Cult Smashers of the 21st Century!

By Bill Hulet

What if the coup attempt on January 6th had gone even further? What sort of forces would have been unleashed on American society? And what would it have taken to walk back the forces of reaction that have damaged democracy all over the world? This book is a mix of hard truths drawn from journalistic research balanced with a utopian vision informed by decades of spiritual practice---all bound together in a exciting action thriller. Be informed while at the same time being entertained!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Bill Hulet
• Release date: Mar 23, 2024
• ISBN: 9798215250976

Bill Hulet

Bill Hulet has spent a great deal of his life working on environmental and social justice issues. These have included organizing a rent strike, bioregional conferences, a local currency system, a slate of candidates for local municipal elections, organizing for the Green Parties of Ontario and Canada, suing Walmart, and many other projects.At the same time, Bill has also pursued a spiritual path. He has studied under a wide range of religious teachers including Jesuits, Buddhist monks and Daoist priests. He also has a Master's degree in Western philosophy. He has also been initiated into a Daoist lineage.As a writer, he published a weekly column on various issues in "The Guelph Mercury" and various free lance op-eds in various newspapers such as the Kitchener Waterloo Record and the Elmira Independent.At the same time he pursued all these interests he also worked at the University of Guelph Library as a porter in the Facilities Services Department of the Chief Information Officer. He lives in a 100 year old house that has been gutted and retrofitted into a modern, energy efficient building, much of which he did himself. He is married to Michelle Harrison, who lives in St. Louis Missouri.

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Cult Smashers of the 21st Century!

By the Cloudwalking Owl (Bill Hulet)

Cloudwalking Books, 2024

Copyright 2024, Bill Hulet

All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review or scholarly journal.

First Printing 2024

ISBN 9798215250976

Cloudwalking Books

124-A Surrey St. East

Guelph, Ontario, Canada

N1H 3P9

[e-mail]

To my wise, courageous partner Misha

Cult-Smashers in the 21st Century!

The sun came up at about 6:00 am. Time to go to martial arts class. Then work in the kitchen.

Bleah.

Nate Kunstler (or Nat---as his friends called him) had never been a morning person. But it didn’t matter where he was or what he was doing, each day has a morning and he still had to soldier through it. So he put on his sweats, did his bathroom thing, and, headed out to the gym.

Kelly Hughson was, as usual, already there. He was doing standing meditation in the tree-hugging posture, so Nat just joined in and they both waited for the others. After about 20 minutes everyone who was coming was there. Then Kelly started the deep knee bends, everyone followed. Then the sawing the log exercises. Then the snake creeps down. Then the warm up long form.

At that point the lesson began. There are lots of ways to deal with force directed against you. You can block it by putting up a hard wall. You can turn into jello and just let if flow through you without harm. You can dodge it. You can deflect it. And you can change it’s direction so it just glances off you. Today I’m going to show you how to change the direction of gravity instead of letting it hurt you.

I will demonstrate. He stood in front of them, fell backwards, and, with one sinuous move rolled on his spine, onto his knees, then back onto his feet. Then he was on his feet---facing the same way six feet further back than he had been an instant before.

There’s no big secret. The key points are you need to keep your legs straight and stay relaxed. If you bend your knees, you will fall straight down onto your buttocks and the force will travel up your spine and into your head. This will hurt you. But if you keep your legs straight, the force will propagate parallel to the floor and if you relax the natural tendency will be for you curl up into a ball and you will roll along your spine, over your head. At that point you pull your knees up to your abdomen. Momentum will carry you over so you can roll on your kneecaps and then onto your feet. They all you have to do is stand up.

He demonstrated a couple times more. Then added Be careful! This is an easy thing to learn, but you can hurt yourself if you don’t keep your legs straight! Trust what I’m telling you and focus on keeping your legs straight! Everything else will just flow naturally.

A tall thin, woman with the sort of face that comes from a hard life asked a question. If you can hurt yourself, why are you teaching us how to do this on a hard floor instead of mats like any other school would do? Kelly’s response was Thanks for the question, Sally. Oddly enough. It is harder to do on a padded floor because it’s more difficult to be ‘rooted’ in your initial stance. That means that the odds are greater that you will hurt yourself---even if you are doing it right. I suppose you simply have to take that on trust from me.

Let me see you try. Olivia, come up front and give it a whirl. A tall, red-headed woman came up front. Just keep your legs straight and you’ll do fine. She did as instructed, and as predicted rolled neatly down her spine, onto her kneecaps, and, back up onto her feet.

Wow! That was easy. A lot more than I expected.

Hughson then had everyone come up to the front and try it one after another. The class found they could do it at least after a fashion with their first try. OK. I want you to work on this on your own over the next week. Here are the ‘important tips’. First, don’t ever do this on a surface that isn’t clear of things like rocks. That’s because if you try to roll like this and find a sharp rock hidden by grass---for example---you might find it jamming into a vulnerable spot, like your kidneys. You would not want that to happen!

