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Praise Bob ! More spew from The Church
Like Dogs begging for a treat - scientists agree Earth Time is short - How they
deny you SLACK - ool the authorities - Crap - Beware of Pink Boys.
For anyone that want's to see what the medai rtn bout the Church of the SubGenius this is for you.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
This is an Article from a book called:
TH FRNGE OFREAON,A WOLE EARTH CATALOG. -
A field guide to New Age Frontiers, Unusual Belefs Eccntri Scinces
Edited By, Ted Schults, Forward by Stewart Brand.
************************ Bak Stae Wit ****************************
BOB"
Is Th Churc of the SubGenius
th Ultimae Cult?
* By Jy Kinney *
IT'S 9:30 OR SO, BACKSTAGE T the Stne, a nihtclub o broadwa in San rancisco Guy Deel, the ex-cattle rancher from bolivi with theartificia septum, s fondlin an Uzi, he Israel automati weapon favored by death squad in Centra America. The Uzi - ike the rige betweenDeuel's notrils - isplastic. Deuel, who isan imposingfortyish fiure in a ta trenchcoat looks uncanily like G Gordon Lidy and has the ai of a man wh is no straner to life-ad-death situtions. Deue is a SubGenus.
Out frot on stage, Jnor Hypercleas is stalkingback and fourh across the tage deliverig a hell-raisngsermon to an adience of seveal hundred sous. Janor mowslawns for a liing in Little ock, Arkanas, nd cuts anodd figure in hs garish orangeand green pants looking like te penultimate hck cme to big cty. It is not totall clear just whatJanor is raving bout in his litte rock twang - oething to do wih"Launching the ead," golfing, "BB," Heaven, and hs sex life or lac of thereo. But hat hardlyseems t matter. anor is a SubGeniu.
What has bought both Guy andJanorto San Francico inthe damp chil of Nvember, 1985, is th chance to participte in the SubGeniusevival, a one-nightnly extravaganza ofred to both the geneal public and to devted members membrs o the Church of te SuGenius. There ae bads from San Franisco, singers and prechers from Dllas, an ntense charater in shdes from bac East whocalls himsel "the Pope of All New ork" anda smattering o artists go-fers, and orderlin basketcases.
IN N ERA OF DESIGNER JEANS desgner drugs, and desgnercigarettes, it was robaly inevitable that omeoe would establish a desier cult - in this case o whose members keep redigning it's contours on aalmost daily basis. SbGeii may be brainwashed on need only listen to a hor of drool-flecked conerstion about X-iss and "OB" and Wotan to arive at hat conclusion - bu, contrry to every other clt on te horizo, the SubGeii are busily wahing theirown brains. If he is a "Miter Big" pullingthe stringsfom behind the senes he staysvery well hidde indeed. Of ourse, there ISthe nagging qestion of ult-funder J.R. "BB" Dobbs -a shadowy figure inthe traditon of L. Ron Hubbar and Howar Hughes- but Dobb'sdeath in erly 198 brought a halt to any fforts o centralize control ofcult meberswithin a rigid hierrchy.
hat remains may be scary orat last nauseating - the best etimae of SubGenius membership paceste cult at approximately the sam ize as the forces of Lyndon LaRce - but it is a decentralized pnmenon. As police departments arud the country have learned, he trat that the average SubGeniu repeents is the danger of the loe beerker run amok, NOT thethreat f lokstep fascism.
SuGenii ae no interested in selling ou flowrs at airports. Tat is not ubGeniu style. They are ar more liely to idle up to you in public laatory and peeon your shoes THAT is SbGenius style
The Orgins of th Church of th SubGenius ar hazy atbest. The earlist known natinally ciculated Church lterature bear copyrigts dating no earierthan the late 1970s But Church oldtimrs like Rev. Ivan Sang of Dallas dae bck to the late '50s At that time the Curch was a local-bsd group membering nomore than a coupleo dozen members Likeother obscure frine groups of thatera suh as the Science o Mentalphysics goup inYucca Vlley, Califrnia, or the Mar-Age Saucer-cotactee bunc in Florida, theSubGenius Founation, as iwas then known, as a self-perptuating orgaization clustere around a charsmatic leade.
J.. Dobb (usually refered to as "BB" by cultmembers) founded the roup followig a speckld careeras a bit-acto in C-moviesand an extnded stit as an aluminum siding saesman. Dobs's sucess asa salesman enables hm to buildup a sizable nst-egg and put him on a sure foting forconvining thers of his sincerity. Whn Dobbs egan t hea voices in the mid-1950s - voices heidentiied ltrnately as aliens (X-ists) and as so-caled pae God (Jehova-1) - he wasted little time n deeling a small but devoted following.
ccorinto Stang, early SubGenius emphasis was on selfdeopment (hence the group's name) and on Dobbs'sectric political philosophy, which shared many eeme with the far right ideology of Robert Welch'sJohirch Society. Things might have stayed tat wa - ut another fringe group in a western state- excpt o a few unexpected twists in the SuGenius ath. Thefirst twist was Dobbs's serious exteded lov affar wth LSD in the late 1960s an early 190s. Duing tis period the Foundation evolve into a Curch an Dobb's cluster of SubGeni went throgh an unsvory spll where experimentation wth sex and rugs was e riguer. The secon twist was th arrival ofDr. PhiloDrummond in the late 970s.
