Figures of the One Must Go

by Victor Living

  “Yes, I’m sure,” said Dad. “When I attended university, many friends from my courses had a hobby of generating and exchanging amongst ourselves fascinating ancient stories. There were also jokes, adages, legends, fables, and quotes from geniuses all over the world. We guessed such concentrated wisdom was necessary to build a stronger drive for survival. But, I never expected such a challenge from my son.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I want to explain the basics of the adult world, but in words you can comprehend. Could you bring the dictionary from your room?”

  I became intrigued by his spontaneous reaction. When I handed Dad the borrowed school library book, his eyebrows widened. I was on alert for his puzzled looks, like he was checking me on something. I disliked that turn and got a little lump in my throat.

  “Do you want to test me on vocabulary?” I asked opposed.

  “No. Don’t worry, I’m not a teacher and am just trying to make a comparison with that cartoon and other reasons.”

  It motivated me, but I was nervous. I’d never had such play with Dad. After opening the book, he found the letter A.

  “Yes,” said Dad. I realized that his bright-blue eyes sparked with big interest in this one word.

  “Look son, a definition for the word allegory: Open stories in which people, things, and happenings have a hidden or symbolic meaning: parables used for teaching or explaining ideas, moral principles. Do you remember an essay you had to write after reading Aesop’s Fables for the writer’s workshop? If I’m not mistaken, you got an A.”

  “Oh, yes.”

  “Could you remind me, was the theme about Fox and Grape?”

  “Yes. Is a dragon’s story the same?” I answered a question and felt great relief. I knew all my classmates hated their parents checking anything from school.

  “Listen, I’m only trying to find a relationship for that allegory,” Dad said still pushing. “You won’t believe me, but nowadays, it’s still alive and possible… imagine.”

  That again shocked me. What are we talking about now?

  “Why have you twisted ancient times to our days?” I asked with hesitation.

  “To clarify the main point for you,” replied Dad calmly. “Look, could you tell me your own opinion about very wealthy people?”

  “Hm, that’s an interesting turn. I believe rich men enjoy having a Ferrari, a Lamborghini, gold, fancy yachts, fat million-dollar houses, and still having tons of money left over!” I replied with excitement.

  “Do you want to become rich in your thirties?”

  “Yes,” I said rejoicing but simultaneously regretting my answer. Two days prior, my father and I had an unpleasant discussion. He reprimanded me for weak concentration on problem-solving in math. Dad noticed me becoming vexed.

  “Do not worry,” Dad said easily. “I was a regular boy. And my highest dream was a two-seater Porsche. Also, I wanted a private jet with two engines. Why must it have two? It was just a funny wish. Our family was doing just fine, but we did not have such finances.”

  “I understand.” My answer was a smooth breath.

  “I’m just seeking to illustrate for you that wealthy men own not just expensive things. They have authority and power of command over thousands of people.”

  “How did they reach this position?” I asked with confusion.

  “This is again a good question, son,” admitted my father with a smile. I also noticed that his wary eyes watched me.

  “Was that the example?”

  “No,” Dad said calmly. “I feel you are too young to understand, but let’s clarify. Ordinary people in any country know their dragons. Those creatures look as we all do inside: skulls, a reptilian brain for being cruel and greedy. And people call such monsters names. Isn’t this creepy? I need you to catch it, gasp the symbolic meaning.”

  “Dad, can you make it clearer? Are we going to talk about social studies?” I interrupted with frustration.

  “No, no,” protested my father. “I’m just making your comprehension more visible. Listen, you are mature enough to value when a person achieves complete power over another. In millions of movies, it’s easy to find a hero who tries to save the world. Against whom, do you guess, he fights?”

  “I imagine the new bandits.”

  “It’s good, but better to compare the beasts, evils, in indirect and figurative senses. Do you know what the word figurative means? It means not literal.”

  “I hope so.”

  “I believe you also get that when a man becomes empowered, he grows into a dragooning humanoid. And the difference is that those human monsters live with faces of self-importance.”