Sally interrupted But why are you showing this to us then? It doesn’t seem to be a terribly useful self defence move if that can happen.

Good question. A lot of what I’m teaching you isn’t about learning the right ‘moves’ so you can become the next Bruce Lee. Instead, these lessons illustrate principles that you are going to have to learn how to apply in your life according to the specific circumstances you find yourself in. In this case, the important point is to know that you don’t have to accept force being directed at you but can instead choose to change its direction so it is less harmful. I could tell you all of this, but it wouldn’t ‘stick’ with you nearly as well as when I illustrate it physically. You need to learn this lesson ‘in your bones’, and this is how I can help you do that.

&&&&

After the class Nate was feeling that his bones had learned a great deal.

He walked over to the kitchen to start work. The first job was to make breakfast for the meditation teacher. She’d been up since before dawn doing whatever she did then. Now she wanted some strong coffee with toast and jam. After that, she’d go for her usual long walk---which was more than anything else an excuse to have her morning cigarette. He got the espresso machine going and tossed some bread slices in the toaster. No one else ate the dreadful white bread that Barbara insisted upon, so they only got one loaf whenever the deliveries came. But everyone liked her, so the chef made her various jams from the best fruit that Hakim was able to grow in the kitchen garden.

When it was all ready, Nate took it over on a tray to the table where Barb was sitting by herself. She grunted a vague thanks and he left her alone. When the morning program started she was on and in constant demand---so she treasured her morning alone time. People showed their appreciation by leaving her be when she wanted.

Nate’s next task was to help prepare breakfast for the visitors. He started by getting out the dozen large teapots and charging each of them with a spoon full of twig tea. When the breakfast group came in, he’d be able to fill each one from the giant boiling hot water dispenser just before he took them out.

Next he got his marching orders. Renatta Fatima was a medium-sized, slender woman who wore glasses with giant lenses and thin, fine hair that hung straight down the side of her head---giving her something of an owlish look. This morning I thought we’d have a bit of a self-serve. I’ve made some muffins that are now in the oven. We can put them out when they are finished. I’d also like you to get the bagels you baked a couple days ago and put them out with a few pounds of cream cheese and the smoked splake that Hakim bought when he visited the First Nation’s community last week.

Nate knew what to do. There was a side board where he put out bowls of cream cheese to warm up and become spreadable. He also put out wooden platters that had whole, smoked fish on them. There he also put out some fruit salad that several other members of the kitchen help had prepared the night before. Finally, he put out four dozen pre-sliced bagels in a large bowl next to a several four-slice toasters. The tables already had plates, bowls, knives, forks, spoons, and, teacups. He wheeled the big ass coffee urn into the dining room from the kitchen and put it next to the stack of coffee cups, plugged it in, and, set it to do it’s thing.

At that point he got himself a cup of coffee from the staff urn, made some peanut butter and toast, and plunked down at the table in the corner of the enormous industrial kitchen. Renatta and the others were already there. Most had tablets or phones and were reading the day’s news.

Hakim was scanning something intently on his smart phone. He was a tall, wiry, very fit-looking middle-aged man with a very thick, long, bushy beard. Wow! I can’t believe the news coming out of Washington. The mob that stormed the Congress and took all those people hostage has issued a statement through Blabber. The CBC says they are calling on all the militias in America to mobilize. They want to stop the liberal elite from torturing children to harvest adrenochrome---whatever that is.

Olivia---who had come in a bit earlier with her two dogs (Karbon and Porter)---came over with a tray and sat down next to Nat. She’d been listening as she filled her bowl with oatmeal and poured some coffee. Like everyone else, she pulled out her phone and stared at it in disbelief. On my twitter feed it says that they’ve built some sort of structure outside and are threatening to ‘get real, real fast’.

Why are the police just letting this happen?, Nate was amazed at how quickly things seemed to be spiralling out of control.

Kelly had already been at the table with his breakfast when Nate sat down. It’s a difficult situation. There are a lot of important people secured with zip ties and controlled by crazies who seem to be bent on killing them if they see any attempt at a rescue. I’m not sure that any police SWAT team would have much hope of getting them out without a lot of death and destruction. Even really good commandos would have a difficult time---and it will take some time to come up with a plan, and, get them and their gear in place. I’m sure that that’s all happening, but doing a job like that right will take long enough to give these freaks some time to do some bad things. He scowled and stirred sugar into his coffee. It’s not like the movies.

Nat spoke out loud for everyone there, I wonder what the big cheeses are making of all this---?

&&&&

An hour later the guests showed up for their meal. The bosses had suggested that it would be a good idea to wheel in a large video screen so people could watch one of the major news service’s live coverage from outside the Capitol building.

