Now that I think of it, perhaps I’ve painted too black a picture.
I’m overwrought because I need facts in my profession, and I never get facts anymore. Conjecture. Rumor. Estimate. That’s my problem.
I think there is a panic state in this country so deep that people don’t even acknowledge it. Subconsciously we’re panicked, all of us, and some of us are worse than that. Some of us seem fine on the surface, but inside ourselves we are insane. Take that quack medical group, the Radiant Exercise people, the ones who expose themselves to radiation to acclimatize themselves. They’re mad.
Mad as hatters. And the Positive Extinctionists. And above all the Destructuralist Movement. That one’s really dangerous, because it’s so darned seductive. Give up. Live hand to mouth. Become a goddamn caveman. That’s what the Destructuralists are saying.
Despite all that has happened, I don’t think humanity would do a service to the planet by voluntarily rejoining the apes, which is what Destructuralism is really all about.
Another thing that’s mad is the movement in Europe to make us pay reparations. For what? Both combatant powers lost the war. By staying out, Europe won it. Now it turns out that the whole European peace movement, the Greens and such, were secretly supported by the very governments they were opposing, to give the Soviet Union the impression that Europe was too divided to be dangerous. Meanwhile, the Secret Treaties—you’ve heard about those? Don’t look at me with such blank faces! What are you, a couple of idiots? I’m not a political science professor. The English and the Germans and the French and probably the Italians and the Japanese all had secret treaties to the effect that in the event of a sudden and unexpected nuclear war between the two superpowers, they would seize American nuclear components on their soil. So the Russians had us isolated and didn’t even know it.
It’s pitiful. If they had but known, they wouldn’t have felt nearly so cornered by Spiderweb.
Let me tell you something. There’s a school of thought that the Europeans tempted the Soviets into getting trigger-happy by revealing those treaties to them and making the Western Alliance seem disastrously split. Their real purpose was to trick the superpowers into crushing one another. And they succeeded brilliantly.
We’re in a state of advanced confusion. And the Soviets! My God, from what I’ve heard, they’ve dissolved. We got a report from the London School of Economics to the effect that the Soviet’s Eastern European empire is gone. Poland, Rumania, Hungary renounced COMECON. Czechoslovakia broke off diplomatic relations with the Russians. Now the Czechs are under United German protection, whatever that means. Russia lost Moscow just the way we lost Washington. And there were those purple bombs in the Ukraine. Nobody knows what they were, but they killed every stalk of wheat, and now nothing will grow there. The LSE report estimates that the USSR has lost close to half of its population. It’s divided into republics, military areas, communist states, even a White Russian enclave. A madhouse of starving, diseased inmates that nobody can help. Then there’s China. India. Bangladesh. Do you know about them? About the fate of the world, my friends?
There has been a great reduction in the numbers of humanity on this planet.
When the fallout blew south and east out of the Dakotas, we lost most of the stored grain in the Midwest. And we had to abandon crops on about twenty-eight percent of our grain-planted acres. Smoke blotted out the sun for so long the temperature dropped in the Midwest. Add to that the cash crisis, the collapse of the banking system, the disruption of transport, and you have a net farm output down fifty-five percent by 1989. And in 1990 we dropped to thirty-eight percent of 1987 levels. Farm machinery broke down and spare parts were hard to get. People couldn’t get their land tested for radiation, and they abandoned it rather than breathe the dust of their own soil. You had hundreds of thousands of good acres abandoned, and then the great dust storms. That’s not over yet. That’s going to be a problem. If we don’t get in there and at least reseed the land with grass, we’re going to see the bare topsoil in the Midwest blowing all the way to the Atlantic and the Gulf. Of course, that would be the end of this country as a farming entity. We’d then have another famine.
The Agriculture Department is pushing hard to do this reseeding from the air. The trouble is, we can’t get enough grass seed!
There isn’t enough, not in all the world, to get cover on all the fallow acres before next spring. The past few years we’ve had long, wet winters. We’ve had dry springs, but not dry enough to cause more than local dust problems. But time is against us.
Let’s see now, which of my peeves and beefs haven’t I covered?
Well, there’s the state of the industrial economy. The fact that most Americans are traveling in trains when we could easily be flying. The fact that the Japanese will not provide us with the equipment to build microchips on our own. Short-term, that’s a sensible policy for them, but in the long run the vision of America as an agricultural society, industrially backward and politically castrated, just isn’t going to work.
We’re seeing one good thing, though, and so far it hasn’t been interrupted, except by Japan. This is the return of American technology from abroad. We’ve recently seen RCA’s whole Singapore and Taiwan manufacturing facilities returned. They’re in Los Angeles now, in twelve bonded warehouses, the equipment we need to start producing a whole new generation of computers on American soil. And we’ve kept our intellectual base intact. Our schools are still damn good. We’ve had IBM equipment returned from Europe, Pan Am and TWA planes from all over the world, U.S. military equipment coming back, all sorts of things like that.
