Hitler, Killer, And The Lizard Worshippers
While I was a university student I spent my summer vacations at a yogi ashram in the Ozark Mountains of Missouri. It was ironic to be at such an enlightened community in the middle of what seemed to be an environment out of the movie "Deliverance" of the 70´s. The community had a children's playground with a cement lizard that had a sandbox underneath and a rope swing that children could use after climbing on top of the lizard´s head. The local Baptist church started a rumor that the strange yogi cult actually worshiped the lizard. That was the lighter, funny part.
Other interactions with the community got a little more heavy. The local KKK would come and attack our community by firing off their rifles and even burning crosses. Many of the people living in the community were monks from India. The racists would shout "sand niggers" before firing off their guns or lighting fires. That is a racist term for Arabs but what does a hick know? For them, "if it ain´t white then it ain´t right." I was put in charge of security at the community. Talking to the police came to no avail and so I decided to fight back. Some people thought we should get a gun but I was against it. It was all good fun on my part. I would climb a giant oak tree and throw rocks at their trucks when they arrived. They did not see me and thought a gun was fired at their truck. I even put giant spikes in a log that dropped across the road when they entered. I once jumped out of the woods at night with a broom stick to pound the side of their car. I was almost naked, just wearing a yogi loincloth, kind of like Tarzan. I was called to duty in the middle of the night when they arrived. It was so funny to see that some poor neo-Nazi with a bald tattooed head screaming like a baby out of poor terror from some skinny, almost naked vegan who was "attacking" him.
Yet there was also a lighter, friendlier side to the local people. It relieved me that untamed human nature free from modern civilization could also have a good side as well. I became friends with a hillbilly family. They thought I was so nice that I must be a Christian. I was just a free thinker who practiced yoga and hung out with some monks on vacations. However, I liked some passages from the bible and I shared this with them. They began to defend me from the prejudices of their church. One day, while visiting them, their preacher arrived. He had a really bad vibration, full of hatred and prejudice. They said "this is our friend Bill and he is a good Christian.
My friends back at the community began to joke with me and call me Bill, the Christian hill billy.
A few years ago I visited a remote community in Chiapas with a psychiatrist who was working with local communities. We were discussing the nobility of humans when they are free of modern civilization but were also recognizing the obvious dark sides of humanity. I told her about the Ozark hill billys and we recognized that things were not so different here. As a Texan who has lived in Missouri and now in Chiapas I can say that the redneck is a universal human phenomenon. They come in all forms and colors. Wherever there is xenophobia, fear of outsiders and a desire to defend oneself from imaginary threats, then there are rednecks. Yet here in Chiapas there does seem to be a little more friendliness.. I think there is a little more inclusion in their communities and a little less intentional cruelty than with the Ozark hicks. However, I have also heard of some pretty savage communities here as well. My friend and I both agreed that it was very important to treat these people well so that their innocence does not convert into crude, divisive ignorance.
She told me about a very friendly local man named Hitler. He had no idea who Hitler actually was. His parents just knew he was some famous, powerful man and they liked the sound of his name. Hitler had a dog named Killer, who was actually a nice dog. He did not speak English but heard it was a good name for a guard dog. It was very ironic that a friendly man and a friendly dog had such names.
Most people I know around here relate to me as another person, not as somebody from the U.S. However, some people idealize me because I must be some white and rich foreigner. Their inferiority complexes make them think that foreigners have these really beautiful lives. If they only understood how really terrible it is to have lived in Nazi Germany or the U.S. in current times! In the end the quality of life in racist dictatorships is not much better than in the impoverished, corrupt narco states like Mexico. It is all so absurd that it seems unreal. Yes it is absurd, yet so dangerous that ignorant minds have no idea of what these "good" forces are actually doing to the world.
I always thought that North Korea had the most absurd political mythology. The semi-divine Kim Jong-il even went so far to say that he never had to defecate. Now Trump´s AI diarrhea depicting himself as a Christ figure pushes the U.S. into first place. I always wondered if any North Koreans really believed any of the ridiculous state propaganda or if they were just too scared not to. Yet Trump is an elected leader in a Christian democracy, making it all the more absurd. He maybe one of the wealthiest and powerful men in the world, but he is really just another red-neck.