At this time, Nate’s job was refilling teapots as people emptied them, and keeping an eye on the fruit salad, muffins, bagels, etc, to ensure that everyone in the hall had as much to eat as they wanted.

All the other staff had headed out to the kitchen garden for the morning’s bout of weeding under Hakim’s eye. The chief gardener usually also gave a little lesson on ecology while he was at it. If everyone did an hour’s work every morning no one had to kill themselves doing stoop labour under the hot sun. And Hakim’s talk gave the weeders something to think about while they were at it.

Nate was coming out of the kitchen with some more smoked splake when he noticed that everyone had stopped talking and had their eyes glued on the tv screen. The cameramen had focused their equipment on a crudely build scaffold which had been built just in front of the main entrance to the Capital Building. (The police had allowed the occupiers to put it up because of the hostages they held.) There was a block and tackle attached to the middle of a crossbeam about ten feet off the ground. The other end of the tackle went through propped-open double doors.

Then the commentator was interviewing a security consultant and asked him what the apparatus was for. He said that he could speculate but he didn’t know enough to have a useful opinion. At that point the reporter announced that something was happening at the door and the feed was going back to it. The camera showed that the ropes were jerking around, then they tightened up into straight lines. After a period of time where the rope could be seen to be moving, a man was shown being dragged out of the doors by a rope tied around his neck. He was inexorably drawn up until his head was a foot below the block and tackle. He didn’t kick or struggle, but just hung loosely. The short grey hair and black suit identified him from a distance as the Vice President.

The rebels had punished him for overseeing and legitimating the last presidential election.

At that point the feed went black and a journalist at the central news studio came on screen. He announced that the authorities had temporarily cut all the satellite and other feeds from the Capital region.

The tv was turned off. Barbara and Kelly came out in front of it to make a couple announcements.

The martial arts teacher spoke first. Our contacts tell us that this isn’t a hoax or ‘false flag’ operation---it’s the real deal. The Vice President was killed by the mob that occupy the Capital. Odds are that they are going to kill another ‘high value’ hostage soon---perhaps the House Speaker and/or the Senate Majority Leader. The authorities have temporarily shut down the press feeds to slow down the spread of information and also to prevent the people inside the building from hearing about what the authorities plan. They will bring them back up relatively soon because they need to control the messaging that is getting out and tamp down the rumours that come from a news vacuum.

That is bad enough, but our Web analysts tell us that hours ago the alt-right Dark Web exploded into intense activity. It appears that very worst of the Fascist groups---Atom Waffen, The Order, Three Percenters, The Base, etc---are mobilizing. This will also mean that they will be cranking up the second tier groups---like the Dancin Foolz and Peppy Boys---plus the useful idiots like X-Anon and Nosexs to prime them into becoming more violent. We need to expect and prepare for some acts of extreme violence aimed at encouraging a crack-down that will radicalize more people into joining in on their side.

I’ve announced this not to cause any more anxiety. Instead, I want you to know that the Elders are aware of the problem and are already mobilizing our prepared resources to respond. You will not be ‘kept in the dark and fed manure’, nor will your leaders flail around like wounded bears. But be aware that the Dominant Paradigm folks probably will, so be ready when the Old Ones ask for your help.

I’m going to get back to my computer to monitor the situation. I suggest that everyone go back to the regularly scheduled programming of the day. It will help both with how you deal with the ‘interesting times’ that are ahead of all of us, and, how our society as-a-whole responds too. But first of all, Barb is going to offer some insight about how to deal with the reasonable fears that all of us are now experiencing.

She came out in front and spoke calmly and precisely. This is probably going to be the beginning of some ‘hard times’ for many people. You know that, I know that. We are going to have to double-down on learning to control our thoughts and emotions instead of letting them control us. And, as you all know, the best way to do that is through remembering to ‘Hold the onto the One’.

The One is huge---it is the entire universe. Not just the physical reality, but also the laws and processes that organize it. As such, it is a collection of an infinite number of smaller Ones---all the different scientific laws and mathematical processes that govern ever single thing, including us. Learning about the universal One is about learning how many of the different subsidiary Ones act both independently and in concert with others. We start this where we are right now. We gaze intently and dispassionately at both the world around us and our consciousness within.

Holding onto the One, therefore, is the process of reminding ourselves that we are human beings with a history and agency, a body and a consciousness, members of a community and individuals, with an awareness of our own mortality while being able to get glimpses of the infinite through investigation and reason.

The other thing to remember is that the Elders have survived millennia of crises: wars, natural disasters, plagues, revolutions, etc. We survive because we have learned the way to flow with things and ride the waves instead of trying to stand against them by using brute force. Remember that the present crisis is actually a minor blip in the grand scheme of things. The real catastrophe we all face is the Climate Emergency. And the biggest risk we run with this particular crisis is having the world forget that while we are dealing with the present mess.