But we could easily absorb millions of small computers, and hundreds of thousands of large ones. Not to mention radios and televisions in the hundreds of millions. Net import of televisions in 1991 was exactly six million units. You know what a Sony TV costs, of course. Ridiculous, that the average American would have to put in six months’ work to buy a television set—if he can convert his paper to gold. Of course, I understand the Japanese problem. They can’t possibly produce enough electronic equipment to satisfy U.S. needs. What’s more, we can’t afford it. All the gold we’ve got won’t be enough to rewire the electronic village.
By the end of this century, either Britain or Japan will be the most powerful nation on earth. I was taken to England last year.
The London School of Economics offered me a chair, with about triple my current salary, free medical care, and the same kind of life we were used to here before the war. Hell, I would have taken it if I hadn’t been such a stubborn old curmudgeon. I like these goddamn United States. My family emigrated from England to get work. The Golden Door. I am not going back, it’s as simple as that.
But my trip there was a hell of a surprise. First off, you have the Conservative Party and the Social Democrats. Labor is dead. The Liberals are a strong third. That is one vital, alive, active country. The Thames is jammed with shipping. The airports are full of planes. They’ve built a high-speed, magnetic-cushion train system between London and their various other cities. Planes, trains, cars.
I never saw so many Rolls-Royces and Bentleys in my life. My God, London is like some kind of a high-tech jewel. You can talk to your goddamn TV set to order goods and services. Talk to it!
I was shown the Royal Space Center, where they’re planning for eventual interstellar travel. They hope to reach Barnard’s Star, which they believe has an Earthlike planet.
I came home on Concorde II. Seven hours, London to San Francisco, and no sonic boom, not flying as high as it does. I came back to Berkeley. Back to my damned Consensus with the cracked rear window and the permanent pull to the right. I came back also to Quinn, and Russian Hill, and the slow process of rediscovering myself as a person and a Californian. Also an American, of course.
Documents—California Dreams
The enumeration in the Constitution of certain rights shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.
—Ninth Amendment, the Cons
titution of the United States
THE DAZZLE OF THE WEST
Long cars on long roads; restaurants and bars open round the clock; supermarkets that sell everything from toothbrushes to pasta machines pina coladas and pink silks compete with Coors and Steam Beer; enormous flounders served in light, bright, Muzaked restaurants; Pinot Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon; sun-bleached hair and the thick scent of Ray-Ban Coconut V Aloe.
America, in other words, ten years ago.
California today. But also: illegal immigration warnings posted on every wall and in every bus and trolley; Whitley and I on the run; holding camps and returnee camps and prison camps and four new gas chambers in San Quentin; military uniforms everywhere; black market Sony and Panasonic televisions; meatless Fridays and the wonderful red interurban trolleys; “finder” columns in the Los Angeles Timesand the San Francisco Chronicle; the Beach Boys; Meryl Streep defying the police by producing and acting in the banned play Chained.
I am dazed by California. Sometimes, walking the streets with Whitley, I get a joy in me, and I think to myself that the past is returning like a tide, and soon all will again be well. There is energy and movement here—danger too, of course—but there is a little of something else that I think is also an important component of the American spirit—frivolity. Not much, I’ll grant you, but it isn’t dead yet.
Of course, the place is also tension-ridden. In Los Angeles, militant Asian Returnists whose native countries won’t let them come back compete for barrio space with Chicanos and hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants from the other states. The American illegals are by far the worst off. Because they are de facto criminals, they are helpless and are ruthlessly exploited. The division between rich and poor is exceedingly sharp. Beverly Hills and Nob Hill glitter with Rolls-Royces and Mercedes-Benzes.
In California, the rest of the United States is thought of as a foreign country, poverty-stricken and potentially dangerous. The local press reports it only incidentally. A bus plunge killing a hundred in Illinois will appear at the bottom of page forty of a Times that headlines the discovery of strontium 90 in Anaheim.
It is possible to be greedy here. It is possible to be blind. Impressions:
A movie is being made at the corner of Market and Powell as we leave San Francisco—massive reflectors, Brooke Shields looking like a goddess as she steps from her air-conditioned trailer.
There are casting calls in Billboard West and The Hollywood Reporter Street-corner newsstands, which used to line up the porno papers, now feature half a dozen small-time political journals, state and Chicano separatist papers, the Aztlan Revolution, and Westworld and Ecotopia, the journals of two geographical separatist movements.
In California, more than anywhere else, you hear talk of dividing the United States. “California First” and “Forget the Rest” are common T-shirt slogans.
There is also a lot of radiation paranoia. Vendors commonly advertise their fruits as “radiation-free.” There are walk-in clinics where for fifteen cents you can get a whole-body scan or have objects checked. The government regularly warns people to avoid the black market because of the danger of contaminated goods from “abroad”—which must mean the rest of the United States.
Immensely wealthy Japanese move about in tremendous Nissan limousines with curtains on the windows.
You can buy all the Japanese and English papers: Asahi Shimbun in Japanese, English, and Spanish editions; the London Times and Express in English, and something called The Overseas Journal for British residents. It’s all about where to get English cars fixed in California, and how to avoid the embarrassment of old-fashioned American hairstyles by going to local branches of chic London salons.
