“Like a schizophrenic,“ he went on to say, “had the right hand of man lost touch with the left one, when the right began to pay homage to those individuals whose central focus in life revolved entirely around the self and no one else. Having created a new god on Mt. Olympus, that is, within the psyche of man, did the right proceed to amass for its self, so much of the power ’n’ wealth of the world, it left an incredibly huge vacuum or black hole from which then arose the god of the left, or worship of the collective—to the complete denigration of the individual. In the rush to serve these gods, did the hands of men fabricate two titans, one to the east, the other to the west, to rule over themselves. In place of the one Lord Who had ruled over the hearts ’n’ minds of men since time immemorial, now stood the images of an old business tycoon and his nemesis, the bear. Since the world could ill afford to support one titan, much less two, there arose such a clamor between the two of them, for the souls of men, that many lives were needlessly lost in the struggle to find a military solution to the psychological problems of mankind—this schizophrenic split in man’s collective psyche.“

“To find healing for the terrible rift that divides us,“ proclaimed Jinny, “you need only turn to me. Embrace me as of old, and I will show you the way to true happiness. Refuse me, and I will unleash upon you the madness that engulfed your fathers.“

And so did all three disappear, leaving me alone atop my perch, to drift about aimlessly in a sea of conflicting emotions.

Having visualized my soul for the first time, I wanted nothing more than to see her again. How quickly I learned she was not some genie I could simply conjure up at will. For now, I would have to settle for the very gray but lasting impression she had left on my mind.

While she was no prima donna, I nonetheless found her to be very attractive. Slightly shorter in height than I was, she had long hair and an oval face. But what really struck me about her shapely form were her breasts, for she had undoubtedly been endowed with the most beautiful breasts I’d ever seen. Why I was absolutely astounded that I even possessed such an animated image of a woman within me.

At this point, I still wasn’t too sure, just what to believe. While these experiences led me to believe, on the one hand, that certain aspects of my life, that is, those pertaining to the Navy, were a part of some grand illusion, on the other hand, I wondered if I wasn’t the one who, in reality, was suffering the delusion, especially after that last encounter I’d had with my soul. As I struggled to gain some perspective on this last experience, it became clear to me that the path to sanity led not into the insanity of the collective, or mutual destruction of ourselves in war, but rather into the insanity of my own delusions—the myths that were driving me to act as I was.

As I unconsciously searched this unruly body of mine for some way to objectify the truth, I wound up painting a picture of a woman, albeit a very gray one, who presumably portrayed my soul. Finally, I had found someone with whom I could communicate—who actually knew me better than I knew myself. Where, in the past, I had been unable to put any trust in this gray area of my life, in this encounter I took a great leap in faith. When I saw her standing there, I knew, in my heart of hearts, I had found the one who could show me the way. And by visualizing her, I gave her a life of her own, for in admitting to her existence, I finally admitted her into my life.

“Only then, will we realize that our future lies not out there in our own self-centered materialism, but on the other side of the iron curtain within the collective unconsciousness of our beings. Only then, will we see the iron curtain as the veil of matter, which has so blurred our vision—our materialism as the wall, which has so divided us. Only then, will we take the next great step and cross the threshold to embrace our humanity, a life given to us for the sake of each other, as exemplified in simple living and the right use of the material goods of this world.“

“I see,“ I muttered as he paused for a moment to get some assurance from me that I understood what he had just shared with me.

“What we sorely need,“ he continued to preach from his soapbox up on the bridge, “is an amalgam of communism and capitalism around the issue of materialism, a single coin that combines the best of all three. But I’m afraid that what we’ll get is the appearance of a winner and a loser. In that case, we’ll all lose. And though communism may recede into the shadows of our collective imaginations, like a tyrannosaur, the truth of its ideals will rise again as the disparity between the haves ’n’ the have-nots worsens under capitalism, that other dinosaur which may not pass on until it has devoured everything and transformed this Eden into a living hell.

“So don’t be fooled into believing the real battle’s out there between one delusion and another, for the real war wages on within your body, even now as I speak. It’s there, the final outcome will be decided. The enemy’s not out there, he’s in here, for we are our own worst enemy.“

“It appears they suffer some grand delusion that we are the good guys who’re going to save the rest of the world from bad guys, like the Communists. They misled me, for awhile, with this white lie of theirs, until I discovered they were only protecting their delusion—some fantasy called the American dream which, for many throughout the world, has become a nightmare.

“For the real fight’s not out there, over in Vietnam, it’s in here, within ourselves. It’s the struggle with our own delusions, the lies we live by, especially the one which has us so convinced that what we need is more of what’s out there in Nature.“

“I don’t understand,“ I interjected.

“Since time immemorial,“ he went on, “have we fallen for this lie, that our future lies hidden within our material progress. And yet, in our pursuit of this delusion, we’ve only succeeded in impoverishing the earth and its people. Thus have we helped to create a bipolar world, consisting of the haves ’n’ the have-nots, who have further polarized themselves over the issue of materialism by squaring off on either side of an iron curtain into two heavily armed, ideologically opposed camps or isms.

