"Tyranny of the Downbeat" Chapter 35

CHAPTER 35

All art is knowing when to stop.
-- Toni Morrison

A photograph is a secret about a secret. The more it tells
you the less you know.
-- Diane Arbus

DISSOLVE:

MUSIC CHANGE: UP FULL THEN UNDER
THEME #20: Kitaro's "Full Moon Story"

148 EXT. REFUGE - LATE AFTERNOON - ESTABLISHING SHOT

AERIAL FLY-BY of Masterson. Helicopter flies low over the
grasslands and the water.

NARRATOR (v.o.)
Some see what's happening at Masterson as an ingenious revenge. Nature's way. Her revenge on a valley that stopped at nothing to become the richest agricultural region in the world. At an awesome expense to her water and wildlife.

149 EXT. RIVER CANYON - WIDE SHOT

HIGH ANGLE SHOTS of river running through King's Canyon.

We forget something we learned as children. The hydrologic cycle. It is a circle, a continuum. We can't do anything to our water without feeling the effects somehow, somewhere, sometime.

150 MONTAGE

Shots of rushing water.

We have learned that when it comes to water, everything we do carries a reward and a risk. There are two sides to this issue, to a degree matched by practically nothing else on the planet.

151 EXT. HIGHWAY - WIDE SHOT

Shot of highways in the midwest in winter.

If we want highways free of ice in the winter, we put salt on them. And we get chloride contamination of our groundwater.

152 EXT. FIELD - WIDE SHOT

Shot of aerial spraying.

If we want poisons to kill worms so they don't ruin our crops, we smother them with poisons. And we get aldicarb in
our groundwater.

153 CLOSE UP

Spraying ground with pesticide.

Think about it. When we poison the ground, we poison ourselves. Once exposed, the aftereffects may not show up for years. But they will. And they will kill us.

154 EXT. LAKE - WIDE SHOT

Family picnics near lake.

With every breath we take, we exchange oxygen with the air. With every drink of water, we take streams and aquifers into our bodies. With every mouthful of food, we complete pathways that run from our bones, liver, and brains to rainwater
and microorganisms in the soil that nurture the crops upon which we depend.

155 EXT. CITY - WIDE SHOT

New York City street scene.

English poet John Donne once wrote: "No man is an Island, entire of it self." For him, it was a religious principle. For us, it must become the basis for our daily lives, for it is an unrelenting and unforgiving reality.

156 MONTAGE

Shots of people hiking and recreating in wilderness areas.

We must recognize that we are a part of life and that we cannot destroy it for our immediate convenience and comfort
without ultimately destroying ourselves. Just as we cannot endanger life without endangering ourselves, so we cannot save
ourselves without preserving the entire biosphere. This interconnectedness with life will be our saving grace.

157 EXT. PLANT - ESTABLISHING SHOT

Exterior shot of OxyGene plant. CAMERA PANS LEFT to frame
children riding on their bikes.

If we don't send a message to those responsible right now, today, we are condemning our children, and our children's children to deaths more horrible than we can imagine. We must do
it for ourselves. We must do it for our children. We must do it for our future.

158 MONTAGE

Shots of development. Strip mining, coastal oil drilling,
nuclear plants, toxic dumps.

A noted politician once spoke of "a conspiracy of the present to steal from the future." He pointed out that the
future didn't have a chance because it had no legislators, no news reporters or lobbyists.

CONTINUE MONTAGE.

He wondered if we would have the wisdom and foresight to act as stewards for the future; or would we just consume away
the present as so many collapsed civilizations have done before us. There is only one answer. It is a resounding, "We will not."

MUSIC UP FULL

DISSOLVE

159 EXT. WATER - ECU OF FLOWING WATER.

160 TITLE

Roll Closing Credits

FADE OUT:

MUSIC: DOWN AND OUT

The last of the credits rolled off the screen as the final
chord faded away. Elliot turned to The Mole, then looked back at
me. He smiles, "I like it."
"Yea, I think it works."
As if trying to convince himself, "I think it goes just far
enough."
"Now we've got to get it on the air."
"Shouldn't be a problem."
"Don't be so naive." There was that word again. "What if
they freeze you out? Get an injunction, or something, so you
can't buy any air time?"
"I guess we'd have to come up with something a little more
creative."
"Like The Brigade did?"
The Mole shifts in his seat.

GRAPHIC DESIGN AND LAYOUT WILL CLEARLY INDICATE THIS SECTION
AS A CONTINUATION OF THE SCENARIO DESIGNED BY THE INSTITUTE. IT
MAY BE DESIGNED AS STORYBOARD OR COMIC BOOK PANELS.

