The Note

T h e  N o t e 

I owe the title of this issue, “Communism, Hypnotism, and The Beatles,” to my fellow writer/editor Wendy Ellis who posted on her Facebook page a link to the cover of a pamphlet from the 1960s. Thanks, Wendy. I immediately knew I had to somehow get this into RHP. The cover art for the pamphlet is now the “cover” art for this issue (probably in direct violation of federal copyright laws.) Also, I challenged my friend and colleague Howie Good to write a poem with the title “Communism, Hypnotism, and The Beatles” and, of course, he met that challenge and his poem appears in this issue. Thanks, Howie.

I relate to all three components of that title.  I grew up during a time when we were led to believe that the whole world would be taken over by communists unless we fought them in all kinds of unfortunate places. Worse, there was a sense almost of inevitability that our little philosophical disagreements with the communist countries were going to eventually get all of us incinerated by nuclear weapons. This was not an easy time. Not to suggest that today’s times are any less difficult or scary. They are just characterized by somewhat different varieties of difficult and scary. Like having to worry about our delusional countrymen at least as much as hostile foreigners.

Hypnotism. I connect there, too. Not to say too much about it, but I was trained in hypnosis and practiced it clinically for a while.  I really don't believe in it anymore. This joins a list of things I used to believe in that I don't believe anymore. By the way, you are getting sleepy. Sleepy. Not because you're being hypnotized but because you're reading something I wrote. Same thing, sort of.

And The Beatles. I was born in the 1950s. Maybe there’s not much more to say about that. Question to you: Do you ever find the White Album kind of spooky? I do, but it may be because of the associations I make to Charles Manson, via Helter Skelter.  And then there’s Revolution #9.

I also connect to what I gather is the drift of this pamphlet which, I am quick to add, I’ve not read. Those were paranoid times. These are paranoid times. You probably would have to look hard to find someone who, in 2013, would incorporate communism, hypnotism, and The Beatles into a conspiracy theory. But, as you know, you wouldn’t have to walk more than a quarter-mile to find someone who holds a wacky conspiracy theory that has them feeling really paranoid and really angry. And, there’s a decent chance that person will be armed.  (See “delusional countrymen” above.)

Thanks as always to F. John Sharp, F. J. Bergmann, and our team of volunteer readers. Thanks to all who submitted and all who are published in this issue. I hope you enjoy it.

Yours,

Dale 

P.S. I'm starting a new band called “Dale Wisely and the Delusional Countrymen.”

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outlet mall food court, Leeds, Alabama.

photo by dale wisely