His wife and family were aboard the lifeboat which held about 150 people. The majestic ocean liner which they originally sailed on was already abandoned, and there were now 30 of these lifeboats scattered on the surface of the rough Atlantic seas. From the moment the cruise was being planned on the SS West, Erik had voiced concerns about this titanic vessel of over 52,000 tons. The ship builder behind the SS West, Orange Star — the first prominent international corporation of its type, had nearly two hundred years together with influential organizations and spy networks that historically caused trouble for the honest engineers. The cruise line carrying the passengers, Clown World Cruises, was a leader in entertainment, especially for kids and young impressionable adults, but also renowned for shady collaborations with the shipbuilder.[1] Erik, a fan of ocean-cruising history and a mechanical engineer himself, had invested thousands of hours studying thick books on these problematic ship designs from the original Yellow Star Engineering of the 1800s through to its competitor Red Star before their 1905 merger.[2] His interest in ships and cruising was piqued by his years serving on the high seas in the U.S. Navy. But neither his practical or intellectual background did any good to earn his family’s respect for his drumbeat of worries and critiques, for the propaganda and promotions that came from serving Clown World were just that good!
The company’s nautical failures — even catastrophic sinkings — have always been overcome by a superior public relations team that brushed aside the blame and concealed the identity of the outside “experts” that replaced the potential for sound engineering with a pattern of corruption. And of course, Erik was well aware of the whistle-blowers, historians, authors and others whose lives would be dramatically altered for confronting the problematic evidence — Bey, Timayenis, Ford, Long, Lindbergh, Reed, Yockey, Oliver, Solzhenitsyn, MacDonald and Unz were some of the big ones Erik’s wife was tired of hearing about.[3]
The foundation of free expression for these men was always in conflict with the experts’ interests. And although Kennedy wasn’t publicly known for venting against the ship builder, historians researching his archives have certainly dug up interesting clues that made him a target too, for his WWII Navy experience certainly helped his understanding of seaworthy construction. Orwell, on the other hand, was left alone and even revered. The characters in his book would be left unchanged by the publisher, his euphemisms and symbolism for disguising his warnings unscathed, as the powers-that-be knew that creative fiction could never succeed in teaching the general masses an eternal lesson, for hardly anyone reads any more! But looking at the list of those who’ve called out this Orange Star and Clown World in one way or another — and there certainly have been scores more than mentioned here — none dared call them “supremacists” for their corruption of the shipping and cruising industry…save one…a courageous professor of history from Duke University who shall remain nameless. Once a not-uncommon figure on political TV shows with a brain functioning like a walking encyclopedia, he would be forever censored and defamed for introducing this label of power and control on the title of one of his books.[4]
Erik wished this was a bad nightmare! Even worse, as he looked over his overloaded boat (including castaways from Africa, the Middle East, Asia, Central and South America that were humanely rescued by Clown World), it appeared to him as if this mass of people didn’t even recognize that the SS West was partially submerged behind them. The passengers, all of them, kept their backs to the West and gazed at the beautiful sun slowly setting, ironically, in the west…as if locked in a trance. Erik scanned his eyes towards the other lifeboats and noticed the same eerie and droning behavior everywhere, a sight that mimicked the internet meme of NPCs back in the Trump days.[5] Additionally, the announcements, the ballyhoo, and the chatter of these ill-fated travelers signaled their belief that they were simply going on a short excursion to an exotic island, and that the SS West was still intact. As strange as this certainly was, it appeared that none of these passengers would have even recognized if an elephant had joined them on their boat.[6] And when this responsible father-of-three sought the attention of his own family to explain his dissention over the double-talk, even they were now at the point of tuning him completely out, tired of hearing what they deemed “conspiracy theories.” But Erik repeats himself under stress, and there was no longer any safe harbor to turn to.
Thankfully there were no IGF fighter jets strafing their lifeboats today like Orange Star did back on June 8, 1967. That was likely supposed to be a quick and dirty erasure to set up a false flag, but to the credit of the courageous U.S. Navy servicemen, their plans went awry. What impressed Erik most on this historical tragedy is how many of his friends who’d been gifted books on the event never seemed desirous to open up and discuss the facts. Oh, they’ll talk red, white, and blue all day and claim to be “patriots,” but they tacitly have approved the silent treatment on the most important subjects of our times…loyalty, interests, and foreign entanglements. Erik presumed that these friends would be okay if their son received a Medal of Honor and the ceremony was sidelined to an old Navy hangar so as not to embarrass Orange Star. The details of this betrayal are unfathomable, but we do live, in fact, under the spell of Clown World media masters!