  I couldn’t understand why Dad became silent as if he were thinking, but I asked, “Hello, mister! Are you with me?”

  “Yes, yes,” he answered smiling. “I will make it easier for you. For example, let’s pretend you became an adult and saw one of your classmates become well-known as a high official. What would your reaction be?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “Look son, I see you’re bemused. I’m asking how you would take it if your friend Todd were a frequent guest on all the mass media outlets. Would you accept him as a candidate for the next US president?”

  “Dad, I need to be honest.”

  “Sure.”

  "Sorry, no Daddy. It sucks."

  “Can you be specific?”

  “Todd can only be a soldier. Period. Our math teacher even said so. For him, it’s not possible to twirl into a dragon. Perhaps a cat, ha-ha, but into a beast? No.”

  “I see. You are right for today, but I’m sure your opinions will change through the years. When you step into your thirties, you will be a different man.”

  I perceived those whys as advice from Dad. And even close friends became former friends as just two classmates from school got to the top in their field. One attended Yale University, and now he works as a genetic scientist in Washington. And another, a girl, studied at Harvard and now is a psychiatrist in Los Angeles. But no one became a politician—a senator or a congressman.

  Even we can admit the currently unpredictable mix of political and economic issues. You can stipulate a hoity-toity situation. Imagine when someone from your contacts gets a fantastic influence. Would their attitude change from a hero to a disgusting lizard? Yes. That is damning for folk. When somebody achieves super-authority, the shift in another person is very obvious. It sounds pathetic, but any high position in society calls up a sense of numeracy. As you know, the digit one (1) is a constant basis of measurement. But, the First One among people isn’t a quantity; rather it’s the quality of presentation. If you have no allusion to the units of quantity, you should recognize faster who the First One is as the central authority. And it’s not self-deception, but only our addiction to letting a Figure of One keep control in one hand.

  And, if you omit that about yourself, you’d comply that sizable Figures have held us in strong hands for ages. Have you ever realized that over centuries, our civilization has a focal pictogram of a strong man’s hand? Oh, I trust you’d agree that is Mighty Fist. But, what is the broad part of symbolic creation? Don’t be surprised, but it is human fingers gathered and pressed together. So, from this point, you can make a symbolical conclusion: when we discuss the general Figures of our lives, we can recognize that fists are our collective power, delegated to them. But even that can sound sad; these physical fingers symbolize the fingers of our morals. Would you like us to find the Fingers of your Fate? That is, centering one’s hopes on a cheering commander. It is your approval of the ambitions of another. And that is like rapturous readiness to rake together

  FINGERS of your FATE—a stranger is climbing.

  And while you ground such Fingers of Fate, you must keep it in mind as imperative for the Ones. It’s only they who have achieved the highest level of expansion. For the rest of us, it’s just balancing the condition of surviving. Is that a distorted principle? Yes. The first rule: only we let Figures of O
ne have superpowers. The second view: we stay indignant only when they leave recent promises. But why don’t we act? Jeez! The third tenet: if we doubt, start second; why do so quietly? Why do we always refuse to have a public response to turbulent times? Still, we do not deal with changes for incognizance. The hope is only for future generations. Nobody knows how they will commit those special days to the biggest winning. The people have already dreamed of how they should memorize this experience.

  I have already encountered a unique story about that. The narrator is an extraordinary man. He is an actor, artist, inventor, altruistic dreamer, and philanthropist under one face. It was a playful exchange of ideas between us, about how we visualize the statue of humankind pleasing to no one present. There hadn’t been a draft yet. He first referred to such a monument as nonsense. But later, he presaged it as the last war ever. Or, it was about the discovery of inconceivable forms of energy, or it was à propos for the second coming of Christ—nobody knows. The only thing he offered was his fantastic sleep as an unbelievable story.

  Oh, the humanity! We had already fantasized tours in the horrible past or prospective future! And it all just hurts us.

