The Alienork Way

The Alienork Way

A cautionary tale for civilized humans.

By Matthew Bracken

My name is Naku. This is the story of my people, who live on the great Island of Plenty. Our island is so vast, and the need for travel so small, and it being very difficult to cross the high mountain ridges, people most often live near where they are born. Food is easy to grow or to pick everywhere and at all times of the year, and there are plenty of fish to catch as well. But from time to time a traveler might visit, sometimes by boat, and sometimes by climbing over the sharp-topped mountains between the numberless valleys. As you may suppose, because of the difficulty of distant traveling, news from afar does not travel quickly on the Island of Plenty.

But I did hear a few years earlier about some new people from the outside, people who had landed on the other side of our island, in the place we call Far Plenty. These new people were said to be very strange, and not so pleasant. They did some unusual praying at night, possibly to the moon. They were called the Alanok people, if the tales were truly reported. It was said that they had come from a very terrible island, an island full of war and hunger and catastrophe, and that they needed to find a new home where they could live in peace.

Now, on the Island of Plenty, we have two very important rules or laws that we must all always obey. The First Law of Plenty is that anybody can believe anything that they want to believe, or not believe anything they don’t want to believe, and that is okay, because all ideas are equal on the Island of Plenty. The Second Law of Plenty is that if you give kindness and plenty to other people, they should always give kindness and plenty to you in return. After all, it is the Island of Plenty, and the bounty should be shared. Why not? There is plenty for all. These Laws came from our distant ancestors, who once suffered wars and hunger, until they learned the Two Laws. Then, the Island of Plenty also became the island of peace and contentment.

So it is understandable that when the Alanok people escaped from a terrible place and first came to Far Plenty, that they should be warmly welcomed. The Alanoks had severe needs, and the people of Far Plenty possessed a great bounty to share with them. But, according to the rare visitors to our valleys, the Alanoks were rather strange, and unpleasant, and did something odd at night when the moon had risen.

That was all I knew about them, until the day came when a man about my age, with a very weak and sickly wife and a young daughter, climbed down the steep cliffs and crawled into our village almost at the point of perishing. His name was Napok, which means Hawk in your tongue, and he had the most incredible tale to tell. He had lived all of his life on the other side of Middle Plenty, in a valley almost as distant as Far Plenty. Napok and his wife and daughter had been driven out of his valley by the Alienorks, as he called the Alanoks, barely escaping, most of his extended clan and family being wiped out.

This was a most alarming story. The Council of the Wise met at the Council Bluff by the sea to discuss the matter. Was Napok crazy-in-the-head insane? Was his presence here a danger to us? His tale was completely unbelievable. All of the tribes and clans of the Island of Plenty had learned to live in harmony many generations before. This was accepted and understood by everyone as the normal condition of all people.That the Alanok visitors to Far Plenty could be so dangerous and violently aggressive was simply implausible. Clearly, Napok must be insane. Perhaps climbing over all the steep ridges and down the even steeper cliffs for many weeks had driven him mad.

It was decided that Napok and his wife and daughter could live with us in the middle valley of Near Plenty, but only if he stopped his bizarre public rantings about the Alanoks, given that his speeches of warning to passers-by were extremely disturbing, and upset everybody, especially the children. This demand was put to Napok, and with some reluctance he agreed to our conditions — no more crazy talk about the Alanoks, or the Alienorks as he spoke their name. His family was given the hut that belonged to an old widow before she died. It turned out that Napok was quite good at making useful items from bark and vines, and soon we all had very nice foot coverings, that were especially useful for walking on shallow reefs and sharp rocks. Except for the occasional paranoid and conspiratorial whisper about the Alanoks, Napok was a fine addition to the people of Near Plenty. His wife was weak and frail, but his daughter, Nona, was pretty and popular with our young men. Some of them were courting her, hoping to be paired with her when she came of age, which would make Napok and his family a full part of the people of Near Plenty.

