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...by James Mason
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To Charles Manson it is necessary to devote his own segment. He is unique from the rest not because of any comparative degree of greatness, not on account of any variation from a certain, accepted norm but only because he is the only one which is still alive. And alive in this age generally means to be grossly misunderstood.
I have no way of knowing how many of you managed to watch the interview with Manson done by CBS on its "Nightwatch" program during March of this year. It is difficult for me to comment on what was said even though I videotaped the entire, sixty-minute show. For one, it was anything else but an interview. The "host" kept on interrupting, baiting and throwing barbs all throughout, not to mention tossing in his own little "interpolations" at every commercial break. Manson did his best to hold a tight line of thought despite all interference and provocation. What came across to me– and I have known Manson for about six years– was impressive. The heaviest concepts I have heard to date. Things so huge and all-encompassing that they were and are hard to grasp. I realize that the bulk of the Movement is in agreement with the System in that "Manson is insane". I have heard all that elsewhere before, applied to different personalities. It says nothing about Manson. It tells a lot about those who say it.
Without difficulty, I can well imagine and appreciate how Manson must strike the average mind. Incomprehensible. However, I always felt that the minds in the Movement– or at least some of the better ones– would and should be more perceptive and receptive. I have only been partially right. While 98% of what Manson says flies right over the heads of most, only about 30% leaves me behind in the dust. Tome– a realist and an objectivist– that doesn't mean Manson is screwy. To me it means that here is one source from which I can still draw understanding and knowledge– from which I can still LEARN. For these past five or six years, I have had a sure feeling that when I could approach Manson's grasp and understanding, I'd have achieved something truly great. I've been gaining at it slowly but steadily and remain more convinced of it than ever before.
Contrast this with the information to be found in the Movement. First, how much of it is direct reprint, often dating back ten years and beyond? What does the most advanced of it consist of? Flowery curses upon the System and admonishments to get away and form our own colonies. What's missing is the state of mind, the weltanschauung, the ideology upon which to live, think, to base and to view and everything. I've come to know enough of it to realize that full comprehension of the rest would amount to the ultimate weapon, offensive and defensive, in our poor, disinherited hands.
Manson is unique from the rest because he still lives. He is identical with the rest because he too was undone and betrayed by his own disciples. And for any who have the courage to see arid know that, with 1945, the world and everything in it was turned upside-down, it only follows logically that you look for the greatest of leaders, not at the top where they used to be found, but at the STONE BOTTOM the way this crazy, evil mess demands it must be! But bottom or no, not even the walls of San Quentin can confine his world-significant impact. (And I just wish all of you could have caught a glimpse of the half-dozen-strong escort of "Mr.T's” he had from the block to the room where the interview was conducted.)
Everything else had become to me just like a broken record. I was more than just a little amazed and disgusted when some of the "better" people in the Movement would ask me in the beginning, "Is he a member of the party?" or "Does he plan to become a party member?" The problems always arise when small or average minds try to measure something great using their own inadequate standards. Such as if Jesus were to appear on the street and some asshole inquire, "Are you a member of our Church?" And, in any case, he'd be in violation of the hair and dress code, with no visible means of support, etc.
To the Right Wing aficionados, I would remind you that our Enemy, in the Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion, has long ago promised to invariably attach the status of "common criminal" to their own worst enemies so that their true nature would be effectively concealed from the eyes of the people. Even at that, they have found it altogether impossible to continue seriously pretending that Manson is no more than a common criminal.
I have done what I could to inject– subtlely and overtly– as many of Manson's ideas into Movement thought as possible. I have had limited success. But having accomplished this much, I can only hope that the seeds have been planted and the torch passed...
[Vol. XV, #5– May, 1986]
(This was the last commentary on the above subjects appearing in the original SIEGE.)
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