The Silent Minority

by S. Poulos

brief-investigative type, like mine."

  "Here we have a clear example of the intervention of the intellect, against the spirit. As you pointed out, many things you hear from me, make sense until the voice of the intellect tells you, that all these are fantasies, and nothing is factually verified. The mistake many people here make is that they mistake this impression as that of their spirit, but it is not so. Here, the intellect intervenes demanding that everything must be based on facts, for the intellect is capable only of understanding facts. Anything else it discards, for the intellect is incapable of understanding anything ethereal, or spiritual. So we have this phenomenon of yours. Although you find it fascinating, as you put it, interesting, and even logical, when the intellect intervenes, it finds everything unworthy, and suggests putting them in the back-burner, until they have faded to a forgotten memory."

  "Are you affiliated with any religious, political, philosophical organization?"

  "No."

  "There are many people in this world, that believe the world as we know it will come to an end, either through economic break down, natural upheavals, nuclear war etc., and they prepare for it in various ways, like collecting food in conserved forms, making underground bunkers, arming themselves, and more. Is this the right way to go about it? For I understand that you also say that the end of the world is imminent."

  "I have already stated that Earth is a transitional point for the evolvement of the human spirit, however, Earth, as the whole material world, has a beginning and an end. Now, although nobody knows the exact time for it, except God, nevertheless, the signs are getting more and more obvious. The closer we go towards it, the more visible the signs will be. What these people are showing with their behavior now is the reaction; the first signs of mistrust that already start to appear over the horizon. This reaction will soon take mass proportions, so much so that it will take ethnical, state, religious, and race characteristics. Soon no country will bother for the wellness of their neighboring country. Soon no economy will bother to exchange goods with another country, because of the mistrust that will prevail that they may not get paid back after all. I can go on and on, but if a man wants to see, the signs are already here. This is the sense this people get, for they feel it has already started happening now, but they are going the wrong way about things. Instead of recognizing the cause, and trying to do something about it, they isolate themselves, ignoring the causes, and preparing themselves and their families for the unavoidable.

  "What they are doing is the beginning of things yet to come, in an inconceivable, hectic and big scale. It is the time that the mother will mistrust the son, and son, the mother."

  As the press conference was progressing, towards the end of the meeting, someone from the back rooms came and whispered something in the chairman's ear.

  He listened carefully and when the other one finished, he signed that he understood, and gave an indication that he would comply.

  While the press conference took place, the rest of the councilors that were not in the panel gathered with the vice-chairman as their leader to make a decision of how to tackle the problem. The ball game had changed dramatically. During the night, there was a bombardment of messages towards the WCFET office. These were mainly memos reminding the council of their duty to stop agitators like this man, and to safeguard the world from backward ideas. There were others, that reminded the council of their mission, which is to encourage man's free speech, but the messages were overwhelmingly against allowing this agitator to roam free.

  The councilors re-examined their strategy, from scratch. They tried to find new ways to tackle this problem. They knew that they could not ask more than a persona non grata recommendation, for anything beyond that, the chairman would veto. They also knew charges made against such individuals, never stuck in courts. If at least they could prevent him from touring the country, as the home secretary requested in a most secretive request, that would be a start. After all, this was the wish of the majority of the people of this country, but how?

  The original idea of marking him as a persona non grata did not fulfill its purposes any more, for it first had to be issued by the Secretary of State who did not take the case seriously, and the other side would probably challenge this in the courts. This would take time, giving this man the opportunity to roam the cities of each state, and propagandize his cause. How then could they do it?

  Someone suggested the chair should be taken over by the vice-chairman, so they could throw the book after at him at will. This idea seemed agreeable by many, especially the vice-chairman, but as the treasurer pointed out, it was too late.

  Perhaps the chairman might come by an accident while driving to work. Someone suggested locking him in the toilets until the press conference chaired by the vice-chairman was over, but what would happened if the chairman decided not to visit the toilet, or if while he was locked inside, someone else decided to use the toilet? Yet another suggested going by the right channels, as the chairman would lose the challenge this time, thus postponing the recommendation for later. But they all knew this was only a wishful thinking, for the time was not on their side.

  There were more suggestions; some even radical ones, such as to abandoning the meeting for a fire, or a bomb scare or informing the chairman that something had happened to a member of his family. These were knocked back quickly from the more cool-headed ones.

  Finally the legal adviser of the council, that happened to be a councilor participating in this meeting, suggested that everything discussed in this meeting today, except the legal challenge for the presidency, was illegal, and soon or later they would have to answer for it.

  After that, they decided to go for the original idea of proclaiming the Teacher a persona not grata for the time being, until something popped up at the right time.

  They finalized the recommendation note, and sent someone to inform the chairman that it was ready and that he could come and sign it. In order to make a better impression for the delegates, and the audience of the television coverage, they would walk back together with the chairman, and occupy their seats, to show the unity of the council.

  The messenger came back and informed them the chairman agreed that soon before the press conference was over, he would come to sign it. There was a breath of relief when they heard that, knowing at least that they would finally accomplish something although it could not possibly be the final solution.

  THE RECOMMENTDATION

  The chairman gave the chair to one of his confidants sitting next to him and got up. He looked pale, older, and frail. It seemed what he was going to do would be something very displeasing.

  Hi walked towards the back room, where they were waiting for him. He knew that he could not possibly overcome this. He had thought about it the whole night. Oh...he tried so hard; he thought of all possible solutions, but in vain. But why should he worry about it? Why should he bother to protect an old man, which he met two days ago? Why should he put his job and his reputation on the line, for someone he didn't even know? He was even skeptical of most things this man said.

  After all, the majority of the council could not be wrong; they were distinguished academics that fought hard for so many cases to be heard. There must be something they saw in this case, that he was unable to see.

  This man around the world agitated millions of people; could they all be wrong? Certainly not! And who was he to go against this tsunami of indignation, which swept this country, and any country visited by this man? Especially after the photo spread through social networks and media... It was condemned by so many, that even if he wanted to do something about it, he could not possibly do so.

  All these thoughts were abruptly stopped when he realized that he had reached the door of the meeting room, and his hand was ready to turn the handle. He stood motionless for a minute, turned around and with an unsteady manner, went towards the toilets. Inside he paced up and down nervously, thinking, thinking, and thinking...

  He concluded there w
as no other choice. He must sign the recommendation. He walked to the door, put his hand on the door handle, but could not open it. He just could not open it. He froze, unable to function. He could not even think any more; he just stood there in a frozen state for a while. Then he walked back, turned, and looked in the mirror. He looked deeply, hard, persistently, and stubbornly. He was looking, looking, looking tenaciously, deep in the mirror, and finally he was rewarded for his determination. His persistence paid off. He saw this man with a sardonic smile, an ironic face, sarcastically mocking him for his weakness. Who was this man? Was that his face? Was that him? He stepped back, and closed in again.

  "Who are you?" he said in a trembling voice. "Who are you? Why do you want to dishonor me why? Why? Then with an impulsive move, he hit his head on the mirror, smashing it in thousand pieces, spreading all over the room. He injured his head, and some of the dripping blood covered the sink and his shirt. He took some paper towels, wiped his head, which was not badly injured, and his shirt. Then with slow but sure movements, he buttoned up his coat to cover the blood of his shirt, and held the cut on his head with a paper towel.

  Suddenly all this heaviness, frustration, and anxiety