  As he declared, he is not an idiot—as it wasn’t an attractive nightmare, but something miraculous. He insisted it was not too far from St. Louis, Missouri—that famous arch in the center of the city. Let me reproduce his episode’s finer points. But, here is one constituent spot: I still misunderstand why I remember, even by-the-minute, things about his paraphrase. So, listen to what he recited:

  “Even though it seems beyond belief, I found myself on the road approximating an extremely illuminated place called the Memorial Complex of One. I felt that the spectacular destination was close. In a few miles, I realized all the ground for the rest of the distance was covered in glossy, silver-metallic tiles. My rapture noted the models of parked cars around me. They gazed like unseen flying machines. Then, I approached startling wide gates. They were a wondrous construction of thousands of sizes of varicolored bulbs. A man, who looked like a robot, politely waggled his hand, signaling me to stop. At the same minute, I heard, ‘Thanks for visiting. Please take a spot with your vehicle and follow me. The next carrier will bring you to the target.’

  “When I arrived at the emphasized esplanade, before my eyes opened a colossal galvanic construction. And while I watched the monument, you could multiply my impression by a thousand times. I felt a little offensive but didn’t want to move my head. The shape of the tower appeared as the result of innumerable floors. However, it was the unique look that—from the ground base to the eightieth floor—the surface of a column was covered by living trees. It appeared as though tremendous spruces, with gaps of refulgent Catherine-wheel windows on the trunk and the branches—instead of needles—were glowing. I experienced the sharp, refreshing smell of the rainforest as a protracted shock. It was my perception of the picture without a word uttered—fantasy! I also realized that, from the ninetieth level, the same greenish cover was embraced by crystal glass. I didn’t think about whether somebody dwelled there. Even at the height of the one-hundredth floor, clouds covered spots. It was a workable eyewitness, a striking tombstone figure-digit of the One.

  “Later, I understood one thing: you must stay straight to get an ideal point of visibility. But, why wasn’t it possible to see such a column from a distance? That baffled me. I mentioned watching it for a few minutes; it was like mind-bending magic. When I got close to the foot of construction, I found an improbable tin-pan, cenotaph plaque with an archaic diction written in enormous-label letters:

  January 1, 20…year

  "This monument, delivered by doer-winners, is in commemoration of the total fulfillment and termination of the First Period for Domestication on planet Earth. The hardest paths of human history must never repeat and should—by any means—never be forgotten! Conducted by Figures of the One, intended for One Person as we become chosen of high-rank responsibility, the baggage is of man’s factor. As humankind’s history has proven, it was a period of prevalent tests, about never-ceasing wars, and handmade technological catastrophes. We consent to justify these actions as an absolute, intolerant, an ignorance of humankind. We confirm: such a period would guess as a First Arena-Phase of Search-Try Ways for Prosperity in the Interplanetary Scale. We also hope for such an epoch of unknowing—where we went and what will be the next cycle for the later originative generations—gone forever."

  This date, January 1, the year 20…is the official identification of Jubilee in honor of counting the Cosmic Era of Acceptance of Earth’s Tellurians into intergalactic society.”

  Signed by Members of the Justice Committee

  “After I finished reading the lines of that text, I found myself in a bedroom. Oh, an eyeful wonders! That is the exact topflight of goodwill, about which humanity has dreamed of for many centuries. But today, it sounds just like a miracle…”

  It was nerve-wracking excitement in the beginning, but it meant sorrow later. That man was explicable. People still have a long approach to such unthinkable, fair-minded monuments about humanity finally winning without a doubt. Would you like to count this dream as not a grand vision but as materialistic hope? And, maybe one day, it will apply as the newest star. But today, I wish together with you and even give names to our go-through beliefs. And, let me again ask you, what is social setting for? I believe our thinking need only apply as brave. I want us together to traverse the space to Germany, to the city of Weimar. There, still exists one of the most horrible places on the planet—former Buchenwald concentration camp. I’m begging you, please. I believe if you read these lines, you are strong enough to come here with knowledge about the fabrics of the Nazi Holocaust, who killed—by force—tens of millions of innocent people. However, please don’t be afraid and cry about human suffering. I will support you with all my heart. So, when we get to face the sign, “Arbeit Macht Frei” (Work Makes Freedom), let’s pronounce that we will surmount men surviving and share senses of sage as superior! We will ban the bloodiest brother’s battles for all ages! We will keep men’s mission of moving to maximize the

  LARGER-than-LIFE SYMBOLS—prosperity for everybody!

