A last look at John Christopher’s Guardians

This is the final article in the series inspired by The Guardians, John Christopher’s dystopian science fiction novel. The young hero Rob Randall's story has been told and elements in common with other books described, but there is still something to say about some issues that The Guardians raises, serious issues that have wider applications. 

The people in The Guardians live in either the urban Conurbs or the rural County, places with complementary lifestyles. Rob Randall experiences life first in the Conurbs then in the County. He decides for reasons of conscience to relinquish his comfortable and privileged life and return to the Conurbs, where he will live secretly as part of an underground resistance group that is working to destroy the evil, oppressive system that controls both societies. This will entail a life of hardship and great danger - if he is caught he will be killed - but Rob sees dissidence as his only acceptable option.

The role of the Guardians

The Guardians run the show. They conspire to secretly manipulate, condition and control the inhabitants of both the Conurbs and the County and perpetuate the status quo. The people in the two areas are kept apart by a huge fence and psychological control mechanisms. 

We get an indication of how the Guardians operate when Sir Percy Gregory, Lord Lieutenant of the County, wants to know why Rob decided to cross over. The discovery that his mother had been born in the County was a factor. Sir Percy says this to Rob:

“Would the discovery in itself be enough to allow an enterprising youngster to break the conditioned taboos against the County, or did she, even without saying anything, unconsciously predispose you in that direction? Worth bringing up at the next meeting of the Psychosocial Committee.”

Dealing with dissidence

The aristocrats in the County rule over the masses in the Conurbs, but they are equally brainwashed. Only a few dissidents there realise that they are not free and that a life of idleness and pleasure-seeking is not worthwhile. There are even fewer dissatisfied people in the Conurbs. Both societies are conditioned to be contented with their lives.

Dissidence is not acceptable. The Guardians are on the look out for it; they crack down hard on it.They operate a kill, crush or co-opt policy.

Dissidence in the Conurbs is dealt with by killing off anyone who is a threat. Rob Randall's Conurban father was a rebel, and he paid for it with his life.

How the bureaucrats’ plans backfired

A recent incident provides a good example of the backfiring feature, which I something I have mentioned a few times in various contexts as I find it fascinating.

The bureaucrats who sometimes behave like cult members called another meeting. We decided to go, as there were some more points to be made and we wanted to ensure that the right people heard them.

The enemy turned up in large numbers; they sat in rows and in such as way as to split us up. This was probably an attempt to intimidate my neighbours and me.

Their schemes didn’t work; we were not intimidated and the bringing in of extra people backfired on them.

Stella Benson’s Living Alone: Part I

I recently re-read Stella Benson’s fantasy novel Living Alone to see what she has to say about witches. As with many other books featured on here, I first read it many years ago and just for entertainment. 

At the time, I overlooked things that now seem very significant indeed; I now see that there is enough material about witches, wizards and magic to generate more than one article.

There are also some autobiographical elements in the book; they will be included in an article about Stella Benson herself.

Part I starts with an overview of Living Alone and continues with some material from the book about magic and its practitioners.

About Living Alone

Living Alone consists of just ten chapters, so it is sometimes called a novella.

Living Alone has been described as a comedy, but it mentions desolation and has a horrible ending.

It is a very strange and unusual book, yet there are some familiar elements:

There are whimsical descriptions in Living Alone that make me think of J. M. Barrie’s Peter Pan.

The witches and their broomsticks in the book remind me of Terry Pratchett's witches.

There are a few scenes that remind me of the use of magic in Diana Wynne Jones’s Charmed Life.

London has a magic of its own. There are many references to locations in London, places that I know well and enjoy reading about. Stella Benson was writing from experience: she too knew London well.

Anyone who wants to read Living Alone will find it on Project Gutenberg.

Some further thoughts about Upton Sinclair’s proposition

The American novelist Upton Sinclair had this to say about the difficulty in getting through to people:

"It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it!"

The previous article expanded on this statement and listed some external factors that might be involved in addition to someone’s salary.