A few years after Napok joined us, another stranger, alone, climbed down the cliffs into the middle valley of Near Plenty. He was an old man with white hair and a white beard, but he was very fit and full of vigor for his age. His name was Amok, and he was the first person that I had ever met of the Alanoks, as I still called them until then. He said that he was an elder and a teacher of the Alienork people, pronouncing their name just as Napok had pronounced it. Alienork was a very strange word to our ears, and not easy for us to speak. It had no meaning in our tongue. Alienork only meant Alienork. The bearded elder corrected me until I spoke it to his satisfaction: ah-lee-en-ork, but said quickly. Amok didn’t look so different from my people on the Island of Plenty, and he was rather pleasant and seemed as intelligent as any. He had certainly learned the tongue of the Island of Plenty very well. He told me that The Alienork Way was the way of peace, and that we would surely live together in harmony on the Island of Plenty.

Amok asked if he could stay with us near our village, and in return, he could give lessons in The Alienork Ways, and the Alienork tongue as well. He said it would be wise for us to learn these things. A volunteer teacher in the valley was always welcome. He could also teach anyone who wanted to learn about Far Plenty and other distant islands. At his request, we offered him an empty private hut. Amok was mostly quiet, didn’t eat much and caused no problems, but he did have a few peculiar requirements. First, he said that he needed a little more land for his hut, because he was required by his beliefs to pray to the moon anytime it was up at night. And to do this correctly, he needed to make a little ring or circle of stones around his hut, and this ring needed more space than he had been offered.

And also, he declared, it was the sacred custom of Alienork men to always wear a ceremonial dagger or sword on their belt, as a symbol of their manhood. The dagger of Amok was thin and as long as my arm from elbow to fingertip. He kept it tucked beneath a red sash around his waist. Unlike my people, who always wear the light wraparound pareo cloth, which also dries quickly, Amok wore a thicker robe of black cloth. He explained that the ring of stones and the sword and the moon singing and the black robe were all part of The Alienork Way. And, as Amok reminded me, because of our First Law of Plenty, we had to allow him to believe as he chose, which was, of course, completely true.

The Council of the Wise met and we decided that if Amok would agree to always obey the Two Laws, we would also comply with his wishes concerning his private beliefs. He readily agreed to this, so we let him take a fallow field over past the other bluff, and a group of our men even moved his hut over there for him. He then placed a circle of stones around his new dwelling, the circle being about five paces across from side to side. And sure enough, after nightfall and when the moon came out, he walked around the inside of his ring and he prayed a strange song like a lamentation. Otherwise, Amok was a normal man in most every respect, very wise and learned and well-traveled, and a good speaker of our tongue. He quickly attracted a following of our younger men, who trailed behind him as he walked along the beaches and he spoke of his Alienork ways, and as well he taught them the Alienork tongue.

Now, our prior visitor and long-time guest Napok was very upset by the introduction of the Alienork elder into our midst, and he came to me when I was alone at the lower fishing pool. He warned me not to trust Amok. He told me that everything that Amok said was a lie. It was very disturbing to me that Napok was acting crazy and paranoid again, and I considered whether I should notify the Council of the Wise about the degrading condition of his mind. But on the other side, I had to admit that at least Napok had been correct about the ring of stones, and the moon singing. And the black robe. And the sword.

After a moon had passed, one morning when the village arose, we could see that there were now three huts where there had been only one hut for Amok, and the ring of stones was now about twenty paces across. A few of us villagers walked over out of curiosity, and we saw that Amok was now joined by two young men and a boy almost a man. Each of them wore a black robe, each with a sword longer than Amok’s in their red sash. I said to Amok, Grandfather, who are these people? And Amok said they are my nephews. They have escaped from Far Plenty, where there is currently much war and hunger. They need to have a new place to live in peace and safety. Do you see, Naku, that we have already erected more huts, so these newcomers will be no trouble at all? And Amok reminded us that the Second Law of Plenty demanded that we must extend our full bounty to these needy newcomers, and that they were very hungry after their long and difficult travels.

