One is constantly being asked, who are you? Very often, the questioner implies, are you the Communist Party, the International Muslim Conspiracy, the ultimate expression of Occult Freemasonry, a spokesman for godless atheists, polytheists or Catholic traditionalists? It is very hard to explain that the real answer to the question, who are you is simply: Miguel Martinez, born in Mexico City, of a Mexican father and a mother from the US. The ideas expressed here are only mine, and probably owe a lot to quite different sources. I had the good luck as a child of a lot of travel and a lot of stimulating discussions on everything from politics to religion. I grew up in Italy, where I attended the Classical High School - Greek verbs and youthful extremism. At twenty, I joined an organization called New Acropolis, active in about fifty countries, which had the goal of providing practical expression to the dream of the Russian
medium, Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, the creator of an extraordinarily complex worldview. Quackery, of course, though of the more exciting kind. Devoting myself entirely to this group, I first directed its Italian language magazine; then I established branches in Syracuse, Piacenza and Milan. During these years I reached the top of a very complex (and why not, basically ridiculous) hierarchy. Though the expression is quite loaded, it would be right to call New Acropolis a cult because of its stultifying effect on the intellect of the members and the way it involved them totally. I was the first "Italian" to be chosen to establish a branch in another country. Since I was also the only member, I suppose it was no great honour to be the "National Commander of the International Organization New Acropolis Egypt"; however, the Nile Valley - in the rhetoric of the cult - was the "sacred land of Khem". During my stay in Egypt, I had an excellent opportunity to meditate on the arrogance, the implicit and explicit racism, the pompousness and the oppressive nature of the organization I was giving my life to. At the same time, I had a shocking view of the pathological approach that the West has towards the Arabic world. Some people learn about racism, colonialism and imperialism in boring seminars by Left wing intellectuals. I saw it in daily life. This is why I decided to break free, finding myself at age thirty-three without a home, a job or money. In opting for freedom, I had no support from outside, either psychological or material. But this is exactly why I can say that this was the first time my choice was really mine. And what a wonderful thing freedom one has had to fight for is! Luckily I managed to find a job and above all to register at the university, where I got a degree in Oriental languages, choosing Arabic of course. I currently work on my own as a translator and freelance foreign trade consultant A couple of years after leaving New Acropolis - entirely at my own expense and on my own initiative - I got in touch with the press to warn others who might have been in my own situation. The experience was not particulary positive: the press tends to dramatize in an extreme fashion, while ignoring really important issues. For this reason, I refer anybody who is interested in the issue only and exclusively to my website page on New Acropolis. I devoted the next years to an attempt to turn my experience into something positive for myself and others. My ideas develop constantly, and it would not be very
important to mention them here; however others will attribute me ideas unless I make them clear myself - people have already imaginatively accused me of being an agent paid by the Belgian parliament and an actor in a plot by "lunatic fringe secular humanists", Communists, Fascists and Muslims.
I am often accused of "writing for" certain websites, many of which I never heard of before reading the accusation. People who make such accusations are either in bad faith, or know nothing about Internet: on Internet, people freely copy each other's writings, generally without asking permission. I actually make a policy of this - a note at the bottom of each page of my website says people can freely copy as long as they quote the source.
So let me make it clear again: everybody, left, right, north or south, may freely copy what I write, as long as they quote the source and don't claim I am on their board of editors.
Power and Imagination
My main field of interest is the mysterious way people tell stories and dream, and the way this relates to violence and power. Founding myths, propaganda, manipulation of peoples' expectations, fears and hopes. Unlike orthodox Marxists, I do not believe that all of this is merely an accidental byproduct of politics and economy. Human imagination is something awesome, and I lay no claim to being able to explain where its roots lie.
Unlike self-styled conservatives, however, I think it is important to try to understand what the dreamers themselves rarely admit, even to themselves: the way they use their dreams, and the way their dreams are used by others.
Imagination, religion, superstition, fanaticism, vision - whatever names one wants to assign to these deeper aspects of our existence, a few decades ago people expected them to be replaced by an age of enlightened reason, or by a world of gray rationalism, depending on the observer's point of view.
Things have turned out quite differently. True, profound religious feelings are probably as scarce as ever; but any kind of "reason", any understanding of history, any capacity for thinking things over intelligently has long since been swept away by a steady flow of fiction, TV images, slogans, miraculous promises of any and every kind. A consumer-oriented society has also discovered that people generally prefer to dream rather than to think. A sucker they say, is born every day, and that makes quite a good market.
"Christianism" and the Enduring War
This means that the "politics of imagination" have become increasingly important. One relatively sophisticated level of this is the invention of the notion of "clash of civilizations", which brings out the crusader in every one of us. Not ready perhaps to die for Our Civilization, but quite willing to applaud when "our" mercenaries do the killing for us. I have tried to document some of this tremendous cultural degeneration in a section on the way many people in Italy are currently enjoying the Enduring War. We can now understand how horribly easy it is to be evil. Unfortunately I simply have not had the time to translate this section of my site into English.
