ANDERS MAGE PAGE 2.0

CATALOG: LEC/25501-32-883N
Doissetep Guest Lecture Series XVII
July 14, 1996
Speaker: Dr. Roland Fitzpatrick, Verbena

Transcript follows:

Good evening.

Tonight, I bring you a message of hope.

In particular, I bring a message to those of you out there — and I know there are many of you — who smirked when I said "hope." I'm going to say it again. Tonight, I bring you a. Message. Of. Hope!

I can hear you saying, "what is there to be hopeful for? I've been to dozens of these lectures, I've been out on the streets, I've seen the way the world is and I know there IS NO HOPE. The forces of Paradox disrupt even the most basic elements of my paradigm. The Technocrats control the global paradigm. The Nephandi grow stronger by the day. Marauders spring up like weeds in what few cracks remain. And it only gets worse."

And I will tell you — bullshit!

If you look at the world and see it getting worse, you are being conned. You have to look with better eyes, and I mean really look, and think about what you're seeing. And if you do that, you'll see what I see.

You'll see that while, yes, we are losing the Ascension War, no one else is winning it.

I know a lot of you are wondering where I get off saying that. We all know the Technocracy is winning, after all... Well, don't we?

If you think that's true, you are being conned again.

And if you think that it's false, that the Technocracy aren't winning, you probably think that for the wrong reason. You probably think it's because we're still here to fight them and that they can't win until we're all gone. Or maybe you think that because someone told you that we are "destined for victory." I'm here to say that we're not destined. I'm not saying that we won't win, I'm not saying that we can't win, but I am saying that we're not living in a cowboy movie. Your hat is not white and their hat is not black. You are not automatically the Good that will conquer all Evil. And if you think that you are, you're not going to learn from the Technocracy. Because they know something, they do something better than anyone in this room does.

The Technocracy didn't learn everything they needed to know while they were in kindergarten but they learned the most important thing: to share. Because while all of us accept intellectually that Sleepers have the same innate potential that all of us do, the Technocracy proves that they do and then goes even further by guaranteeing that those Sleepers can use that potential. Before I Awakened, I performed miracles on a daily basis. I used a metal box that moved by itself to get around town. I healed the sick. I talked with someone standing half a world away. I put food into a tiny plastic cage and it was cooked in less than five minutes.

Did this require training and discipline? Yes, of course it did. I had to learn how to do these things and even the Technocracy cannot change that aspect of our Art. But it did not require understanding. The strength of my Avatar meant nothing. I think that the Technocrats truly believe, or at least most of them do, that one day there will be no difference between the Awakened and the Sleepers. A dreamlike Ascension, with all boundaries removed.

And while the standard Traditional response is that it will be one endless Nightmare, there's still something very admirable about what they're doing. Because they avoid the sin of Pride which has destroyed so many of us over the centuries. Because they empower the Sleepers. Because they perform a spectacular trick and then tell the audience how they did it, and they encourage the audience to go home and try it for themselves.

We never did that.

Never.

And that might be why we're losing.

But this is just the same doom-and-gloom message you've all been getting since day one. You already know the Technocracy has a better reputation with the Sleepers than any other faction has ever had. Except that — well, let me get back to this later.

Because now I want to touch on the other two factions. We have the Nephandi, the corruptors, and we have the Marauders, the uncontrolled. Both represent to me the worst that can happen to us as we walk a thin line opposing the Technocracy. Because we have to preserve more possibilities than the Technocracy plan allows for, we run the risk of losing our tenuous grasp on conventional reality and becoming a Marauder. Because we face a vast, powerful and dangerous foe, we run the risk of despair and making ourselves corruptible. These two factions will never actively win this war, for the simple reason that neither of them can convince the mass of Sleepers that their way is right. There is something in the human spirit that is repulsed by corruption, just as there is something in the human spirit that is repulsed by insanity. If the Nephandi or the Marauders win, it will be entirely our fault for handing them a victory they cannot earn for themselves. If we are not vigilant, if we do not deny them the raw power they need to overcome the best intentions of the Sleepers of this world, everything we have ever cared for will be lost forever.