We began to walk over to inspect the new huts, to see how they were built in the Alienork method, but when our feet touched the ring of stones, the three new Alienork men became filled with sudden anger, and began to pick up other stones, and threw them at us! It even seemed as if they were aiming at us, intending to cause us actual pain and harm! We all retreated back into the trees. Finally, Amok came out of the circle of stones, his arms extended in apology. The new boys had seen much war and privation. They were a little jumpy. But, he said, we must understand that it is a part of The Alienork Way that we people of the Island of Plenty, whom Amok said the Alienorks call Notorks, should never, under any circumstance, ever enter inside of the circles of stones without a direct invitation. He said this in a pleasant way, but he made it very clear to us that there would be serious trouble if any Notorks intruded within the sacred Alienork stone rings uninvited.

On the other hand, Amok’s three nephews would walk freely through our village and our market, and even down by our pools for fishing and our pools for swimming, and when they walked among us, they spoke in their Alienork tongue in ways that suggested that they were insulting us. They also clucked their cheeks and wiggled their extended tongues at our women and girls in a quite disgusting manner. Some of our Near Plenty men became angry, and threatened the Alienork youths with violence if they did not stop their bad behavior, but the three drew their swords in a menacing manner at the approaching group of Near Plenty men, and both sides withdrew cautiously, the Alienorks throwing presumed curses and insults at our men in their tongue as they departed.

The Council met again, and I volunteered to speak to Amok about their bad behavior. I went to their circle of stones and called to him, and he came out to the ring. Opening his arms widely in welcome, he stated that I was bid to come inside as a special and valued guest and dear friend of a considerable time now. We walked into his hut, and that was the first time that I saw that there were not only the three new male Alienorks, but also about a hand of females, and that was only counting the females in Amok’s hut! These new females had never been seen outside of any hut, and not only that, but each one of them was squatting on the ground, completely covered by a black blanket extending to the ground! I only knew they were females by low keening wails that they made as they rocked front to back.

I exclaimed to Amok, what is the matter with your women, are they sick with a disease? I recoiled in alarm. Amok gently took my arm and led me to them. No, he said, they are not sick, but it is The Alienork Way that our women should stay inside our huts, and must always be covered in a black blanket when Notork men are near. Just as Notorks must never cross the sacred circle of stones without an invitation, Notorks must never see the uncovered Alienork women. This is The Alienork Way, he said.

Amok reminded me of our First Law about freedom of beliefs, and said that these beliefs are all part of The Alienork Way, and so they must be respected. I pondered this, and looked at the crouching women under their black blankets. I asked of Amok, said I, Elder, what of the freedom of belief of these women? Do they too agree with The Alienork Way? Amok crossed the small room, spoke sharply in the Alienork tongue, and nudged one of the women with his foot. All of the women in unison began to sing a strange high-pitched La-la-la-la-la song, until Amok nudged the nearest again, and they all stopped as one. You see, said Amok, this is how our women express that they are very happy. They prefer to live under their black blankets, inside of our huts, where they can feel safe from any harm. It is The Alienork Way, and you must respect our beliefs. I know, I agreed. It was our First Law again. All beliefs are equal.

I then said to Amok, your young men are causing great difficulties in the village and the market and at the pools. They are upsetting our women and they are angering our men. A big fight almost happened today, and it could have lead to the unimaginable: actual physical violence. Physical violence, which is the demon’s burning hell compared to the heaven of the Island of Plenty. Physical violence, which is the opposite and the antithesis of the Two Sacred Laws of Plenty.

Amok agreed with me that it was a most lamentable situation. But it was The Alienork Way that if Alienork men are around any women who are not covered by a black blanket, then the Alienork men may make such use of the women as they should so desire at that moment. This is a very important part of The Alienork Way, declared Amok with finality. If the Notork women and girls do not wish to experience the overtures of our healthy and strong young Alienork men, who are acting only according to nature, then they must indicate this feeling by wearing the black blanket, and by staying inside of the huts of their men.