It is January 1, 1992. It is an election year and the
ritual of choosing a Presidential image is about to begin. The
sophisticated imaging technologies sit poised for action. Narrow
vested interests with vast sums of money and the will to abuse
its privileges, prepare to use the powers of the media to tamper
with the fabric of a democracy.

The Info-Visionists finally complete design of a plan of action
as the campaign year dawns. The list of equipment needed and the
means of acquiring each is resolved. They have integrated the
equipment and the common resolve of 11 individuals into a
working system, a whole, a singularity of action.

In time, this network of individuals, hardware and ideals comes
to be called "The Engine of Change". Their efforts will spread
across day and night for the remainder of the year. They have
chosen their components wisely and well from within The Order and
are now ready to knit them into a new pattern. From Goliath they
have fashioned a David.

BREAK POINT IN SCENARIO.

The welder's torch spit blue shadows against the walls. The Arrow sat in the middle of the shop, crawling with technicians
and engineers. Portions of the cab had been cut away. The rest
of the frame had been extended, shaped, and modified to take the
racks of equipment that waited to the side. The aerodynamics had
been redesigned to allow it to cruise at speeds in excess of
140 miles per hour.

A team of millwrights cut through the superstructure, modifying
and reinforcing it to receive the new power train. The original
diesel drive undercarriage and generator lay abandoned, as a team
labored to couple an all electric drive sled and fuel cell module
to the reworked frame struts. Audio and video edit bays,
microwave transmission, and other pre-existing electronics were
being moved to clear a space for the high-speed computer and its
storage devices.

A narrow circulation shaft ran the length of The Arrow. Along
this corridor, control stations were built for the computers,
video processing and synthesis, audio, communication and
microwave transmission, and The PULPIT.

Low light level cameras had been installed throughout to capture
images of the interior and the crew as they progressed through
the event. The main studio and control console were located
in the upper front quarter of The Arrow, just above the driver's
cockpit. From there, the anchor and two associates, an engineer
and field producer, would monitor The Arrow, its transmissions,
and their pursuit.

A lower rear portion of the superstructure had been removed so a
second vehicle could be mated to it. It was a small, mobile
camera platform with a built-in signal reflector. It would be
operated by one driver and a cameraman. It was designed as a
decoy, to make it appear as if the transmission was actually
originating from The Mirror and not the control center aboard The
Arrow. Valuable time would be wasted by the pursuit forces as
they tracked The Mirror.

The survival time and degree of success of the entire effort
would depend on how long this deception worked. Its
maneuverability, speed, and size would be used to draw pursuers
ever farther from the real source of transmission. When, and if,
it was discovered, it was designed so it could broadcast the
pursuit back to The Arrow for re-transmission to the viewing
audience. The Info-Visionists intended to broadcast their own
capture and destruction in real-time. And the American public
would witness the brutality of The Order first-hand.

BREAK POINT IN SCENARIO.

Flynn James was unique among network telejournalists. Not even
the fabled Walter Cronkite enjoyed the same freedom to express views on any subject while maintaining a credibility that rivaled many national figures. For someone not directly involved in the power politics of government or business, he had achieved an unparalleled position of influence, respect, and prestige.

To millions, he was the truth. He had become their measure of
the events of the day. They had gladly abandoned their need to
know for the familiar manner and comforting order he could bring
to the disorder of the every day. His image had become an event.
And in his mind, it had become a burden of misplaced priorities.

BREAK POINT IN SCENARIO.

The crane slowly lowered the freshly-painted, charcoal-silver
Jet/Ranger helicopter into its nest on the roof of The Arrow.
Their night-running colors matched perfectly. The millwrights
coupled the helicopter into place.

The two remaining Jet/Rangers stood silently in an adjoining
hangar, soon to be converted into the aerial antennae system for
The Engine of Change. If necessary, the roof chopper would
assume the tasks of The Mirror in one final attempt to sustain
The Moment, to prolong the event. The copter was also mounted
with cameras so it could beam the last breath of rebel life into
the homes of America.

The infra-red night vision systems were being installed in all
the mobile equipment. The driver's cockpit of The Arrow was
nearly complete, as were the master control facilities for audio
and video. All remote cameras on The Mirror and the helicopter
systems were in place and being hard-wired to the editing
hardware.

As the year slipped away, seemingly more quickly than before, The
Info-Visionists neared completion of Phase One. They were confident they had acquired and integrated the necessary
equipment to succeed in producing The Moment and prolonging its
existence.

As the mid-point of the year approached, they turned their
attention to acquiring the special devices that would actually
create and project the images of this event.

BREAK POINT IN SCENARIO.