“As I chipped away at all the hype ’n’ hysteria surrounding communism, I began to see it as a rather ambitious attempt by the have-nots to right the wrongs of capitalism, which has only succeeded in globally impoverishing the many for the benefit of a few. However, in their struggle to purge from the masses the sins of capitalism, that is, its rugged individualism, greed and failed trickle-down economics, the communists have only succeeded in creating a totalitarian nightmare instead of a utopia. As this nightmare invaded the collective consciousness of the world, it struck fear into the heart of the American dreamer and created mass hysteria. For this Red scare threatened to take everything away from the American dreamer in order to redistribute the wealth, he’d misappropriated in the first place, more equitably amongst its rightful inheritants, the have-nots of the world.

“That’s when I saw the nightmare and the dream as two sides of the same coin, for both of them have resorted, in the past, to propaganda, economic ideology and guns to force their inhumane ways of life on the rest of us, the guilty bystanders caught up in this Mexican standoff. Whether we choose heads or tails, we lose—the many are impoverished for the benefit of a few—for a single coin was given to us long ago to benefit not only the individual but also the collective.

“I know the feeling,” I interjected.

“From the first day of my enlistment,” he rejoined, “they drummed the idea into my head that I had joined this outfit for one reason only: to fight for my country. But they lied to me, for I ended up spending four long years fightin’ to save my ass from them.

“Don’t believe a word of what the lyin’ vultures say, for they prey upon human flesh with talons made of lies. Resist the temptation to become one of them. And whatever you do, don’t let ‘em rob you of the most precious gift you have, your humanity, for the wraiths’ll claw away at it until all that remains is the shadow of what was once you.”

“What d’ya mean?” I asked outta the very real fear that such a thing could happen to me.

“For four long years,” he went on to say, “they tried to convince me this way of life is a necessary evil. They almost succeeded until I went to Vietnam, supposedly to stop the spread of communism, and saw the truth for myself.

“It appears they suffer some grand delusion that we are the good guys who’re going to save the rest of the world from bad guys, like the Communists. They misled me, for awhile, with this white lie of theirs, until I discovered they were only protecting their delusion—some fantasy called the American dream which, for many throughout the world, has become a nightmare.

“For the real fight’s not out there, over in Vietnam, it’s in here, within ourselves. It’s the struggle with our own delusions, the lies we live by, especially the one which has us so convinced that what we need is more of what’s out there in Nature.”

“I don’t understand,” I interjected. “Since time immemorial,” he went on, “have we fallen for this lie, that our future lies hidden within our material progress. And yet, in our pursuit of this delusion, we’ve only succeeded in impoverishing the earth and its people. Thus have we helped to create a bipolar world, consisting of the haves ‘n’ the have-nots, who have further polarized themselves over the issue of materialism by squaring off on either side of an iron curtain into two heavily armed, ideologically opposed camps or isms.

“As I chipped away at all the hype ‘n’ hysteria surrounding communism, I began to see it as a rather ambitious attempt by the have-nots to right the wrongs of capitalism, which has only succeeded in globally impoverishing the many for the benefit of a few. However, in their struggle to purge from the masses the sins of capitalism, that is, its rugged individualism, greed and failed trickle-down economics, the communists’ve only succeeded in creating a totalitarian nightmare instead of a utopia. As this nightmare invaded the collective consciousness of the world, it struck fear into the heart of the American dreamer and created mass hysteria. For this Red scare threatened to take everything away from the American dreamer in order to redistribute the wealth, he’d misappropriated in the first place, more equitably amongst its rightful inheritants, the have-nots of the world.

“That’s when I saw the nightmare and the dream as two sides of the same coin, for both of them have resorted, in the past, to propaganda, economic ideology and guns to force their inhumane ways of life on the rest of us, the guilty bystanders caught up in this Mexican standoff. Whether we choose heads or tails, we lose—the many are impoverished for the benefit of a few—for a single coin was given to us long ago to benefit not only the individual but also the collective.

“Only when the individual and the collective realize their indebtedness to each other will we tear down the iron curtain that so divides our collective psyche. As the collective must put everything it possesses into the development of the individual, so must the individual give back to the collective all it has given him. Only then, will we truly be free.

“Only then, will we realize that our future lies not out there in our own self-centered materialism, but on the other side of the iron curtain within the collective unconsciousness of our beings. Only then, will we see the iron curtain as the veil of matter, which has so blurred our vision—our materialism as the wall, which has so divided us. Only then, will we take the next great step and cross the threshold to embrace our humanity, a life given to us for the sake of each other, as exemplified in simple living and the right use of the material goods of this world.”

“I see,” I muttered as he paused for a moment to get some assurance from me that I had understood what he had just shared with me.

“What we sorely need,” he continued to preach from his soapbox up on the bridge, “is an amalgam of communism ‘n’ capitalism around the issue of materialism, a single coin that combines the best of all three. But I’m afraid that what we’ll get is the appearance of a winner and a loser. In that case, we’ll all lose. And though communism may recede into the shadows of our collective imaginations, like a tyrannosaur, the truth of its ideals will rise again as the disparity between the haves ‘n’ the have-nots worsens under capitalism, that other dinosaur which may not pass on until it has devoured everything and transformed this Eden into a living hell.

“So don’t be fooled into believing the real battle’s out there tween one delusion and another, for the real war wages on within your body, even now as I speak. It’s there, the final outcome’ll be decided. The enemy’s not out there, he’s in here, for we’re our own worst enemy.”