"Try to remember that the flip side of danger is opportunity. Things will be moving rapidly over the next few months. The Old Ones will attempt to chart a course through this crisis, and we will take whatever opportunities which may arise to help push the boulder of climate stability as far up the hill as possible while doing everything else necessary."

"Now I’d like you all to sit comfortably and take three deep breaths. Take stock of your thoughts and emotions. Look at them without judgment or engaging. No matter how important they may seem right now, most of them are merely epiphenomenon---ghosts created by our brain to make sense of what our hormones tell us. Take three more deep breaths. Now go out and spend your day doing whatever your tasks are as well and as conscientiously as you possibly can. No matter how awful the news, weeds need to be pulled and food needs to be cooked!"

&&&&

Kelly wasn’t happy about what he was hearing from his sources. It appeared that President Blunt was doing everything he could to hamstring the police in their attempts to deal with the mob in the Capital Building and the militia groups creating chaos across the country. Luckily, his powers were limited at the state and municipal level. Democratic and the odd rational Republican state governments were letting their police forces deal with the problems. Places like Missouri, Florida, and, Texas were not doing so well, however. Their relaxed gun laws and culture of freedom poisoning were making it hard for police to identify and round up the groups and individuals who were bent on bringing down law and order. In a growing number of states there had been attempts to attack elected officials. There had been several close calls and one fatality---in Michigan the governor had been shot dead during a botched kidnapping. The worst problem was in the District of Columbia. Some unknown official had repeatedly stonewalled any attempt to call out the National Guard until the Governor of Virginia had had to break the rules and call up the General in charge personally to tell him to get his troops on site no matter what he was being told by the official chain of command. He was hesitant at first, but eventually relented and brought in his people. They were able to contain things in the Capitol Building, but were no help with the hostage situation.

One message Kelly received said that the Joint Chiefs of Staff were in secret meetings. Even more disconcerting, he heard that elite forces had been dispatched to augment the Secret Service protection for both the President and President Elect. In a hardly surprising development, a very secret connection told him that Delta Force units had been deployed in the D.C. area. He strongly suspected that they were getting ready to act. Things had gone really bad already, and, the stand-off was encouraging problems around the country. They needed to act fast or else things would probably go South real quick.

Kelly was concerned about this. He knew that this sort of hostage situation was hard to resolve without a lot of deaths. And the hostages and kidnappers both would become martyrs to whatever faction they represented. Moreover, he suspected that the Commander in Chief would forbid any action aimed at resolving the situation. President Blunt probably felt he had nothing but good to come from the situation and his interests lay in stringing it out as long as possible.

Hughson wouldn’t have long to wait before his fears began to materialize---.

Chapter Two

One of Kelly’s contacts in Washington was a reporter named Silver O’Reilly who worked for one of the big legacy media companies. He was often frustrated by the editorial control that kept him from writing deep digs on important issues and instead kept him running from one puff piece story to another. What they wanted were quotes from important people instead of facts. And when he did put some relevant background in a story, like as not it got edited out because of the need for balance and objectivity.

O’Reilly had been so angry about what mainstream journalism has become that he was on the verge of quitting when an individual approached him and suggested that what he wanted to do was really important. The suggestion was made that he keep his current job but change who he was actually working for. He would still write the slop he was told to, but when he heard something important---but which his editors wouldn’t allow in a story---he should hand it on to another organization. Silver didn’t really know what the group was, but he’d been really impressed by the representative from the unknown group, who’d assured him that they didn’t want anything that wouldn’t be in a good newspaper---if management put the public interest ahead of spurious professional ethics and the financial bottom line. The guy who’d contacted O’Reilly had been very upfront that there was a practical need for secrecy, so he just accepted that sometimes it is better not to know who you are doing things for.

When the Washington stand-off began, Silver called-up some contacts within the Pentagon who’d told him that the Joint Chiefs had beefed-up the security details around the President to augment the Secret Service. This was highly unconventional---possibly it was even unconstitutional. But they’d explained to the President that he wasn’t just an elected official, he was also the Commander-in-Chief, and, the military felt responsible for his well-being. Since this was exactly the sort of ego-stroking that President Norbert Blunt liked, he told his staff and the regular Secret Service body guards that this was a good idea. At that point, they accepted the new people. (Pum’kin-head didn’t promote people who contradicted his brilliant notions.)

The reporter’s contact had also told him that Delta Force commandos had been brought in to get the hostages out of the Congress building. They had some ideas, but were concerned that it couldn’t be done without some significant casualties. As usual, they prepared for action but hoped that the confrontation could be dealt with through negotiation instead of force. Because all of this info was given as off-the-record background, it didn’t make it into the news. But that didn’t mean