CHAPTER 4
The Crazies
Queens was in recent decades the most populous and ethnically diverse borough of New York City, and the once small college of York had grown to become a large-university in recent decades to reflect the growth in population of the City and of Queens in particular. An expanse of mostly new buildings supported over twenty thousand students, though half of them chose to attend most of their classes remotely. The City featured thousands of public office spaces with private cubicles in which citizens could access entertainment, educational, and businesses entities on-line. In them humans, zombies, and even Stone-Coats could via the Internet access almost anything anywhere anytime, for no charge. Some larger cubicles even featured full-room holographic capabilities, but most relied on virtual reality helmets.
Other students physically showed up to classes regularly largely for the socialization advantages. This was a much higher rate of physical attendance than was typical in colleges world-wide, even though York was a commuter college without dormitories. But then few college locations in the world were as well supported transit-wise. The City featured recently upgraded subway and bus transit systems and the newer elevated Sky Rail system. Students transited to York from all over the City, mostly from Queens and neighboring Brooklyn. Ear-lobe implanted computer chips billed citizens whenever billing was appropriate.
As for over two centuries New Yorkers traveled mostly by walking and mass transit, there was of course only very limited accommodation for vehicle parking. Ed wasn't surprised when the Humvee parked itself in a no-parking zone in front of a big new-looking building. He was however surprised to find that they were parked behind a black limo with UN diplomatic plates, and that instead of being greeted by College officials when they climbed out of the car they were greeted by his two grown children Sue and Mark. They were flanked by four husky Tribe security people who were in turn surrounded by a half-dozen stern looking people wearing trench coats. UN security forces, Ed assumed. Several uniformed NYPD officers were having intense discussions with the UN folks. As many as a hundred equally intense looking students and faculty surrounded the entire scene.
"What's going on, Dad?" Sue asked Ed as she greeted him with a hug. "Since this morning we have been shadowed by warrior clan Tribe people, and then UN people with legal warrants showed up and tried to take us away with them. For our own safely, they said, but nobody will tell us what has happened!"
"WE PREVENTED THE UN PEOPLE FROM TAKING THEM AWAY, CHIEF ED," pathed Sly Snake, an older Tribe security man that Ed knew well and trusted. "WE HAVEN'T HAD TO HURT ANYONE YET, BUT IT HAS COME CLOSE. THE STUDENTS AND THEN THE LOCAL POLICE CAME TO OUR AID. WE HAVEN'T TOLD YOUR CHILDREN WHAT WE KNOW, CHIEF ED. I THOUGHT IT YOUR DUTY AS PARENT AND TRIBE CHIEF TO EXPLAIN THINGS TO THEM."
"You did well, old friend," Ed told Sly Snake, as he shook the big grim looking Mohawk warrior's hand. "You have my thanks."
"We have an international warrant to take all of the Rumsfelds into our custody and to safely," said the smirky young man in business suit and overcoat that stepped up to Ed. He held out a paper to Ed, evidently the warrant for his international arrest, which Ed totally ignored.
"As a Tribe Chief I have full diplomatic immunity, as do my family members," Ed said.
"This is New York City and America, mister," said a uniformed police sergeant. "Nobody carts off our law-abiding citizens to places unknown without them wanting it unless a New York judge says so; not on my beat! And if Detective Driscal here says so we'll arrest the lot of you for obstructing these people!"
"We have diplomatic immunity also," protested the UN man. He still looked determined, but the five security people with him were nervously glancing about and were clearly not happy to be greatly outnumbered and surrounded by determined looking Tribe warriors, City cops, and students.
"And I have the Mayor of New York, the President of the United States, and my wife the ambassador on my speed dial," countered Ed. "You mess with me or my kids and you mess with them! Get it?"
"And you also mess with Stone-Coat business," added Mary.