I said to Amok that this is certain to cause a lot of problems, and that I am only a spokesman, and that the Council of the Wise will never agree to this. We decided to meet again, after the next meeting of the Council. Amok escorted me to the circle of rings, and wished me well. The Council met several times more, but no decision could be made. Napok also sought me out, and warned me in the strongest terms not to make any agreement with Amok, but to drive the Alienorks out of the middle valley of Near Plenty while we still could. He said that the Alienorks always lie, and that The Alienork Way is not peaceful, but the path of war and violence and slavery and death and conquest. I was beginning to suspect that Napok had been more right than wrong about the Alienorks, back when he first came to live with us with his wife and daughter. Indeed, our situation had changed much for the worse since the appearance of Amok.

In that time before the final decision of the Council, and on the first morning after the new sliver moon makes its brief appearance at nightfall, I went over to meet Amok, to ask a point of clarification for another member of the council. I also wanted to ask him if he was indeed telling me the truth when he had told me that The Alienork Way means peace. He met me at the edge of the circle of stones, but he did not invite me across it. I was astounded to see that the circle had been enlarged to at least one hundred paces across, and there were now more than two hands of huts, and many more men and older boys, all of them with swords in their sashes! Not only that, but I recognized two young Notork men among them, men who were now wearing the black robes, the red sashes, and the sharp metal swords of the Alienorks!

A crowd of these young men sauntered up behind Amok, and began saying words in the Alienork tongue that made me feel very much afraid for my safety. Some half-pulled their swords from their sashes, and others made the gesture of slitting their throats with a drawn finger, then pointing their fingers at me. One of the boys cried out, Notork — monkey-dung! These were the first words in our tongue that I had heard spoken by any of the Alienorks except for their elder, Amok. Obviously, Amok or one of the Notork men now dressed in the Alienork manner had taught them the insulting words. The other boys took up the chant: Notork — monkey-dung! Notork — monkey-dung! Notork — monkey-dung!

I was in a state of bewilderment and turmoil, and I forgot the questions that I had come to ask of Amok. He said that now, because there were many more Alienorks who had escaped from the wars and hunger in Far Plenty, they had need of many more huts, and their circle of stones now extended even into our village, and inside their sacred circle of stones, our own villagers must vacate their huts, or take them off, but either way, there must not be even one single Notork living within the circle of stones before the sun went down!

I said, Uncle, Elder, how can this be? You yourself said that The Alienork Way is the way of peace! Amok said to me that if we obeyed The Alienork Way, we would be able to live in peace. I said that our people did not want to live in The Alienork Way, that our people preferred to wear the cool and convenient wraparound pareo which dried quickly, and our women did not want to wear the black blankets and stay inside their huts. He said, then we will not have peace. Only if the Notorks comply with The Alienork Way, can there be peace. We Notorks must also live according to The Alienork Way, there is no choice in the matter. That is what Amok said.

Then I was burning with angry rage, but the newly-arrived Alienork men behind Amok were half drawing their swords, so I had to keep a calm face. From behind them the boys began to pelt me with pebbles and small stones, and they all chanted Notork — monkey-dung! at me, but I did not run away, instead I walked as normally as I could back to our village, pebbles striking my back and even my head, while inside my heart was filled with terror. Indeed, as Amok stated, their circle of stones now included the Alienork side of our very own village, snaking its way around a hand of our huts!

Napok came to see me urgently. He said that I must assemble all of our men and somehow produce or create or invent new weapons. We had no metal for swords, only sharpened bamboo stakes could be made quickly enough, but he said that we should nonetheless make them, and prepare to violently battle the Alienorks now, no matter the cost! What a shocking thing to say! Napok was clearly losing his mind again, due to the sudden stress of dealing with increasing numbers of our new Alienork visitors.