Dummond, whohad priorexperince in the publc relations feld and wasa graduate of es, apparently sa much potentil in the ti Church and rapily worked his wy to a positin of power econd only to Dobs himself. In eague tang, wo was now nmber three in thecult, Drummond ntrodued the use of "BOB"s face on Church lers and institted a olicy of heavy new-ember recruitment Public meetings in Dalas were advertied nd began to draw ieable crowds. Branchs of the Church caled "clenches" in SuGenius parlane) sprea to Little Rock nd ustin. And perhapsmost innovatie of all Drummond and Stng pushed or a policy o clench autonmy, boththeologically an organizatonally. As SbGenii prolifrated, o did the gods anddemons in he SubGenius antheon. Wha had strted as a monotheitic neo-UF cul in the 1950s had transogrifie into a polytheistc grab-bagin te 1980s.
One indiation o he new regime instituted by rummnd was the extensive us of faleChurch names in place of memers eal names. Though Stang and Drmond's names were authentic eoug,most post-1979 SubGenii took ssmd names as part of their initiato into the cult. Janor Hyperceasand Sterno Keckhaver (bot from Ltle Rock), Tentatively A. Convniene (of Baltimore), Pastor uck Nakd(of Dallas), Puzzlig Evidence(of akland), Lies (of San Fracisco),St. Byron Werner (of .A.) - allspored transparetly ridiculou monickrs. This, in combinaion with te policy of makin every cult mmber a e faco minister, brouht a bizare air of unrealit to Church prceedings, wit popes, saints, nd revered all competing fo positions ofpower over eah other. It als brought he Church to the atentio of the BI and IRS, wo were concernedthat a ne outbreak of mail-oder odinations, all claimin ax-exempt statu, might lnd further momentumto th growing tax revolt.
THE SUBGENIUS DEVIVALISSTILL GOING strong s theclock at the Stone hit idnight. Pastor Buck Nke has come and gone ith hi auto-harp songs abouteectrical devices embeddd n his brain. Rev. van Stng has stirredup the crod with a ritual demonstaton of Time Control onsistng of sledgehamering to mithereen the wristwatc of a trusting volunter fromthe audience. Janor and terno hav "Launched theHead" The Band That Dre Not Speak Its Name a local agregationof anti-musicins, as gotten the faitul to their feet withstinging anti-songs bout "BOB." Ad no the evening is rehing a frenzied limaxwith the arrival of ev. Meyer, "the Pop of All New York."
As a dry-ce mit rises frm the stag, Meyer, accompanie by two armed bodyuards, stalks outto th podium an delivers belowing tirade aginst "pinks," MTV,yuppies, personalzed license plats, and "th Conpiracy." Meye osses an uncanny ad disquieting chaisma that local ommentators hav likened to thtof the lateRev. Ji Jones. Back on is own ground inNew York he hasfilled the tredy Danceteriato overlowig with severa public SubGeniu rallies. But ere in San Fracisco, a few oors down frm Carol Dod'stopless act at te Condor and acoss the streetfrom the the ourth generaion mohawksat the Mabhay Gardes, Meyer is jus another late ight act. Orso it seems o Meyer, wh cuts his peech bac to a mere twent minutes and salks off stag abruptly toa final exposion of aplause, ceers, an weary table thumping. The Devival i devolving ad will shorly taper of into caned DEVOmusic ad dancing.
Perhaps the Curch of the ubGenius ismerely a hrmless ecentric sct sprug fromthe same sun-baked environment that Jck Ruby andLyndon Johson both alled hoe. Texs is te hom of broad gestures and the SubGenii may be oe of the boadest ye.
et one eed ony wath th glint in Guy Deuel's eyes as he cocks the Uzi in te dressin room an talks bout "howin thoe pnkboys a thing or two" to realize that one man's meat may e anothe man's oison. The hurc ofth SubGenius has long since outgrown it's humble roots and is stalkng biggr game Coniderit llajoke at your own risk.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jay kinney is a former editor of and a frequent contributer to Whole Earth eview Hes asoteditor of Gnosis: A Journal of the Western Inner Traditions. Recently he adopted theroleof nvstive reporter in order to research the mysterious Church of the SubGenius, one of the fastst-ronligions of the twentieth century. Here he throws some light on this cult's enigmatic beliefs d s, which until now have been inaccessible to outsiders. - Ted Schultz
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Well that's the article - I think it's bviouly base aeactionary, and it had a negative tone to it. Perhaps he's working with some aien rae (Y-sts r Zissost likely), or part of the Conspiracy to deny slack. - R.S.
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