During his twenty years of broadcast journalism, Flynn had worked
with the best and brightest practitioners of the broadcast
journalism and video communication arts. And in confidential
conversations, he had come to share with a handful of them, the
fear that this vast network of continental teleconnections had
become a selfishly manipulated giant of social and economic
influence. And like them, he believed it was vulnerable. It had
an Achilles heel.

As he spent more time with these few men and women, and as they
grew to trust the other, they confided in him their intention to
assemble a machine and create an event unlike anything attempted
before. But they needed someone like Flynn to capture the public, to gain their confidence and participation. They
challenged his conscience. They asked him to join.

Flynn knew these dedicated individuals, the Info-Visionists as
they now called themselves, had the skills and drive to build
their so-called Engine of Change. But did he have the
commitment, the belief, the true emotions and honest words to
trigger the images they would require? For the heart of The
Engine of Change would be his heart, its soul his own.

The Engine would be an extension of his feelings and words. It
would be able to create a synthesis of image and sound based on
the words he spoke and emotions he felt. The context, inflection, and definition of each word would trigger a flow of
interpreted images that would be broadcast simultaneously,
instantaneously.

The Engine would reach into its pool of images to find a
visualization of the idea. It would be able to read and
interpret the great and small intentions, the nuances, the
inflections of any phrase. And it would also paint the truth of
any fears hidden behind his words. Every secret would be made
visible. Flynn wasn't sure he had the strength and conviction it
took to sustain The Event.

BREAK POINT IN SCENARIO.

The second Cray X-MP/48 slid easily into place next to its
identical companion unit. Only the upper rear quarter section of
The Arrow remained vacant, waiting to receive The PULPIT.

While the acquisition and assembly of the hardware moved ahead,
others of the team were busily gathering, cataloguing, and
storing images in the computers. These imagineers were responsible for writing the software that would encode and decode
an image library of the entire century.

The images and sounds of events, peoples, and places were
digitized and stored, a chronicle of the Twentieth Century. Each
was carefully mapped, categorized, and cross-indexed over a broad
matrix of commonality. A voice recognition compiler would
bring the appropriate image to the surface instantaneously.

A logic leveraging algorythm had been designed and installed
to couple the two Crays in parallel to achieve an exponential
magnification of processing speed. A pattern recognition
algorythm had also been designed to read and display the images.

The Engine of Change had become a mobile image library of our
nation and our world. From this pool, it was capable of
synthesizing new visual relationships. It could process
thousands of inputs from memory and real time simultaneously, and
display a composite in a heartbeat.

As the year wore on, and it became more and more obvious that
the world was in a state of flux and turmoil, the representations
of reality, as presented by the political and economic elites, was becoming more and more rigidly and narrowly defined.

Flynn recognized more clearly that the window of television, for
all of its variety, granted a limited field of vision. Flynn
finally realized that The Order held fast all the cards that
counted in this game. And it was now even more apparent that the
Info-Visionists were the only ones with the vision to compete
with The Order for a new image of The Future.

BREAK POINT IN SCENARIO.

The PULPIT suppressed all signals within its radius. The
Info-Visionists monitored the damped signals from the outside and
coupled them into their own transmissions. They monitored the
networks and listened in on their correspondents in Washington
and New York. Broadcast television would no longer be a one-way
network. It would become a living, interactive medium.

They now had the tools, expertise, voice, and familiar presence
to breath life into their plans. They would spend the balance of
the year gathering images. They waited for the election year to
reach its climax.

BREAK POINT IN SCENARIO.

It is Monday, November 4, 1992. Election eve. Unprecedented
millions have been spent by both parties and their special
interest supporters. The Order waits, exhausted, for the morning
and the expected results. It has been a long year.

The Info-Visionists are tired also, but they cannot rest. Their
year of effort and sacrifice is about to culminate in The Moment
they have prepared for.

It is 5:56PM. The final four-minute sequence has been set in
motion. Somewhere in the heartland of America, The
Info-Visionists accelerate along a ribbon of highway. In a
momentary burst, they will be before the people of the United
States. Flynn James will once more, perhaps for the last time,
speak to the nation about where we've been and where we're going.
The Info-Visionists are about to capture the imagination of a
nation. The Moment is at hand.

BREAK POINT IN SCENARIO.

"Good evening. This is Flynn James. We are The Info-Visionists.
Together, we have just crossed the threshold of an event unlike
any other. At this very moment, 190 million of you are
simultaneously sharing the experience of these images. Our
journey will be a short one. We raise our voices above the
established Order, not with guns and violence, but with
imagination."

"We will confront and challenge you with the reality of how this
screen limits your vision, masks the contradictions that exist.
Confuses how images and words are used to make you doubt the
realities that wait outside your door."