"And Mohawk business," snarled Sly Snake. "Ann and her children are also Mohawk Tribe members, and all the Iroquois tribes are Class-A nations in the UN. We will defend our own with force if necessary." As one the four Tribe security men raised their automatic rifles and hold them at the ready. Though they weren't quite pointing them at anybody, their implied threat was a serious one. They would indeed fight to the death to defend Tribe members, Ed knew. And so did the nervous looking UN detachment. Mohawk Tribe security men had well-earned reputations as being fighting men comparable to US Special Forces.
"This situation has possible international implications that over-ride any conceivable local or national interests," argued the young UN man.
"This situation has local and personal interests that over-ride any conceivable international interests," countered Ed. "Thanks for the offer of physical protection, but you are obviously becoming a problem instead of the solution. We'll keep in touch and let you know if we need your help or make any progress, but for now get lost!"
Students cheered and Tribe warriors and NYPD cops smiled and snickered as the UN team piled into their black limo and drove away. Meanwhile Ed took advantage of the distraction to tell Mark and Sue about Tracy, Mouse, and Stone Runner, and to introduce them to Driscal and Mary.
"Have you two got any ideas about why someone would kidnap your sister?" Driscal asked them.
"None," the stunned pair replied.
"But the UN guys are probably right about it being UN related," said Sue. "Mom's an international VIP. She has made plenty of international enemies, and New York is as international a city as they come. International human enemies are a definite possibility. "
"Or it's a rogue jant colony behind it," said Mark. "No offense, Detective Driscal, but intelligent insects creep me out big-time!"
"Me too, kid," Driscal replied with a smile. "But then again I don't trust nobody."
"Well Mark and I are glad we can trust in our Tribe," said Sue. "Sly Snake and his men stopped those UN guys in their tracks!"
"Aside from weapons. what's all that gear you are carrying?" Ed asked Sly Snake.
"Our usual surveillance stuff, Chief," responded Sly Snake. "Radios, cameras, communications scanners, binoculars, Geiger counters, and so forth. Nowadays we don't rely entirely on telepathy and old-fashioned Mohawk Tribe skills, especially in the City. We detected the UN guys coming when they were still miles away. We have two more teams scouting the campus area that picked up on them even earlier."
"Get Mark and Sue home soon so you can join in the search for Tracy and Mouse, my friend," Ed told the Tribesman.
"Yes Chief. The Tribe is focusing search efforts on Greenpoint and neighboring areas. We think it likely that the girls are either close to where they were kidnapped or far outside the City altogether."
They were moving within the mob of students streaming into the building and out of the cold when a smiling little old man with silver head and face hair greeted them with a surprisingly firm handshake. "I'm Dean Williams," he told them. "Glad to see that snafu with the UN folks is resolved, at least for now. I figure there must be some sort of tie-in with that nasty Stone-Coat disassembly business in Brooklyn this morning, Chief Ed. Is that right?"
"No comment," said Ed.
"Your silence speaks volumes, Chief," said Dean Williams. "Always glad to see you, Mary! So then, I deduce from your request for an Omega gathering that Omega is somehow involved. Is that right? The news outlets and social media are speculating all sorts of things, most of it of course nonsense."
"No comment," said Mary. "Omega is gathered in Lecture Hall One, I assume?"
"Of course," said the Dean.
In Lecture Hall One the visitors soon looked out at a gathering audience of over two-hundred human students of dozens of ethnicities, including Sue, Mark and a Tribe security man. Fortunately over half a century earlier English had becom
e the official language of the United States including even New York City; despite his proficiency in communicating with jants and Stone-Coats, Ed had zero proficiency in human languages other than Americanized English and Mohawk. Hundreds of languages were spoken here in the most ethnically diverse city on Earth, but most people knew English.
The audience also included several Stone-Coats and zombies, Ed noticed, with whom he exchanged silent greetings. Some of the associated jant colonies were rogue, and some were members of the Eastern Consortium, he also noticed. But no potential kidnappers were immediately evident, he also determined, though more than ever he doubted his ability to telepathically detect them.