Grim, isn't it?

Are you depressed yet?

Don't be. I want you to feel how important the Ascension War is to you, not just as a Tradition mage, but as a person. Because if we lose, we want to make damn sure we don't lose to one of them. Keep that in mind when it comes time to make the tough decisions, because all of us are depending on you to do the right thing.

But don't be depressed. Because I'm bringing you a message of hope.

Hope, because while we're losing, we haven't lost yet.

Hope, because while we're losing, no one else is winning.

Hope, because while we're losing, I can show you that we are making a difference to the world and that all our efforts are not being wasted.

Let me tell you a story. It's a story about me, a nice North American kid who went to a nice North American school, got his nice straight A's, went to a nice medical school and became a doctor. Because I wanted to help. Because I wanted to make a difference.

And I did. I cured the sick. I took away pain and suffering and I brought healing. I worked in a hospital for five years and then I lost my faith in medical science.

I lost my faith.

Later, I found faith in something else. That's why I'm a Verbena today and not still a doctor in a nice hospital in a nice North American city. But I lost my faith in medical science. I lost my faith in what the Technocracy had told me about how healing works.

So let's look at the things which the Technocracy has told our society we should have faith in. We could pick anything, anything at all, and we can find a reason for hope in it. But I'm prejudiced, so I'm going to look at medicine.

What's the thing that Joe Average on the street will tell you about going to the hospital, besides that the food stinks? He'll tell you that it's expensive as hell. He'll tell you that if you're not rich, you better have good insurance or you'll be ruined for life. He'll tell you that if you don't have money or insurance, you won't even get in the door.

Why is this?

What is money, in this fine Technocratic paradigm?

It's Tass. It's Quintessence. It's Ether, if you like. It's the stuff that makes magic work.

Don't agree with me? Think about it; if you have enough money, you can do anything in this world. You can go to the Technocratic version of the moon and show it on television to an entire world. Money is important to the Sleepers, and not just because the Technocracy has told them it's important. They sense the quintessence even if they have no name to give to it.

So if Joe Average is telling you that the cost of health care is incredibly high, you should know automatically what that means.

It means that the Technocracy is losing, too.

It means that on a fundamental level, the Sleepers aren't buying the Technocracy's crap any longer. There's Disbelief out there, folks. People are starting to think that maybe science hasn't got all the answers for them and that means that it takes more money — more quintessence — for things like medical science to actually work. And the Technocracy knows that it needs science to actually work if they're going to get anywhere.

Oh, the highly indoctrinated ones are still true believers. You won't find a doctor or a scientist or an engineer or anyone like that who doesn't believe. Unless they lose their faith, of course. But the seething mass of Sleepers, the people who feel their lives are much smaller than the lives of people on TV, the people who know that they don't have to understand how the microwave works to be able to use it, they're the ones who are starting to pull away.

They're the ones who are making the Technocracy lose.

They're the ones who gave me the message of hope I'm giving you tonight.

Because if there's Disbelief out there, we need to find it. We need to cultivate it. We need to use it. Disbelief is what will make the Technocracy lose. The Sleepers are the ones who will defeat them. In the end, they're the only ones who can.

Now, I'm not saying that stopping a Technocratic plot, or removing a Technocracy Construct or sabotaging a Technocracy device are worthless activities. But if that's the only front you fight this War on, you are ignoring the opportunity that's right in front of your nose.

I'm not just talking about converting Sleepers to believing in your paradigm. I'm talking about converting yourself and joining the Sleepers. I'm talking about learning from what the Technocracy has done right, as well as from what the Technocracy has done wrong. It is right to pay attention to the Sleepers and to teach them everything you can, without the kind of jealous secrets those of us in the Traditions are all-too-accustomed to. It is right to think of the Awakened as being no better than the Sleepers and to act on that thought. But it is wrong to think that because you've taught them something, that they owe you their belief. And it is wrong to try and force them to go somewhere if they don't want to go.

That's my message of hope to you.

That's my challenge to you.

Thank you, and good night.