My friend George Forss and I discussed his new plan for Syrian, inspired by his messages from “metaphysical sources (a/ka/ the aliens) and announced this morning on his blog, Facebook Page and, knowing George in an e-manifesto. If he gets to go to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, I am so there.
The plan is as simple as it is inspired. While politicians and pundits posture and pontificate while they turn to bombs and missiles to make more statements and wreak more havoc in our world, George Forss has come up with a different vision for us and for President Assad and Syria. George is laid up with a broken leg (surgery Wednesday) but his mind is plenty active and fertile and he pays close attention to the world.
The plan:
A wave of B-52 bombers are dispatched immediately to Syria. The country braces for bombs and missiles, they hear the rumble of the planes. Everyone in the world, especially in the Middle East, expects the United States to rain missiles and bombs down on that ravaged country. President Assad, who George likens to a Preying Mantis, looks up at the sky and waits, and suddenly, but it is not bombs or missiles that rain down on Syria but millions of Hostess Twinkies. Some, say George, will disintegrate in the atmosphere, landing as squishy packages, some will make it and mesmerize Assad and the Syrian people.
Imagine this, he says, from the point of view of President Assad who perhaps gets smushed by a Twinkie. He will be stunned and disoriented by the American response and come to see the absurdity of bombing and killing. It will change him and the endless dynamic of blood and conflict, which so much of the world and our country is finally protesting against.
The world, says George, has to respond to the brutal chemical assaults, but we ought to do so in a way that is both sudden, spiritual and playful, he says, pointing out the absurdity and futility of war and killing. I’ve been sharing lunch and food with George, who is laid up in his apartment above his art gallery and when I first heard the plan, I laughed. I told it to my friend Jack Macmillan and he said dropping millions of Hostess Twinkies would be a chemical warfare attack in its own right, but that’s another story.
George believes a Hostess Twinkie bombardment might change the heart of Assad as well as alter the world’s view of the United States as an arrogant, violent and militaristic country. It is, he says, worth a try. George has received messages from the aliens for much of his liffe, and he says their messages bring him to what he calls “The Table Of Truth.” That is his test for the validity of a vision. There seems to be little heart, spirituality or playfulness in our political leaders, their voices are almost always cold, angry, barren of feeling and emotion.
Everybody has to come to their own position and feelings about war, I found myself surprisingly moved by George’s, but this brilliant artist and photographer is very much like that. He is the most creative person I know, taking wonderful pictures, writing his manifestos and e-books, conversing with alien beings, exploring the mystical corners of the Internet, loving his partner the artist Donna Wynbrandt.
In America, mystics, prophets and visionaries are pushed to the margins of our culture. You will never see George on Face The Nation arguing his messages, Washington has no use for people like him, he is not angry and simple-minded enough, he does not belong to the “left” or the “right,” he does not attack or demonize people who disagree with him.
There is no coldness, anger or violence in him. I’m going to visit him this afternoon, see how is doing. He never talks about his shattered ankle, he says he has a high threshold of pain. While our leaders argue on the Sunday TV shows, I bet George is on his blog right now or on Facebook discussing his vision for the American role in Syria. I like his a lot better than any other vision I see or hear coming from Washington. If there are aliens up there, perhaps they might drop some Hostess Twinkies on Congress and the White House and bring some sudden, playful and spiritual visions to them. You can read his plan here.