"As requested of us by our colleague Mary, we will lecture our esteemed guests on our Omega Group study of human pathologies of behavior that threaten humanity and our planet," Dean Williams began, after calling the lecture hall to order. "On an individual scale, humans are of course prone to a variety of interesting mental maladies which influence their thoughts and subsequent actions. The human ability to imagine things is of indispensable value to our survival but also supports self-delusion that distorts more reasonable perceptions of reality. Usually it is personal self-destruction that tragically results, but our key focus in Omega is the destruction that could be unleashed upon others.
"Even if their actions are carried out only by themselves or a few comrades, advances in science and technology nowadays can magnify the deadly effects of violent actions by thousands or even millions of times. In the last century automatic guns and conventional bombs supported death by the dozens or hundreds per incident. Now through the use of chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons the deadliness of individuals and small groups has greatly increased.
"In the worst cases hundreds of thousands of people have been killed at a time. Calcutta India is no more. Nice France, Indianapolis Indiana, and several other cities are no more. Populations in Africa and Asia have been devastated by biological agents deliberately spread by mentally unstable individuals or small groups of zealots of various political and religious causes. Police and mental health initiatives have been only imperfectly effective in achieving prevention and protection from the killers that stalk us from within our own populations.
"Even more deadly are the pathologies that support the rise to power of unsavory groups and individuals. Narcissistic leaders have come to power by whipping up group fear and hate including racism and blame-ism against other groups, and justifying wars, terrorism, persecution of minorities, and a general loss of individual rights and freedoms. The arrogance and egotism of authoritarian leaders is too often mistaken for strength of character by submissive fear-blinded hero worshipers that though justified in their concerns for survival are far too willing to sacrifice principles and freedoms and to pursue violent quests for group dominance. People have a deep psychological need for heroes and a very poor record of choosing flamboyant incompetent despots as their heroes rather than careful, thoughtful leaders: dangerous leaders who erode or even totally overturn freedom supporting democracies.
"In recent decades we have come to the sad realization that democracies and associated individual rights are not necessarily natural or permanent aspects of human cultures. More resilient is hubristic pride - the arrogance and egotism that drive people to brag, lie, cheat and bully others to get ahead, mostly by taking advantage of the pathologies of others."
Williams went on to chronicle the fall of several democracies and other forms of government amidst the chaos of tens of millions of refugees fleeing across national borders from famine, flooding, drought, plagues, and wars, and how such pressures had led to the collapse of societies and millions of deaths. At the heart of many such societal failures to cope, he outlined psychological maladies that could be attributed to many of the leading individuals and groups involved. This was the disturbing, nasty stuff that Ann and her UN dealt with constantly, but could only to a limited degree repair or blunt.
Perhaps more immediately disturbing, the Dean was smiling throughout this grizzly introductory lecture, as though he derived some sort of enjoyment from describing how human psychological problems both contributed to and resulted from world-wide death and misery.
It was almost a relief when Williams finally turned over the podium to a serious young research assistant. "Technology advances have been changing our perception and expectations," the young lady began. "Things in the actual world are expected nowadays to happen much more quickly and simply, as they do in fictional entertainment programs that distort or at least too simplistically reflect reality. We have a growing 'patience deficit' that causes us to expect immediate and successful results with respect to everything we do, and this hinders and precludes real solutions from being more thoughtfully and patiently applied to complex problems.
"People like simplistic yes/no and good/bad judgements, and simple so-called 'common sense' solutions to complex issues. People lack patience when it comes to solving problems that defy quick simple solutions. Governments, science, and various other institutions are expected to instantly identify simple so-called common sense solutions and apply them. The more rational notion that many problems only have complex long term solutions is emotionally rejected by most people."
"There is some correlation of this phenomenon with technology. We watch fictional dramas where crime leads to punishment within half an hour, and experience ever faster computer response times, so we expect the same from society. However note that for millions of years cause and effect for most everyday phenomena happens quickly and the causes are usually simple. It is therefore not unreasonable for us to psychologically expect and prefer similar quick-and-easy expectations for more complex situations.