It is not just about employees and possible losses in the outer world: Upton Sinclair’s proposition can be applied to the inner world of many people when psychological factors are involved.

There may also be some unseen influences at work in the form of good and evil forces.

Some psychological factors

Psychological defence mechanisms may be at work in many cases where people just don’t or won’t get or accept an inconvenient, unwelcome truth. For example, we may try very hard but unsuccessfully to get through to someone that they need to take responsibility for their actions.

Bureaucrats behaving like cult members again

I said in previous articles that it is uncanny how history is repeating itself in that bureaucrats are now saying and doing the same things to me that cult members did in the past.

I gave some examples of similar past and present features, elements, incidents and conversations. For example, just as a cult member made arrangements on my behalf without first consulting me, so did the bureaucrats.

As I said, I learned from my previous painful experiences so now know what to expect. The latest development is not at all surprising.

Meetings and gatherings

My colleagues and I walked out of a meeting with the enemy earlier this year.

Cults: they are all in on it

There is an important lesson to be learned and borne in mind when dealing with cults. This lesson can be applied to other areas too.

The lesson is, they are all in on it!

An example of what I mean comes from a horror film that I saw on TV ages ago. It is a good illustration of the point I want to make:

Some campers witnessed a sinister satanic ceremony in the woods late one night - people dancing round a bonfire, maybe a sacrifice, that sort of thing. They reported it to the local authorities - sheriff, police, the church - and were told that it would be looked into and taken care of.

Nothing was done, because, as the campers found to their increasing horror, they were all in on it. It was no good reporting people to authority figures, because everyone in the neighbourhood was a member of a satanic cult!

Not only that, it was dangerous to let them know that their activities had been discovered. Behaving like a good citizen resulted in retaliation.

Common goals

We may naïvely think that reporting bad behaviour to someone’s colleagues or senior manager or whatever will have good results, but if a cult or group of people with the same agenda is involved, nothing will be done.

I am involved in something like this at the moment. My neighbours and I sent a formal letter of complaint about someone we are being forced to interact with to the very senior bureaucrat who is in overall charge of the operation. Some of my neighbours actually expected our letter to be taken seriously; I knew better.

We got a patronising, dismissive response. Of course we did. 

These people are not interested in justice and establishing the truth. They don’t care about the bad effects they are having on us. They probably condoned or even encouraged the bad behaviour. These people are all working together towards the same goal.

We supplied evidence to support our claims, but it was ignored or explained away. Not only that, but the accused man made some counter-claims against one of us in revenge from being reported. They were all lies of course.

We let them know that we are on to them, and we are paying for it.

We have responded, but I doubt whether much will come of it. 

It was much the same when I was dealing with some cult members. As I found out the hard way, it was useless to report the bad behaviour of some to any of the others and expect them to do something about it. I was either ignored or attacked. They were all in on it.

Avoiding disappointment

Knowing about this may help to prevent much frustration and disappointment. It will stop people from expecting much in the way of results.

I remember a time when I blamed myself for not being able to get through to people. I thought that I had not explained myself well enough. I later realised that I was up against a wall; the lack of understanding was deliberate on their part.

So if there are no satisfactory results after reporting or complaining about something, it will not be because the case was not made well but because they are all in on it.

Dealing with cult members: some beneficial by-products

Some of the warnings I have been giving about what to expect when dealing with cult members and cult-like organisations apply to and can be useful for dealing with other, often very different, people and organisations.

There may not be a cult in the case, but some people speak and behave in similar ways to cult members.

For example, I have recently encountered some very familiar elements while engaged in a war with my local council:

Lying and hypocrisy, cover stories, tricking people, treating people as if they were theirs to command, denying allegations, dismissing complaints, ignoring people’s views and points they make, inviting people to meetings under false pretences, harassing people, talking like script-ridden robots, leaving people stranded ... I have seen it all before: same game, different players!

It was devastating the first time around, but the work I did afterwards has definitely helped me to cope better with the current, potentially devastating, situation.

Understanding what I am up against and knowing what to expect has helped me to stay on top of things and even get ahead of the game.