Today it appeared that the method of drowning would be more gradual. Each lifeboat was configured the same. Erik noticed a pattern, as engineers tend to do, and it wasn’t looking good. There were two Orange Star experts at every bow working together, but these individuals were always immediately surrounded by four large and prominent figures that instilled confidence in the safety of the boats while concealing the activities of the two Orange Star advisors. One wore a captain’s hat, another was a famous (has-been) celebrity that had been performing on the cruise liner, the third was a politician of notoriety, and the fourth was a woman of the cloth. This formation at the head of his lifeboat and every other within Erik’s sight brought forth great worry. He had read numerous accounts from the boating industry that the captains and officers of this cruise line were often bribed to toe the party line, and the celebrities would “never work again” if they voiced their objective viewpoints on the shenanigans they’ve witnessed onboard the ships! The politicians, who infamously turned a blind eye to the corruption and enabled the perennial funding for Orange Star’s machinations were often thought to have been blackmail victims, succumbing to threats of exposing their naughty behavior at infamous Caribbean resorts. And the clergy members, being sympathetically drawn in to victimhood narratives, were so easily exploitable by the powers that be. On Erik’s lifeboat, this clergy member was a woman wearing a t-shirt displaying numerous religious symbols slightly altered and all linked together, spelling out the word “PEACE.”
The sweat of the sun beating on Erik’s face didn’t bother him as much as the situation he knew he and his family were facing! As he peered closer to the gaggle at the bow, he noticed water flowing between the celebrity’s and politician’s feet. This flooding of the vessel was undoubtedly stemming from behind the wall of four. Erik rushed to the front to get a better look, and saw one of the experts hacking away at the floor with a sharp object. He hoped the other expert — the one with the small hat — was a bona fide sailor with the skills to stop the leak, but on further examination he concluded that this was not a sailor’s cap, and the two were working in unison.
With the front of the lifeboat, appropriately named The Savior, now listing to the left, Erik peeked back at the SS West, about 90 percent under water. With his morale deflating further and his psyche turning towards survival mode, he grabbed his wife and family into a huddle and urgently pleaded with them, “Do you all not see what is happening here? Our boat is being sabotaged!” His wife snapped back with the power of a whip, “What is wrong with you? When I married you, I didn’t sign up for a mariner’s history lesson and all your negativity! You are always a glass half empty, aren’t you?! I hear that the mojitos at our island destination bar are to die for, so lighten up for a change and enjoy the picturesque sunset!”
And as soon as she quit her retort, an echo of serene sound filled the salty air, as if humpback whales were swimming close by. Then there was another echo, but this time he clearly knew it wasn’t marine life, but possibly those unique animal noises performed by King Crimson’s guitarist Adrian Belew. But after the third echo, the sound was confirmed! It was the intro to a song Erik had rocked out to ever since high school, always digging the killer riffs, the massive tone and guitar lead of this radio classic. How seductive this song had always been to him, and the technical advancements of the iPhone 15 belonging to the desperate Somali refugee on The Savior did a nice job playing it so all 150 could hear the crisply distorted chords of the Gibson Les Paul humbuckers and the silky slide lead of the pedal steel guitar. Erik’s head started bopping along to the 98 beats-per-minute pulse of Red Rider’s Lunatic Fringe as he joined the crowd’s wolf-like howl following every verse, “oh oh oh, oh oh oh, oh oh oh.” Erik had never actually delved into the meaning of the lyrics, but this tune was overtly about him — and it wasn’t a good image — but it reinforced the mainstream narrative that there will always be individuals and groups on the fringe of society, holding meetings in hiding while exercising wrong-think!
Since the internet and song-meaning websites weren’t around when this iconic rock piece became popular, Erik, too, was for decades duped into liking and appreciating Lunatic Fringe for its sound. This hit was not just a voice for the songwriter’s frame of mind (and possibly even his girlfriend’s), but also provided substantial reach of his message and honors in an entertainment industry fully approved by Clown World Cruises. Rumor even has it that the pro-IGF mob of counter-protestors contesting UCLA’s peaceful anti-genocide activists were blasting Lunatic Fringe shortly before they sprung their violent 2024 late-night tent attacks. Those unfortunate, humanely minded students never heard their footsteps coming. And for the Orange Star experts, this was open season in Twilight’s Last Gleaming! So a lesson late in life for Erik and all his extracurricular studies and experience was that he never fully comprehended how insidious so much of Clown World’s messaging always was.
The ocean simultaneously subsumed The Savior, the SS West, and the 29 other lifeboats, the final two B-minor chords rang through Erik’s head, a euphoric neurobiological sensation that numbed all his senses from the current trauma and brought back memories of his comfortable yet adventurous life fleeting across his eyes. These last two chords were the same as those found in the beginning of the song. How appropriate! And in the end, songwriter Tom[7] and his supporters didn’t let Erik “kill the laughter,” because they cleverly never let the final resistance begin.