"Only the application of reason leads us to accept the notion that some things are more complex and some efforts take longer times to come to fruition. As a culture we have largely successfully made a transition from the mindset of hunter-gatherers that expect quick action and immediate rewards to the mindset of rational patient farmers that realize that planning and long term effort can yield even greater rewards. However we still psychologically much prefer quick-and-easy.
"We have progressed culturally and in the field of psychology to the point that rational understanding and behavior are the expected norm for mentally healthy people. Thus in our profession we have labeled overly simplistic explanations and expectations by people to indicate a form of pathology that irrationally rejects the true complexity of reality. Often this trait in people is too ingrained to be subject to effective treatment."
"There's no cure for stupid," Driscal muttered.
"We suffer from self-organizing collective delusions," proclaimed the next speaker. "Consider the conspiracy theories, anti-intellectualism, and anti-science that have arisen in recent decades. People easily get scared and quickly sacrifice reason for emotion, and principles for a false sense of security.
"Many people deny that objective facts are a real thing. They think that facts are whatever they can get themselves and other people to believe them to be. A completely made up story is fine, as long as it is believed enough to earn a desired result. Truth and reality are negotiable for them, and it is perfectly legitimate to support unsubstantiated claims as reality, if there is no immediate overwhelming evidence to deny them.
"They of course often do this to further their own agendas. They lack the moral integrity compass to reject unsubstantiated lies. This is sometimes termed as behavior guided by fitness rather than truth. Belief that 'the ends justify the means' is a closely related corollary. Many of them do rather well in a society that prizes success above integrity. Anthropologists and historians have long noted the deeply ingrained and largely successful use of lies and deception in human cultures."
"Well dah," Driscal muttered cynically.
"The lies are believed by people that buy into them emotionally, because the lies validate their own emerging distorted views and they find out that they are part of an army of peopl
e that believe the things that they do. They get the validation that they need and they don't need to feel guilty. Instead they feel empowered."
"We have an ongoing dispute between the druids and the engineers," proclaimed the next speaker. "At one end of the spectrum we have people that want to return to a simpler, pre-industrial, pre-technological society. At the other end we have people that embrace technology and change as a panacea that will doubtlessly overcome all problems. In this context druids are pessimists that illogically reject out of hand whatever is new, while the engineers are optimists that tend to illogically embrace whatever is new. The need for stability and the need for change both have deep psychological foundations but each of these extremes is now regarded by psychological practitioners to be a genuine psychological malady, while taking a thoughtful, cautious, rational middle ground approach is felt to be most practical and psychologically healthy."
The next speaker talked about groupism-supporting 'communities of fate' that define 'others' as enemies and serve as breeding grounds for radical zealots and terrorists, and provide support for narcissistic tyrants. Science-based methods of persuasion that are used to try to broaden and counter the outlook of such groups are unfortunately also used by the groups themselves to form and strengthen radicalism, with control of news reporting and social media a favorite supporting mechanism.
"Some dangerous people embrace a belief that only through apocalyptic destruction and subsequent renewal can a heavenly state of purity be reached in an emerging new society of true believers," noted a lecturer. "This apocalyptic mind-set welcomes and in extreme cases actively supports wiping the slate clean through the subjugation or murder of unbelievers and the complete destruction of the societies of non-believers. The required Armageddon can be natural/god caused or man-made. The subsequent blissful pure-state can be Earthly and/or heavenly. The professional psychological community now classifies such thoughts to indicate a form of mental illness, a finding of course rejected as nonsense by the radical cult followers."
Ed noted that his wife Ann dealt with a similar form of death-wish in her UN dealings. Many isolationists argued that the United States and other countries should simply seal their boarders and deal with only internal problems, and let the rest of the world be damned by increasing chaos in which only the strong would survive. The approach had a certain appeal, but ignored many realities, such as the dangers posed by resulting power-mad tyrannical governments that run amuck and attacked neighbors, and also the disease, pollution, wars, and other dangers that tended to readily cross national borders. No, isolationism hadn't worked very well for centuries and wasn't rational behavior. The only logical approach to survival was the one being generally pursued - a stronger UN. Only a more strongly united humanity could cope with the emerging serious problems both global and local.
