Through the Eye of the Needle

Monday, September 25, 2006

I recently finished reading Ace Lundon's "Through the Eye of the Needle". The basic premise is a "what if" scenario...what if AIDS had reached the epidemic proportions in the U.S. as we have seen in Africa and Asia. This is certainly an intriguing supposition not that far from possible reality. I think this affirms what has now become an urban myth, as echoed by Stephen King's Captain Trips virus in his book "The Stand". The combined distrust of governments and their penchants for secrecy certainly open the door for such speculations.

The beginning of "Through the Eye of the Needle" was a slow start for me. Mr. Lundon's style is jocular, related through the meanderings of the storyteller's internal dialogue. I would not call his approach to the narrative captivating, although by the middle of the book, the premise, in and of itself, was, indeed, quite riveting. In fact, it became one of those books I had to finish without setting it down.

The basic premise is that a wealthy and dynastic family has had members who have succumbed to the AIDS virus. The family, coincidentally, has as it's main source of income pharmaceuticals and pharmaceutical research. This, of course, sets the table for their directed and secretive work towards finding a cure. It is also notable that they have targeted but influential government contacts. This scenario is the background against which the story unfolds.

What is truly interesting and inspired my imagination was the development of factional antagonism because of the inability to control the virus. Containment camps became necessary because the virus had mutated. Urban myths regarding methods of infection prevailed. Eventually, the appeal went out to each and every citizen to form neighborhood watch groups with the intent to expose their friends and neighbors to government scrutiny. What is scariest,however, was the dichotomy between members of the GLBT communities and drug users, on the one hand, and "normal", but infected individuals on the other hand. The treatment of these two disparate groups was markedly different and brought about the transformation of some of these containment camps into concentration camps. The neighborhood watch groups become vigilante groups with the intent to turn in ALL the members of the GLBT and drug communities WHETHER THEY ARE INFECTED OR NOT!!!

I guess it is this latter development that kept me on the edge of my seat. The similarity I perceived between this scenario and the kind of rhetoric I hear from Mr. Dobson (Family Values) and Rick Santorum (U.S. Senator), for example, is palpable. The resonance with what some on the Christian Right espouse is downright scary. Some of them have even gone so far as to imply that stoning of GLBT individuals would not be such a bad idea. I would have to say that herein lies the value to Mr. Lundon's book and his premise. It elucidates the inevitable outcome when one group attempts to marginalize another. When the impetus is religious authoritarianism, there can be no rational discourse because the haters generally appeal to rhetoric which is, to their way of thinking, irrefutable. This, of course, is because it finds its basis in scripture which is alleged to be the word of Deity.

These are issues which are, in this day and age, undeniable and long to be addressed. The polarity in this country is extreme in nature and group mindthink evidently runs very deep. An appeal to a more moderate philosophy will be required. Many believe that the kind of religious intolerance we see today cannot last forever and that it is destined to run its course. Nevertheless, as long as zealotry remains the norm rather than the exception, books like this one written by Mr. Lundon will enable us to envision the possible consequences iconoclastic thinking engenders.

I certainly recommend "Through the Eye of the Needle" to any person who has ever speculated on elitism, disenfranchisement and religious and social persecution based on blind doctrine. Before we can correct a problem, we must acknowledge its existance. The time for denial is past. It is now time to ratify what we can see through our own personal experiences and insist upon an end to the divisiveness that religious certainty often provokes.

trickster108