The Cobra and the Mongoose

By Marc W. Garvin

The story told on this book, although written in a parodical form and filled with fictitious places, names and characters, has been modeled after and chronologically sequenced following the recorded historical facts of a known and long gone dictatorship that faded into obscurity, as it commonly takes place after the disappearance of its central originator and main supporting character.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Trafford Publishing
• Release date: Mar 3, 2011
• ISBN: 9781426958151

Marc W. Garvin

Mr. Garvin spent most of his early years in the Caribbean Basin and later on as an adult, he travelled extensively through the Greater and Lesser Antilles, and The Bahamas archipelago as well. His deep knowledge of the geology, geography and history of that area has motivated him to write at both, fiction and non-fiction levels, numerous articles and books dealing with travel, social and human behavioral issues.

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Prologue

We live in a world surrounded by fear, envy, persecution, abuse, malice, famine, inequality, discrimination, bigotry, intolerance, insecurity and double standards. For the lack of other choices, we look towards our government to resolve or at least alleviate those maladies, however, more often than not all we get in response is a mountain of paperwork, red tape, back-blame, finger-pointing, delays and bureaucratic stonewalling that takes us nowhere.

While our world has had enough exposure and bad experiences with fascism, Marxism, communism, as well as with kings, czars, emperors, satraps, popes, evil archbishops, authoritarian leaders, strong-men and dictators to the point of assuming that we should know better when it comes time to pick our leaders and select our forms of government. However, history keeps on repeating itself over and proving otherwise.

In spite of the premise that Natural Law predicates the fact that we humans should all be born free and with the inherent privilege of enjoying civil rights and liberties. Instead, we are surrounded by peoples and countries who are subjugated and deprived of real freedom. Governments grow stronger and soon forget that their primary mission was to protect and preserve those individual rights and provide the proper environment conducive to work and the production of goods and services as a prerequisite to achieve wealth, prosperity and happiness.

Needless to say that there also are societies developed under the principle of tribal or feudal systems that seem to invite or even depend on paternalistic forms of government to feel safe and secure, in such case, they are condemned to live trapped by the old self-fulfilling creed that sadly enunciates that: people have the governments they deserve.

Paternalistic forms of government largely based on the ancient teachings of Plato, when added to the remnants of the bicameral mind still present in some groups of human beings, are conducive to totalitarian regimes, and that is not an accident, far from it, it is a preconceived and pre-planned form of government directed to enslave and control the masses.

The concept of the bicameral mind is the human brain acting in an instinctive and automatic mode, in the same manner and with the same purpose as it was created by Nature. Such mind is the unaltered sample of our animal heredity operating totally detached from any form of reasoning ability. Reactive decision signals originate on the right hemisphere of the brain, and from there they are transmitted to the left hemisphere for sequencing and execution. As opposed to the conscious mind, as an invention of the civilized man in his quest for reasoning and introspection, so as to help himself to deal with the increasing complexities of his evolving life and social structure.

In practical terms, the bicameral mind manifests itself by the human tendency to follow the traditional routines of behavior established by their leaders, superiors, mentors and elders, in environments where those same higher powers would make all the necessary decisions for the masses.

Those higher powers or higher authorities could, in many instances, appear disguised as political or religious entities, which would provide the directives for action and behavior. In that context, it is matter of logic to deduct that a clever leader could easily take advantage of the bicameral mind possessed populations, just by creating the higher authority to provide the needed guidance and path of behavior.

In spite of all the damage suffered at the hands of superiors, cheaters and deceivers, there will always be an abundance of victims who would voluntarily accept the suppression of their conscious minds and willingly regress to their bicameral mode. Given that scenario, the victims are easily induced under dominance by the simple application of the two well known steps: a) the acceptance of gloom, doom and guilt, and b) the free admission into the Garden of Eden, a form of paradise where the victims would never have to make crucial decisions or assume any responsibility for their own fate, all in exchange for their blind obedience to such higher authority.

When man comes to the realization that true legitimate power emanates from himself, and when he is ready to assume all responsibility for his acts, decisions and for his own life. Then, and only then, will he be prepared to seek and achieve true prosperity and happiness. Conversely, those who obediently accept the control of the higher power for their guidance, would be doing it at the expense of their own freedom and self-respect.

The story you are about to read has been written in a parody form, and although filled with fictitious names and characters, has been modeled and chronologically sequenced according to the historic facts of a long bygone dictatorship that faded into obscurity as it commonly happens after the disappearance of the central personality figure.

The reader will be taken by the hand, step by step, into the development of that type of form of government, based on the regular components and circumstances that are necessary for the creation of that phenomenon, namely: a) a period of chaos and turmoil; b) the emergence of a man who is strong-willed, self-centered and ambitious enough to pursue that path; c) an adulating group of followers ready to jump at the chance of a free ride and while doing so, gather around in a crowd hosting the millenary idea of the cult to the personality; d) and last, but not less important than the other three, the presence of opportunity.

Those of us who are lucky enough to live in a free democratic system, usually look with pity and even disdain to those who are less fortunate to live in dictatorial regimes. However, we need to realize that democracy is in itself a form of popular dictatorship where the majority imposes its will to a minority, with the excuse that it is being done for their own good and ultimately for the good of the plurality.

While we are at it, we must also realize that no known form of government is forever and democracy is not an exception to that rule, in fact, it is a vulnerable system prone to unsustainable waste, pilferage, manipulation and abuse. Furthermore, the democratic electoral system is far too taxing for any nation’s resources.

History has taught those of us willing to listen, that democracy only should be conceived and applied as a transitory form of government. The nations that have tried it, such as ancient Greece, Rome, India and native North America, have ultimately collapsed from within after a few centuries of existence.

The dynamics of the democratic cycle can be best depicted by a re-enactment of the ancient Vita Rotae Mundi (World Wheel of Life) as it is shown on the following page, where the natural sequence of events go, in a nutshell, from bondage to rebellion to freedom to democracy to prosperity to corruption to chaos and back to bondage, in a pervasive and never ending vicious circle.

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Chapter One

AT THE BEGINNING

Peravia was an island nation of slightly more than seventy thousand square kilometers lying in the calm waters of the eastern Aramaean Sea. One third of its five million inhabitants were located on its main four cities, the capital city of Enigma to the South, Ocoee on the West, Kanah on the East end and Yagroomah on the North coast, the rest of the population was spread and unevenly distributed on the rural areas and villages along