However next it was argued that the global cooperation needed to address the rise of climate change and other problems was lacking. Many people and countries did not trust or work well with others. This was linked to normal and solidly ingrained 'cautious behavior' for people by psychologists, as opposed to the more extraordinary efforts and courage required to establish more altruistic trust and cooperation. "As a result the UN, though much stronger than it was a century earlier, is probably not nearly as strong as it needs to be to be fully successful," it was noted.
The tendency for people to deny the existence of big problems/issues and the human culpability for them was then presented as a psychological problem, along with their refusal to address such issues. Big problems such as climate change and pollution were dismissed by delusional science-denialists as 'natural' or 'supernatural' issues about which humans had no control. Others said that climate change real and human caused, but it was a government and/or UN plot to gain power.
"Religious extremes that are used to deny physical realities and subsequent science theory lack intellectual integrity, and this is now regarded to be a form of delusional mental incompetence," it was noted. "Though many religions have no problem with science, those that do irresponsibly imperil us all. As an example, we note that human reaction to human induced climate change has been slow and muted in part due to religious-based science denialism. It took decades too long to finally establish a suitable word-wide response to climate change that is only now being brought to bear."
The lectures continued. It was noted that it was psychologically often easier emotionally to live in denial and suffer from the problems than it was to accomplish the difficult job of cooperating together to address problems effectively. It was also much easier to follow charismatic dictators that promised simple quick fixes than it was to establish the complex long-term efforts necessary to actually seriously address deep-rooted mega-problems.
A speaker described the arrogance of 'presentism' - the tendency to ignore the many lessons of history that could of relevance to addressing present problems. Every new generation felt that it was superior to previous generations and therefore relatively immune to problems. However there was a counter concern that well established institutions and cultures were no-longer relevant and were irrationally being sustained even though they were in some cases obstructing progress towards dealing with current and future problems.
Though global cooperation was described as necessary for survival, globalization and mono-culturalism was an impediment to the creativity that might be needed to survive, the next lecturer argued. English had become the dominant world language, and the language of a culture helped shape its thoughts and behavior. What if possible solutions to problems were not found due to mono-culturalism? Clinical psychology was identified as example area that was weakened by mono-culturalism since earlier in the century. Globalization of American psychiatric practices led to a too simplistic view of mental problems and a too-widespread use of drugs in psychotherapy, while more effective non-drug treatments practiced in several cultures were for a long time ignored and nearly became forgotten.
Williams finally summarized the world situation by stating that as difficult as the physical problems such as climate change were, looking at them from a psychological perspective they in principle were mere annoyances that usually had practical physical solutions that weren't practiced for psychological reasons. For example eradicating world hunger and disease had been physically doable for several generations but had never been done. The more intractable problems by far were the human psychological peculiarities and weaknesses that plagued humanity. Humanity was far more likely to extinguish itself or needlessly allow itself to be extinguished than were the mere physical problems it faced."
"Swell," said Ed, as the audience politely applauded. "Wasn't THAT uplifting!"
"It was a set of lectures on realities, not a pep-talk to make you feel better," Mary pointed out.
"I DIDN'T LEARN A DAMN THING THAT WAS USEFUL," Driscal told Ed silently. "WHAT A BUNCH OF USELESS CRAP: MOSTLY THE SAME PREACHY STUFF WE HEARD EARLIER IN BROOKLYN. YES HUMANS SUCK. NOT A DAMNED THING I CAN DO ABOUT IT EXCEPT PUT A FEW OF THEM AWAY. SO LET'S GET TO OUR NEXT GIG AND FIND SOME BAD GUYS."
Williams was wrapping up the gathering by thanking the already departing participants when a student delivered a typed note to Ed that ended in an Omega symbol. It said:
'Do you see yet that mankind and friends are pathetically twisted and totally doomed? Save yourselves? IMPOSSIBLE. You won't even survive a minor change in climate!'
