Friday, January 18, 2013

Independence, USA: What Does Glenn Beck Have in Common With the United Nuwaubian Nation of Moors and Tama-Re?

Outsider communities are a rich and deep part of the American cultural and political tradition.

Glenn Beck is going to start his own John Galtian live action role playing amusing park living community called "Independence, USA." It is fitting that Glenn Beck is imitating Walt Disney. Both believe(d) in protecting the white nuclear family, and creating a fictive world of heterosexual, normalized whiteness, where no Others need to intrude.

Some of his fellow libertarians have played too many hours of the videogame Bioshock and are going to establish their own floating city in the Pacific Ocean. Apparently, these libertarian Otaku did not realize that Bioshock is a cautionary tale--as opposed to one that is inspirational.

Like Jim Jones, Beck and his libertarian Utopian-isolationists are as American as apple pie.

Although Glenn Beck is a reactionary white conservative who believes that Barack Obama hates white people, and wants to "oppress" them, fate is a trickster (as she always is). As such, Glenn Beck has a "brother from another mother" on the other side of the color line.

Dr. Malachi Z. York was a con man and black charismatic religious figure, who with hundreds of followers, established an amusement park and black separatist futurist religious community during the 1990s called Tama-re in Georgia.

Glenn Beck's "Independence, USA" will be a model of idealized John Galtian Ayn Randian libertarianism. There, untenable political theories as offered up in piss poor works of literature will become real for its visitors and residents:
Glenn believes that he can bring the heart and the spirit of Walt’s early Disneyland ideas into reality. Independence, USA wouldn’t be about rides and merchandise, but would be about community and freedom. The Marketplace would be a place where craftmen and artisan could open and run real small businesses and stores. The owners and tradesmen could hold apprenticeships and teach young people the skills and entrepreneurial spirit that has been lost in today’s entitlement state.

There would also be an Media Center, where Glenn’s production company would film television, movies, documentaries, and more. Glenn hoped to include scripted television that would challenge viewers without resorting to a loss of human decency. He also said it would be a place where aspiring journalists would learn how to be great reporters. 
Across the lake, there would be a church modeled after The Alamo which would act as a multi-denominational mission center. The town will also have a working ranch where visitors can learn how to farm and work the land.
Independence would also be home to a Research and Development center where people would come to learn, innovate, educate, and create. There would be a theme park for people to recharge and have fun with their families. 
People would also have the option to live in Independence, with a residential area where people of different incomes could all come together and be neighbors.
Let's compare Glenn Beck's "Independence, USA" with Dr. York's Nuwaubian community Tama-re:
In 1993, York purchased a 476 acre game ranch in Eatonton, Georgia. Approximately 400 followers moved to Georgia with York. The group was once again renamed, The United Nuwaubian Nation of Moors. This group claimed to be part of a Native-American tribe from Georgia called the Yamassee.  
The Nuwaubians claim that they are ancestors of Egyptians who migrated from the Nile Valley to the Georgia countryside prior to the continental drift that separated the continents. These Egyptian migrants came known to be the Yamassee Native Americans. The Nuwaubians have attempted to use their ancestoral lineage to the Yamassee as a basis for obtaining sovereignty from the United States government. 
The name of the Nuwaubians home is Tama-re, or the "Egypt of the West." At the entrance of Tama-re there is a large sign that recognizes the Nuwaubians as a fraternity, Lodge 19 of the Ancient Mystic Order of Melchizedek. Armed guards stand at the entrance to Tama-re. Approximately 100 Nuwaubians live within 15 double-wide trailers within this complex...  
At this current complex the Nuwaubians have constructed an Egytian-style village with two pyramids, obelisks, and statues of Egyptian leaders. The two pyramids are distinct in appearance and in usage. There is a gold pyramid that serves as a trade center. Within this pyramid one can find a bookstore and a clothing store. The other pyramid is painted black with colorful Egyptian symbols painted on the outside. This structure serves as a church. Within the church, loudspeakers play Egyptian chants 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Ultimately, are Dr. York's teachings and those of the Nuwaubians that different from those of Glenn Beck, if not in a resonance of details, but in fantastical thinking?
In fact, nearly every school of "alternative" information popular in the U.S. since the late 60s is represented in York’s hefty output.  
His patchwork approach is not just applied to graphics. A partial list, from my notes, of places I’d encountered Nuwaubian notions before includes Chariots of the Gods and the Rael’s embellishments on that book, conspiracy lit, UFO lit, the human potential movement, Buddhism and new-age, astrology, theosophy and Blavatsky, Leonard Jeffries and other Afrocentrics, Cayce, LaRouche, alternative medicine, self-help lit, Satanism, the Atkins diet, numerology and yoga.  
Many of these York mentions by name. There are also extensive discourses on the Torah, Gospels and Koran, as well as on Rastafarianism, the Nation of Islam and the Five Percent Nation.
Paranoia is paranoia. Cults of personality are very similar across time, cultures, communities, religion, race, and gender. Glenn Beck is a former(?) drug addict, radio shock jock wannabe Howard Stern imitator, faux historian propagandist, snake oil salesman and carnival barker. Malachi York was playing the same game, just with different politics, all the while working towards the same end goal--personal enrichment and power.