I found it difficult and dangerous to get into state government offices to obtain documents. In fact, I couldn’t do it. But there were vast files of them at Berkeley, in the archives of university departments that shall go nameless. They reveal something about the inner structure of California’s immigration policies.
They say more than their authors realize.
* * *
009 1500 ZULU OCTOBER 89
FROM: CG U.S. ARMY COMMAND, Fort McPherson, Georgia
TO: 6th ARMY COMMANDER, The Presidio, San Francisco
CLASS: Confidential
Personal for CG Only
1. You are hereby authorized to deploy 7th Army personnel up to a strength of 7,600 as the Task Force for Civilian Migration Control.
2. This task force will assist federal and state governments in the control of civilian movement in Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah.
3. This task force will be under military command but under the general jurisdiction of federal authorities associated with migration control as per the Emergency War Act. You are to establish appropriate interorganizational mechanisms for coordination purposes between military and government units.
4. You are reminded that the purpose of this command is to assist state governments in maintaining order and providing assistance in the distribution of food rations and other resources as part of the national recovery plan. The primary concern at present is the prevention of overpopulation of Western area states, but particularly California. You are further reminded of the temporary martial-law powers granted to the military under the Emergency War Act.
5. Task force personnel are to be deployed at critical points at your discretion, but including highway and rail traffic points and additional points where personnel and vehicular traffic require military control. Primary traffic centers should include the following:
5.1 ARIZONA
Yuma, Highway IH-10
Junction IH-10 and H-60
Kingman, IH-40 and H-93
5.2 COLORADO
Fruita, IH-70
Cortez, H-666 and H-789
H-40 at Colorado-Utah border
Sterling, IH-76
5.3 IDAHO
Ashton, H-20
Coeur d’Alene, IH-90
Lewiston, H-12
Nampa, IH-80N
5.4 NEVADA
Boulder City, H-93
H-95 at California-Nevada border
Reno, IH-80
Wells, IH-80
Bridgeport, H-31
5.5 NEW MEXICO
Tucumcari, IH-40 and H-54
Gallup, IH-40 and H-66
Lordsburg, IH-10, H-70, and H-90
5.6 UTAH
Thompson, IH-70
Wendover, IH-80
St. George, IH-15
H-73 and H-50 at Nevada-Utah border
6. Personnel under your command should be instructed as to the nature and provisions of the present civilian relocation plan.
This instruction should remain current at all times as to appropriate federal/state documentation approving movement, including: (1) civilian mobility, including (la) authorized travel for individuals and/or families; (lb) relocation for same; and (lc) emergency movement authorizations; (2) military movement; and (3) U.S. government and/or foreign government personnel movement. Considerable falsification and misuse of stolen documentation permits are occurring. Wherever possible, cross-verification via TelNEI should be utilized. This is particularly true of permits issued to government personnel.
7. You should assist in the confiscation and/or disposal of contraband and/or quarantined materials. Relevant provisions regarding these items and materials are as per DOD 5020.17.
8. Task force personnel will be in place by 1300 ZULU 12 October 1989.
9. This order is in effect until further notice.
END OF MESSAGE
* * *
CONFIDENTIAL BY COURIER
STATE OF CALIFORNIA
TO: GOVERNOR MARK B. CAMPBELL
FROM: Harold White, Special Assistant
DATE: 21 March 1990
SUBJECT: Current Status of Illegal Immigration
As per your request of 15 March, I have reviewed all current migration statistics from the California Highway Departm
ent, the War Recovery Commission, and the U.S. Department of Transportation. All data suggest that California is exceeding its current immigration quotas from other parts of the U.S. by almost 550 percent!
Our best estimates are that some 1,500–1,800 persons a day enter the State, most of whom do so illegally. Our present monthly quotas, as you know, have been set by agreement with the federal government at 1,500 per month through the remainder of 1990. This figure does not include exempt positions in the technological fields, nor the temporary residence “visas” issued to federal government and military personnel and foreign government staff.
The Highway Department Special Study Group believes that most illegals enter through the Arizona and Nevada corridors, which, because of their comparative uninhabited status, remain difficult to patrol. Highway Department figures project that some 40–60 percent of illegals enter through these corridors. Another 10 percent enter by low-flying night aircraft from multiple directions.
As a result of this influx, there is an enormous drain on all city and county services throughout the State, including water, sewage, police, and power. It has been impossible to reduce (and certainly to eliminate) the size and number of “tent cities” within the State. You will recall that the troop strength for the Highway Patrol is five times its prewar size.
Despite federal objections, the states of Oregon and Washington have implemented far-reaching statutes to reduce immigration. They are presumably acting within the provisions of the Emergency War Act, which, while it does not permit states to refuse resettlement, does provide for “control” and “regulation.” I am continuing conversations with the California Attorney General’s Office in order to draft proposed legislation on this matter for the upcoming special session of the State legislature.
In the meantime, you may want to consider the following “emergency” steps authorized by the legislature and apparently permissible under the EWA:
Recommendation One: Authorize an immediate increase in State Highway Patrol troop strength by 3,000 for purposes of reinforcing border control.
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