Questioning the student who delivered the note and reviewing surveillance videos yielded no actionable information. The student had discovered the note in the College in-basket. An unrecognizable hooded figure was discovered in a blurry school surveillance video, likely delivering the note. Driscal's portable forensic kit detected no finger prints on the note aside from Ed's.
Back in the Humvee, the detective again voiced his displeasure. "That was more wasted time, Chief. And that's three times we got a note from the perps and three times we were unable to capitalize on it. We need better surveillance than cr
appy school cams."
"So where were the NYPD spy cams this time?" asked Ed.
"I've been monitoring their telemetry," said Mary. "The closest stationary City cams are down due to maintenance issues, and the airborne cam drones have been shut down due to weather."
"Bull shit!" said Driscal. "There's no new snow on my damn Humvee! It hasn't been snowing here for the last two hours! There should have been cop spy drones overhead for all that time!"
He radioed the NYPD surveillance headquarters to voice his displeasure. After several minutes of yelling and cursing he hung up and relayed what he had found out to the others. "Their weather sensors say it snowed two inches here at York over the last two hours, and that caused drones to be diverted from this area. Meanwhile all area ground-cams shut down for their monthly maintenance cycles during that period, even though none of them were due to do so."
"The kidnappers hacked into your NYPD surveillance systems," said Ed.
"No shit!" agreed Driscal, as the Humvee started rolling towards the next college.
"I thought that was supposed to be practically impossible," said Ed. "Don't Stone-Coats help design most public computerized systems nowadays?"
"Yes said Mary, but no system is totally un-hackable. The main deterrent is that nowadays hacking is an international crime since those cyber wars that humans had a few decades ago. But that's another useful clue: our bad guys are master-hackers." She said it in her always cheerful manner. "That should narrow our suspect list."
"Sure," said Driscal. "Only a few million entities in the world could have hacked into the City computer systems. And most of them are Stone-Coats, who you claim are all always totally trustworthy and innocent."
"The note itself provided much useful information," continued Mary. "The kidnappers essentially referred to humans in the third person, suggesting that they are not themselves human. They also referred to 'mankind and friends' as if they were not themselves friends to humans."
"It's a bit naive to rely on their word choices to derive solid clues," said Driscal, "though I agree you have to use what you've got. I'll take your results with a grain of salt though."
"Who are the 'friends' they refer to, do you suppose?" Mary asked.
"Stone-Coats and jants are solid friends to humans, Ann would argue," said Ed, "and so would I. Stone-Coats are doing tremendous works for humanity now, and jants through med-ticks have saved millions of human lives by curing most human disease including cancer."
"Stone-Coat and jant partnerships with humans are more a matter of practical symbiosis than friendship," argued Mary.
"It is those practical aspects that allow friendly relationships to later develop," said Ed. "Humans feed and provide shelter for jants, while jants through their med-ticks cure our disease. Stone-Coats build many things for humans, while humans gather up carbon and other substances necessary for Stone-Coat to flourish such as they have never done before. I argue that such practical associations lead to further trust and true friendship. Why do rogue jants bother animating your human half, Driscal?"
"My rogue colony is my partner; we work together and both benefit," said Driscal. "The jant Eastern Consortium tolerates rogue colonies as long as the rogue does something useful for them. In our case we hunt down and eliminate jant colonies that have been corrupted by human corruption. What we do is a win-win for both jants and humans. And I like the job, both the human me and the parts of me that live in the hive. I like kicking ass and being backed up by my little bug-buddies. I've been shot twice and stabbed three times since going zombie and every time I have recovered fast and painlessly. There are some big advantages to being dead. I don't even pay taxes anymore."
"That's all swell Driscal," said Ed, "but if the kidnappers aren't humans, jants, or Stone-Coats, who the hell could they be?"
"Beats me," said Driscal, with a shrug. "But I'm damn well going to find out!"
Global Warming Fun 6: Ice Giants Make Manhattan Page 8
