Amerikai Magyar Hírlap, 2010 (22. évfolyam, 1-50. szám)
2010-06-18 / 24. szám
American Stonehenge: Monumental Instructions for the Post-Apocalypse The strangest monument in America looms over a barren knoll in northeastern Georgia. Five massive slabs of polished granite rise out of the earth in a star pattern. The rocks are each 16 feet tall, with four of them weighing more than 20 tons apiece. Together they support a 25,000-pound capstone. Approaching the edifice, it’s hard not to think immediately of England’s Stonehenge or possibly the ominous monolith from 2001: A Space Odyssey. Built in 1980, these pale gray rocks are quietly awaiting the end of the world as we know it. Called the Georgia Guidestones, the monument is a mystery—nobody knows exactly who commissioned it or why. The only clues to its origin are on a nearby plaque on the ground, which gives the dimensions and explains a series of intricate notches and holes that correspond to the movements of the sun and stars, and the “guides” themselves, directives carved into the rocks. These instructions appear in eight languages ranging from English to Swahili and re ect a peculiar New Age ideology. Some are vaguely eugenic (guide reproduction wisely, improving fitness and diversity); others prescribe standard-issue hippie mysticism (prize truthbeauty-love-seeking harmony with the infinite). What’s most widely agreed upon is that the Guidestones are meant to instruct the dazed survivors of some impending apocalypse as they attempt to reconstitute civilization. Not everyone is comfortable with this notion. Opponents have attacked them as the Ten Commandments’of the Antichrist. Whoever the anonymous architects of the Guidestones were, they knew what they were doing: The monument is a highly engineered structure that awlessly tracks the sun. It also manages to engender endless fascination, thanks to a carefully orchestrated aura of mystery. And the stones have attracted plenty of devotees to defend against folks who would like them destroyed. Clearly, whoever had the monument placed here understood one thing very well: People prize what they don’t understand at least as much as what they do. The story of the Georgia Guidestones began on a Friday afternoon in June 1979, when an elegant grayhaired gentleman showed up in Elbert County, made his way to the offices of Elberton Granite Finishing, and introduced himself as Robert C. Christian. He claimed to represent “a small group of loyal Americans” who had been planning the installation of an unusually large and complex stone monument. Christian had come to Elberton—the county seat and the granite capital of the world—because he believed its quarries produced the finest stone on the planet. Joe Fendley, Elberton Granite’s president, nodded absently, distracted by the rush to complete his weekly payroll. But when Christian began to describe the monument he had in mind, Fendley stopped what he was doing. Not only was the man asking for stones larger than any that had been quarried in the county, he also wanted them cut, finished, and assembled into some kind of enormous astronomical instrument. What in the world would it be for? Fendley asked. Christian explained that the structure he had in mind would serve as a compass, calendar, and clock. It would also need to be engraved with a set of guides written in eight of the world’s major languages. And it had to be capable of withstanding the most catastrophic events, so that the shattered remnants of humanity would be able to use those guides to reestablish a better civilization than the one that was about to destroy itself. Fendley is now deceased, but shortly after the Guidestones went up, an Atlanta television reporter asked what he was thinking when he first heard Christian’s plan. “I was thinking, ‘I got a nut in here now. How am I going get him out?’“ Fendley said. He attempted to discourage the man by quoting him a price several times higher than for any project commissioned there before. The job would require special tools, heavy equipment, and paid consultants, Fendley explained. But Christian merely nodded and asked how long it would take. Fendley didn’t rightly know—six months, at least. He wouldn’t be able to even consider such an undertaking, he added, until he knew it could be paid for. When Christian asked whether there was a banker in town he considered trustworthy, Fendley saw his chance to unload the strange man and sent him to look for Wyatt Martin, president of the Granite City Bank. The tall and courtly Martin—the only man in Elberton besides Fendley known to have met R. C. Christian face-to-face—is now 78. “Fendley called me and said, ‘A kook over here wants some kind of crazy monument,’“ Martin says. “But when this fella showed up he was wearing a very nice, expensive suit, which made me take him a little more seriously. And he was well-spoken, obviously an educated person.” Martin was naturally taken aback when the man told him straight out that R. C. Christian was a pseudonym. He added that his group had been planning this secretly for 20 years and wanted to remain anonymous forever. “And when he told me what it was he and this group wanted to do, I just about fell over,” Martin says. “I told him, ‘I believe you’d be just as well off to take the money and throw it out in the street into the gutters.’ He just looked at me and shook his head, like he felt kinda sorry for me, and said, ‘You don’t understand.’“ Martin led Christian down the street to the town square, where the city had commissioned a towering Bicentennial Memorial Fountain, which included a ring of 13 granite panels, each roughly 2 by 3 feet, signifying the original colonies. “I told him that was about the biggest project ever undertaken around here, and it was nothing compared to what he was talking about,” Martin says. “That didn’t seem to bother him at all.” Promising to return on Monday, the man went off to charter a plane and spend the weekend scouting locations from the air. “By then I half believed him,” Martin says. When Christian came back to the bank Monday, Martin explained that he could not proceed unless he could verify the man’s true identity and “get some assurance you can pay for this thing.” Eventually, the two negotiated an agreement: Christian would reveal his real name on the condition that Martin promise to serve as his sole intermediary, sign a confidentiality agreement pledging never to disclose the