This issue has an important religious aspect, which I believe few people have looked into seriously: the invention of what amounts to a new religion, in Italy at least. Something which a critical Catholic commentator in Italy called "Christianism": the "Christianists" believe that Christianity, or "Judeo-Christianity", is the foundation of the West, and that there is an intimate relationship between Jesus, capitalism and the atom bomb, all eternally at war with the dark hordes of the Islamic Orient. Christianists believe in a Western Jesus, but are not necessarily religious at all, and are quite ecumenical. Catholic Christianists feel quite comfortable in the company of Pat Robertson or Sharon; and indeed there are quite a few atheists whose hatred for Muslim immigrants in Italy is leading them to the same conclusions: God may not exist, but the Crusades were a great idea. To use a traditional image, this ethnic cult of power is, in my opinion, a perversion of true religion worthy of the Antichrist.
"Cults"
A large part of my website is devoted to so-called "cult apologists", to people who for various reasons provide support of all kinds to various totalitarian organizations which can be labelled as "cults". I actually have very little to say on this site about cults per se. However, the fact that I discuss cult apologists has led some people to see this as an "anti-cult website. So I think it is necessary to explain my opinion on this matter.
My personal experience has made me something of an expert about one situation where power and imagination are closely intertwined: so-called "cults". This is a very loose term, and anyone who uses it must also provide his or her own personal definition. Basically, I do not mean small groups of people who believe in unusual things. I have good relations with Ufologists, supposedly schismatic Catholic traditionalists, self-styled Satanists, homosexual pagans and a wide range of other unlikely individuals who would probably fit into many people's cults lists. I use the word "cult" to mean any group - commercial, political, therapeutic or religious - where the leadership does everything it can to exert its power over the followers. It is a manipulation of what is best in us, making use of our idealism, our courage, our hopes. But I do not simply take an "anti-cult" stand: the groups we call cults do have a history of their own, even though the followers are usually the last to know it; the relationship between the seducer - the cult -and the person seduced is complex and far from unilateral. Especially, I believe it is hard to separate cult violence from all the other forms of violence which exist in our society.
Some people actually use this fact to justify the deeds committed by "cults": true, in a certain group they manipulate people, lie to them, and take their money, but so do a lot of business enterprises; "cults" may discipline you fiercely, but so do the US Marines. For some people, this means that "cults" are OK. For me, it casts a heavy shadow on business and on the Marines.
This means I am especially sensitive to ideological or religious manipulation, which stimulates and exploits the irrational element within us. At the same time, just
because I was a "cult follower" myself, I have great respect for all those who make unusual, extreme or risky choices in life. I do not look down on, or marginalize, anyone - religious fanatic,
apocalyptic, anarchist or racist though he/she may be. To understand does not mean to accept or to be an accomplice, rather it means to try to help to change; and perhaps I can understand certain
mechanisms much better than others, simply because I have lived through them myself.
The cult issue - in a wider sense - is also interesting for another reason. The vast majority of the world is simply threatened into obeying through bombs, but in our civilized island of the so-called West, people are rarely forced to do things they dislike. Rather, there is an unceasing attempt to sell the public whatever it wants, or to make the public think it wants what we have to sell it. This means that there is an unprecedented amount of catering to, and manipulation of, the emotional world of people, by thousands of entrepreneurs of all kinds. A rather obvious example, in Europe, lies in the breakdown of the public health system, based on the idea that everybody has the right to fundamental medical service based on scientific criteria. This notion is being replaced by another one: everybody has the right to buy whatever medical service he wants, if he can afford it of course. This means that a large minority of people can be convinced to buy anything that makes them think they "feel better". An enormous market for quacks of every kind.
These times
I do not claim to have the right label or the solution to the general problem of mankind. From the grandiose universal systems of Madame Blavatsky, I have learned
to take an interest almost exclusively in real human beings. There is however one important lesson to be learned: every cult, implicitly or explicitly, believes its followers are somehow "special". I have no idea whether "all men are born equal", and indeed I am not sure I really understand what "equal" means. What I do realize is that nobody has the right to claim to be superior in any way to others.
A part of this website is devoted to an issue which most people would probably find hard to relate to that of religion and cults: the story of the Roma or "Gypsies" of Kosovo, and their expulsion from their homeland. Actually, there is close relationship: it is hard to imagine a more extreme example of naked humanity, without ideological overlayers, theoretical constructions, or abstract masks, than the Roma who were driven out of Kosovo amidst the complete indifference of the media. There are many injustices and horrors which we should do something about, but I feel especially strongly about this exile.A fragment of the tremendous, global violence being exerted around the world in these dark and terrible times.
 With Remzija, my adoptive Rom sister
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