"It is time for us to confront how we perceive, and tolerate, our
nation's goals and methods. We have seized this moment on behalf
of the future. We hope that in the morning, our images will be
echoed by your united voices."

Within a matter of minutes, The Order knew that their worst fears
about the fire at the Rand facility had been realized. They had
been silent about The PULPIT. Now they could no longer deny its
existence.

They could call this treason. But they'd have to wait for the
right opportunity. At this moment, their access to the nation
was blocked. The Order had prepared a number of scenarios and
plans in case of terrorist action. But the nature and character
of this event had caught them completely off-guard.

The Info-Visionists could not be called terrorists. They had
made that clear. They had used their minds, not their fists to
seize The Moment. They had taken the high ground without a shot.
And their audience was receptive, having been primed by years of
dependence on the credibility of television.

The Order knew it was not impossible to find the source of The
PULPIT signal. But it would take time. And every wasted minute
allowed the rebels to broadcast their message to more people.
The risk to The Order and their carefully prepared perception of
reality could be changed forever.

The technologies of The Order were now on alert. There was
little time to spare. They had the new tools, as well as the
traditional weapons of brute force, to confront and terminate The
Event. It would only be a matter of time.

But with the right mix of images and words, and with sufficient
time to project them, The Info-Visionists could create a lasting
impression. A pebble cast into a still pond, the ripples could
reverberate for years.

With each new input, The Order collected data and refined their
assumptions about the nature of this event. They would find the
rebels. But in the end, their justified means could destroy
their image in the eyes of the nation.

BREAK POINT IN SCENARIO.

"Tomorrow, across this nation, millions of you will exercise your
collective will as a free people by participating in the
Presidential election. In spite of the fact that unprecedented
millions have been spent to influence your decision, voter apathy
is expected to reach record levels."

"Each candidate and special interest group has invested millions
to decipher, predict, and stimulate your every mood. And yet,
the depths of democratic participation have become even more
shallow. We sense that in the hearts of many of you, you feel
there is no real choice, no clear distinctions between the
candidates and their purposes."

BREAK POINT IN SCENARIO.

"When you step into the voting booth tomorrow, be prepared to
vote for yourself. To write in your name. You may see it as a
futile gesture. But the result of this common action will force
an evaluation of the values and motives that drive our democracy. We ride to remind you of our national spirit and the paths of possibilities that lie before us."

"As I speak to you now, The Order prowls the plains nearby. Back
and forth, they roam the heartland of this nation, watching for
us, their prey. We see them crest the hills behind us, swing
round, and ready for the chase."

BREAK POINT IN SCENARIO.

"Their dragons spit fire and flay the ground. Brutal force destroys a fragment of our plan. Yet the images survive. Two of
us are dead. Our fate will surely be the same. This is how The
Order will freeze the status quo in place."

"We bring you the reaffirmation of an ideal long forgotten. That
a person's right to participate in the democratic process is not
the result of wealth, position, or the influence of special
purpose elites. It is the ability to intelligently and
dispassionately see and understand the truth in a man's heart,
behind the words and postures."

BREAK POINT IN SCENARIO.

"This is the message of the moment. To expose misuse and abuse
of money, power, and influence is to embrace basic morality; to
accept personal responsibility, and to master your fate."

"In the morning, you will face yourself, your family, and your
conscience. Each of you will have experienced the events of this
evening through your own unique personal perspective. For a brief time, a channel of communication was opened, above the din
of The Order, so that we could share a moment in parallel with
each other."

BREAK POINT IN SCENARIO.

The mechanisms were nearly spent. The Point helicopter had met
the same fate as The Mirror. And the viewers had ridden shotgun.
They had seen and felt the sting of The Order. Perhaps some
applauded. Many more listened to their hearts pounding hard
against their throats. Would the images on this once familiar
screen ever again seem real? The people were no longer a passive
participant, but rather an active witness to the consequences of
rebel ideals and imagination confronting the shallow face of The
Order.

The path of The Arrow was being calculated and verified by The
Order at this very moment. Everyone realized that The Order was
only minutes away from terminating the images of The
Info-Visionists.

The words were few. The images rich with suggestion that those
who follow the paths of ideals and change will soon come to this
crossroads. Many generations had forgotten the sacrifices that
had created and maintained this democracy. They would not forget
this night, as they rode shotgun with The Info-Visionists.

"Outside, we feel the wolves draw near. We watch their fire and
remember being held hostage by their 'truth,' their dreams, their
past. Beyond this screen, the world waits. The Future does not
pre-exist beyond tomorrow. May your vision and actions achieve
the possibilities and promise of change."

END OF SCENARIO.