Burbling water now silenced Erik’s ears, leaving his vision as the last sense of his surroundings. With a final glimpse of the bodyguards at the bow, and maybe just a hallucination amidst the chaos, he noticed an additional person assisting the four already protecting the two perpetrators…the useful idiot.
Erik’s last breath consumed his mind for one final minute. At first his thoughts centered on the words of a central figure from a 2013 speech, words stuck in his head, words troubling him as to who spoke them: was it that politician or one of those useful idiots? Nevertheless, they penetrated the depth of his consciousness: “No group has had such an outsized influence per capita…so many notions that are embraced by this nation emanate from your [maritime?] history, tradition and culture…all those movements…I bet you 85 percent of those changes are a consequence of you, Orange Star experts and Clown World Cruises.” But finally, he let go of his deep muse and grasped for his wife, chain-linked by arms and hands to the rest of his family going down in the same ocean their ancestors once commanded as Nordic kings. Erik used the last pocket of air in his mouth to pass his final words directly to her face. And in a dark abyss where ignoble people had to blame someone for their confusion, he might have sarcastically said, “I told you!” Instead, his beautiful and tolerant wife, sleepy-eyed and waking up, lifted her head from the bed pillow and shook her husband’s shoulder to rouse him for the splendid sunny morning, with plentiful bird-chirping nature sounds that greeted them both. And with cheerful sincerity she spoke, “AW, I LOVE YOU TOO!”
Regardless of how his wife and family perceived him through the years, Erik had always, in fact, been the diehard optimist. Undaunted, he nevertheless faced tremendous odds. It was love for his family, love for his homeland, and love for his people and heritage that consumed his mortal space and time, his path in becoming. While it never earned him any respect on Clown World Cruises, it always was his Destiny.
Dedicated to the fathers of dissident politics on Father’s Day, 2024, as well as the oppressed around our world. Yes, while we are all in the same boat, you are not the lunatic fringe, just as two plus two will never equal five.
This article is replete with metaphors and symbolism, and it likely presents some difficulties of interpretation, especially for those unfamiliar with the musical references. The author has provided a commentary that clarifies his intent.
[1] Clown World Cruises had no business relationship with the popular Carnival Cruise Line, but their owners were fourth cousins.
[2] Red Star designed and built the famous Russian cruiser The St. Petersburg, which sailed for over seventy years, but was renown for using a slave labor crew — worked to the death — to operate this ship. Recent unearthed documents show how the American government, even after fighting a war that freed its slaves, provided an abundance of intellectual property, technical supplies, finances, food and personnel support to keep The St. Petersburg running and winning during WWII. For clarification, it was this company that merged with their American competitor to form the international corporation Orange Star — a global leader in the maritime industry.
[3] Bey’s real name was Millingen.
[4] The word “Supremacist” had been reserved by the experts for use in all media and academia strictly for their mortal enemy alone.
[5] NPC: Non Player Character, a video gaming reference; The song “Waiting Man” by King Crimson provides an interesting backdrop of musical patterns, especially those played by Robert Fripp. Patterns are an important element to Erik’s analyses. The audience in Munich, Germany, from this video clip, appreciated and understood the value of patterns.
[6] Is it possible to recognize and appreciate good music and art these days in a world saturated with noise and commercially suitable compositions controlled by the “experts”? Would the King Crimson musicians be the Wagner of our modern times composing and performing Faustian art if set free from the chains of the music industry? Oswald Spengler had some philosophizing on this. Also, are we simply inundated with noise in our modern technical world to such an extent that we cannot make heads or tails out of the reality of our lives, much like the people on this author’s lifeboat? Can humans continue to adapt and live in such technically complex societies or will we inevitably return to a simpler life, with naturally acoustic music and nature pleasing our ears? Or will we become technological slaves? Such were the concerns of Dr. David Skrbina and his philosophical predecessors (e.g., Ellul, Kaczynski, et. al), but probably not the cares of Clown World Cruises or Orange Star.
[7] In a Canadian news interview, song writer Tom Cochrane is quoted, “‘Lunatic Fringe’ should be disturbing, but it should also be a cause for hope, because, like I say in the song, there are those of us out here that aren’t gonna let those things happen again. And you gotta speak out when you see injustice.” In this interview and other “song meaning” sources, it is suggested that Cochrane was influenced by the humanitarian efforts of Raoul Wallenberg, a Swedish architect, businessman, and diplomat during WWII. This author would be curious whether Cochrane’s girlfriend at the time of writing his hit song ever introduced him to the humanitarian deeds of the noble Swede Count Folke Bernadotte? If Cochrane would have written a song honoring the Count, would it have been accepted in the American record industry? Let us hope so!