  And now, would you support expelled statements as a guide to finish domination over our lives by the Figures of the One? I hope for only, yes. Seeing as the next generation knows how difficult it is to start today, it happens. I believe the smartest head of the future already comprehends that in the many examples of history; it never was in the interest of humanity. The most it applies to man, poached power and proclaimed as the person in charge. That’s why any Figures of One still halt, making reality only by their murky way: Headmen as shamans of wild tribes, pushing everyone—any dissenters—with the demand to eat first.

  Pharaohs as deities turned people into mute-submissive body-slaves for work.

  Emperors as masterminds stayed behind, relying on other nations. And, yes, they were kings, tsars, and monarchs with the motto, “Conquer, Divide, Dominate,” as golliwogs with prevalent control who exterminated everyone along their way. And for today, they are still the Shapes of One. Those dictators sacrificed their people for maniacal-misanthropic goals. These political upstarts distrusted democracy by being given no choice. Figures of the One turned into self-crowned thieves, who exchanged charity for impunity, where humanitarian law doesn’t exist. Numerals of the One, nouveau riche wheeler-dealers, which sold the fatherland to their citizens to the last piece. The statures of the One, legalists, leveled law measures for unpaid guilt, as that is commerce. May I ask, could those characters bring you to an ingenious conclusion?

  Figures of the One must carry names of total failure in human foundations, as the face of fable falsification. Such a man is a fatuous frontier of famous fakes. He is figurant of forgery as a faultless fiddler. He originates fancy Fuhrers and brings the frenzy fatality. The Figure of the One is ferine foul of fratricide. He is felon-frenetic. And often, such a man is the fosterer of frailty with its fright of fa
int-heart…”

  Do you appreciate that the English language has enough opportunity to continue this traumatic list without stopping? We can continue with such a traumatic list without stop. However, do you need to recall many canine names? I guess not. That is the grounds of existence. And, people look for escape from it. But, to reply to these whys, we must learn all probable reminiscences about such figures. You have to hold no doubt that someone could flare up and articulate, “Hey! I disagree with that! Why is this analysis so ominous? Why don’t you speak of those Figures of Progress who’ve uplifted our civilization?” Oh, I’m glad to answer that. From my early teenage years, I swallowed a vast amount of information about the legacy of many such Intellectual Charismatic Stars. But, if I pick a simple fact checklist and recount well-known thinkers, artists, and scientists, it can appear primitive to makeup for looks. That’s will I’d like to recall geniuses who made an immense impact on my vision of the world. This could provide a wider picture of how my interests have been influenced by those thinkers’ work.

  So, I want to narrate, not in the chronological order nor how they appeared to the world, but how they arrived in my individual life. From nineteen to twenty-five, the Mozart, Socrates, Salvador Dali, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Leonardo da Vinci, Goethe, and Michael Faraday—one by one—a wide range of interests affected my senses of reasoning and creativity. They became more than teachers and providers for me. I presume, for any person who likes to think and learn with time, those stars of advance can become close friends. However, let’s admit that, like you and me, they were also born on the surface of Planet Earth. Later, from my thirties to present time, I continued to cognize and rethink geniuses like Charles Dickens, Baruch Spinoza, Omar Khayyam, Michelangelo, Isaac Newton, Avicenna, Erasmus, Galileo Galilei, Descartes, Einstein, Sigmund Freud, and Nikola Tesla. And, of course, I'm ecstatic by contemporaries like Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Michio Kaku, Elon Musk and many more. And we all admire today’s rocket-science advances such as the laser, smartphones, and stealth technologies. So, my dear opponents, you addressed the wrong person.