remains so necessary for "they" to remain in hiding! Remaining in hiding implies living in fear. What are all these powerful "they" afraid of? Each other?

The new-agers of course have a whole gamut of invisible "they" who can be anyone, from ancient divinities, to God, to aliens, to angels, to dead Earthians, to just "energies." These "they" are usually contacted through the chosen few who channel these entities. Unlike the previous types who can't be trusted, these, we are told, are benevolent; genuinely interested in helping, or saving, mankind. Well, if words did the trick there wouldn't be a sick, poor, hungry or uneducated person on this planet today. In fact, according to some, there wouldn't be a single Earthian left on this planet: they'd all been taken up in the "they" ships and relocated on quasi-heavenly worlds throughout wherever. But until now, their "love" seems to be restricted to words. They do love words, and they love being published, and selling their wisdom. I've followed the predictions, not one of which has come about to this day, but it's never over! The latest melodramatic excitedness is based on the ending of the Mayan calendar. There's to be some massive something change come 2012, the year that ends it all, or begins it all. My guess? It will be the year when nothing happens that hasn't happened before but "they" will of course claim earth has entered into a new era, a new age, a new whatever and guaranteed, someone will make money from it.

Religionists have been at it a long time and have a lot of experience in promoting their own version of the "they" entities, the famous (or infamous) invisible gods of unproved and improbable existence. The propaganda has been going on for millennia and invisible deities have come and gone, but the "they" aspect remains as strong as ever. Gods, angels, the Devil, demons, which some religions break down into quite the creative and extensive hierarchies. Predictably, these also own or control most, if not all, aspects of life on Earth... and what horrors they have brought about here while involved doing the will of man!

Likely I've left out some "they" in this, but there's one more I cannot leave out, one everybody is familiar with yet has never been seen. He's even got a name: Murphy. He's instituted a kind of global law, not surprisingly called "Murphy's Law" that is quite reliable. Before his law got a name, it was called "luck" and before that, fate. Briefly stated, take my word for this, it's: "If anything can go wrong, it will." Thanks, Murph.

It seems obvious that "they" constitute the sum total of all that man fears and hopes for. Their reality is the result of ignorance. Not the crass ignorance of a red neck, neo-fascist or fundamentalist religious nut but that of an intelligent and self-aware species that instinctively senses it should know what it's all about but is blocked, stymied, frustrated by its own personal inability to break out of its pattern of ignorance and really see beyond the trap of its tick-tock life. The entire species is as a Pinocchio trapped in the land of the Lost Boys and its aftermath.

As long as it remains in the dark about the purpose of life, unable to reason and determine its own place in it, it will seek understanding by chasing its "they" phantasms, fearing them, serving them, worshiping them and only the poorer and dummer in the end. And isn't that what the real "they" of the status quo desire? This begs the question: is there a way out of the "they" to "they" slavery?