The latter was/is far less dangerous and relatively harmless than the former.

Ultimately, who would think that a white populist conservative Mormon who believes in a herrenvolk America, one which is a Utopian playground for Whiteness, unfettered capitalism, and hyper-conservatism, would have so much in common with a black charismatic leader, futurist, and refined street hustler.

I guess a love of power and real estate makes for strange bedfellows. I do so very much love it when a plan comes together. Indeed, Crom mocks us all, and does so with one hell of a sense of humor.

11 comments:

Nebris said...

"Total paranoia is total awareness." ~Charles Manson

Anonymous said...

A friend and I had a discussion about how Bioshock was a rigged game. Did the philosophy of Rapture fail, or was it the readily available gene-altering superpower drugs?

SunKissed said...

@Anon
I've read dozens of articles on this sight and have only been slightly tempted to comment. But, mention Bioshock and my geek senses go into a frenzy. Raptures philosophy is what failed. If it wasn't for Andrew Ryan's strict vision of a completely deregulated society Fontain Futuristics and there unethical scientific practices would have never existed. Rapture was doomed to fail from the beginning. By the time the main character enters whats left of Rapture Ryan had introduced several regulations that led to him becoming the very thing that he claimed to hate. Now would you kindly admit that it just got all types of geeky up in here.

Marc McKenzie said...

@SunKissed: "Now would you kindly admit that it just got all types of geeky up in here."

Yes, it did. Still have to finish BIOSHOCK 2, and itching to play the upcoming BIOSHOCK INFINITE. But I would also like to read the novel "Bioshock Rapture" which follows the development of the city and Ryan's initial plans for it.

@Chauncey: Are you sure that any of Beck's followers have played BIOSHOCK? I mean...they'd probably turn their noses up at videogames.....

(Joking here, of course. As you said, they probably have, and took the wrong message away from the game.)

And again, thank you for this. Very interesting reading....

Bruto Alto said...

Andrew Ryan's vision and Beck's vision aren't the same. Ryan only wanted unheld progress. Beck wants to get back to his "Good Old Days"

Anonymous said...

Them be some mighty fine STRAWMEN. Are they black, too?

"white nuclear family"

Anonymous said...

bioshock is more lametard leased online reality

when I BUY a game I DEMAND that I be able to plan in LAN only mode as an option: or no sale

chaunceydevega said...

@Nebris. always. we need that on a t-shirt. I love Orwellian turns of phrase.

@CS. I guess you are missing out on lots of great gaming then.

@BA. That is the paradox. The past is the future for Beck and company.

@Marc. I need that book too. Didn't know about it. I doubt Beck or his clan have played that game. The folks building their own island. Now they may have.

@sun. that is my read of the game too. I Bioshock Infinite is going to be all kinds of amazing. The writers of that game need to come up with a book/role-playing source book old school style. I would buy it in a minute.

Anonymous said...

Rounding up all the looney birds into one central location sounds like a grand idea to me.

Glen Beck lives in north Irving, which is pretty much as booshy as the Dallas metroplex gets, short of Highland Park or something. The chances of him actually moving to this little commune are about 0, is what i'm trying to say. He's just a classic carpet-bagger, and now that he's in good with the rest of the Dallas power structure, he's cashing in the classic Texas way; Capitalizing on low land prices (due to the neverending drought) to turn some of the acres & acres of fallow former-farmland that surround the metroplex like a giant unending ocean into.. you guessed it.. subdivisions that North Dallas bankers will jump over themselves to offer mortgages on. Thats how this town works. Dallas is just a centralized collection place for all the money that these carpet-baggers suck out of the honest (& desperate) people of the rest of the state. No wonder Mr. Beck has found such a faithful audience and friendly home here in North Dallas.

One pack of firecrackers tossed in the street and the whole place will erupt into a blaze of gunfire.

- Buddy H.

chaunceydevega said...

@buddy. how does such a con work? does he get the marks to buy into the subdivision and also cover maintenance while he actually holds the paper on the property so that he can flip it later? in essence, beck's followers come up with the majority of the money to live there, but he actually owns the property?

Michael Varian Daly said...

That quote came from this wonderful piece http://2012diaries.blogspot.com/2013/01/tomorrow-never-knows-coming-of_17.html which is as I commented, 'six kinds of headfucking'. lol