information to another living soul, and agree to destroy all documents and records related to the project when it was finished. “He said he was going to send the money from different banks across the country,” Martin says, “because he wanted to make sure it couldn’t be traced. He made it clear that he was very serious about secrecy.” Fendley and Martin helped Christian find a suitable site for the Guidestones in Elbert County: a attopped hill rising above the pastures of the Double 7 Farms, with vistas in all directions. For $5,000, owner Wayne Mullinex signed over a 5-acre plot. In addition to the payment, Christian granted lifetime cattle-grazing rights to Mullinex and his children, and Mullinex’s construction company got to lay The Worst Oil Disaster in US History: How You Can Help Thanks in large part to BP and the government’s inept handling of the Gulf Coast oil spill, we’re going through one of the worst ecological disasters in American history. But there are some things we can do to help. Get Informed BP’s been touting figures measuring the spill at 5,000 barrels per day—scientists who have studied video and satellite images estimate that there is actually 26,500 barrels of crude spewing in to the Gulf each day, with some saying it could be as high as 100,000 barrels. BP suggests that 11,550,000 gallons of oil (roughly equivalent to the amount of oil spilled by the Exxon Valdez) have been released from the well since the beginning of the crisis. Realistic estimations indicate that there have been at least 54,894,000 gallons spilled, or at least 5.2 Exxon Valdez - and there could be that much flowing into the Gulf every five days. Donate There are several groups accepting donations. The folks over at The Venture Bros, are selling off production drawings with proceeds going to The Colbert Nation Gulf of America Fund. The Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana, the Audubon Society and the National Wildlife Federation are focusing their efforts on the ecological and environmental effects of the BP oil spill. The Louisiana Bucket Brigade, a watchdog and monitoring organization, is asking for help to continue their work in the Gulf. Images of oil soaked and dying wildlife are heartbreaking, but it’s important to keep in mind how deeply the crisis is affecting coastal communities that rely on the ocean. The Greater New Orleans Foundation and Oxfam offer support to communities who were previously sustained by the fisheries and tourism destinations now poisoned with crude. Volunteer For those who live near the Gulf, there are several volunteer groups looking for help. Networked Organisms and Habitats (NOAH) is asking for reports on where and how the spill is affecting wildlife. Locals with training can also sign up with the Oil Spill Volunteer or the Oiled Wildlife Care network and assist with beach and. wildlife cleanup. The Grassroots project is taking donations for kite-camera kits volunteers can use to image various portions of the coastline. the foundation for the Guidestones. With the purchase of the land, the Guidestones’ future was set. Christian said good-bye to Fendley, adding, “You’ll never see me again.” Christian then turned and walked out the door—without so much as a handshake. From then on, Christian communicated solely through Martin, writing a few weeks later to ask that ownership of the land and monument be transferred to Elbert County, which still holds it. Christian reasoned that civic pride would protect it over time. “All of Mr. Christian’s correspondence came from different cities around the country,” Martin says. “He never sent anything from the same place twice.” The astrological specifications for the Guidestones were so complex that Fendley had to retain the services of an astronomer from the University of Georgia to help implement the design. The four outer stones were to be oriented based on the limits of the sun’s yearly migration. The center column needed two precisely calibrated features: a hole through which the North Star would be visible at all times, and a slot that was to align with the position of the rising sun during the solstices and equinoxes. The principal component of the capstone was a 7\8-inch aperture through which a beam of sunlight would pass at noon each day, shining on the center stone to indicate the day of the year. The main feature of the monument, though, would be the 10 dictates carved into both faces of the outer stones, in eight languages: English, Spanish, Russian, Chinese, Arabic, Hebrew, Hindi, and Swahili. A mission statement of sorts (let these be guidestones to an age of reason) was also to be engraved on the sides of the capstone in Egyptian hieroglyphics, classical Greek, Sanskrit, and Babylonian cuneiform. The United Nations provided some of the translations (including those for the dead languages), which were stenciled onto the stones and etched with a sandblaster. The unveiling on March 22, 1980, was a community celebration. But many who read what was written on the stones were unsettled. Guide number one was, of course, the real stopper: maintain humanity under 500,000,000 in perpetual balance with nature. There were already 4.5 billion people on the planet, meaning eight out of nine had to go (today it would be closer to 12 out of 13). This instruction was echoed and expanded by tenet number two: guide reproduction wisely, improving fitness and diversity. It didn’t take a great deal of imagination to draw an analogy to the practices of, among others, the Nazis. Guide number three instructed readers to unite humanity with a living new language. This sent a shiver up the spine of local ministers who knew that the Book of Revelations warned of a common tongue and a one-world government as the accomplishments of the Antichrist. Guide number four was similarly threatening to Christians committed to the primacy of faith. The last six guides were homiletic by comparison: protect people and nations with fair laws and just courts, let all nations rule internally resolving external disputes in a world court, avoid petty laws and useless officials, balance personal rights with social duties, prize truth, beauty, love, seeking harmony with the infinite. Be not a cancer on the earth - leave room for nature. To this day, the Guidestones attract tourists and are the subject of discussions, but their true origin and meaning remains a mystery. AMERICAN A Hungarian Journal Június 18,2010