I immediately took the issue to the Council of the Wise. After much discussion, it was decided that the Alienorks could retain the newly enlarged circle for their own territory, but that they must not enlarge it again, not by even one more pace, ever! And I was to encourage the Alienork men, by way of Amok, not to harass our women anymore, and in return, our women would wear a doubled pareo, high to the neck and down to their knees. (Our women very strongly did not want to stay in their huts under black blankets.) The Council of the Wise decided that we would meet The Alienork Way in the middle, and make a compromise. And that we would not sharpen any bamboo spears, because if the Alienorks found out, this provocation would only cause them even further anger.

After nightfall, all of the Alienork men did their wildest moon dancing yet, twirling and whirling and howling like demons. This lasted most of the night, until the moon fell near morning. Some of the villagers nearest the circle of stones, who had gone over to watch, reported that the Alienorks threw large rocks at them, and indicated that Notorks must never witness the moon dance, but rather that we Notorks must stay inside our huts during their moon dancing times. This was also part of The Alienork Way. The witnesses of their moon dance were told this in our own tongue, by our own Island of Plenty men, the ones who had followed Amok, and who had joined the Alienorks. Of course, under the First Law, this was their belief, and their choice, and had to be respected.

The next morning we arose in the village at the normal time, even if our sleep had been disturbed during most of the night by the wild dancing and howling of the Alienork men and the shrill Lalalala-ing of the Alienork women. But after dawn when the normal morning noises of village life began, we all at once heard angry Alienork shouting, and rocks began raining down on our village! Our many visitors cried out that we must not disturb the sacred sleep of the Alienorks, after their long night spent performing their sacred moon rituals! It was The Alienork Way, and under the First Law, we had to respect their beliefs! And under the Second Law, we had to extend them full bounty, and since they now had many new Alienorks among them who had fled the wars and hunger in Far Plenty, we needed to bring double the amount of fruit and vegetables and fish that we had been bringing. And while the boys chanted out Notork — monkey-dung! the older men shouted that we must continue to obey our two laws of belief and bounty, and nothing further would be said on the matter!

I made my way nearly to the edge of their ring where it was close to some trees, calling out, Amok, tell them to please stop throwing the rocks! This is not right! We are sorry for waking you up, it is a misunderstanding! In a moment the rocks ceased raining down. While I was there, Napok accosted me from a bit further back in the trees, beseeching me, begging me, to assemble the men, sharpen many bamboo spears, and prepare to fight them all, no matter what the cost!

So back to the reassembled Council of the Wise I went. We met very quietly, whispering and tip-toeing from hut to hut and over to the bluff by the sea. The extra fruit and vegetables would be no problem, but double the fish would be more difficult to acquire in a short time. It was decided that just in case, in secret, a separate group of men should be set to making and hiding spears from sharpened bamboo poles, as Napok had been suggesting. As the sun went down, we all feared the events of the coming night with increasing dread and terror.

The wild moon howling of the Alienork men and the Lalalala-ing of their women set our hearts to thumping. Napok came to my hut, terrified and furious at the same time. He said that it had been reported that his daughter Nona had been taken and carried off, screaming, by two hands of Alienork men, while simply walking from the upper pool to the market. He said that we must prepare to attack the sleeping Alienorks the next morning soon after dawn. We could slip inside their ring of stones and kill many of them with our spears even while they slept. Then we could seize their swords and have a hope to win the battle and wipe them all out. And then he could find his daughter, and bring her home.

I told Napok that I would meet the Council very early the next morning, but a dawn attack was impossible. It was not a decision I could take on my own part. I said that I was very sorry about his missing daughter, but nothing could be done about finding her, not while the Alienorks were in their wild moon-dance frenzy. When the moon finally set, the Alienorks fell silent. The next morning when I awoke, rising very quietly as the Alienorks demanded, I went outside to the center of the village to draw a gourd of water, and I almost fainted. The headless and naked body of Napok was erected in a sitting position against our ceremonial platform, legs out. His bloody head was placed on the ground between his bare legs, facing me!

When the people of the village, and soon all the people of Near Plenty heard of this unbelievable atrocity, and saw the body of Napok which we quickly covered, the Council met at the bluff in front of the entire gathered population. It was difficult to keep the discussion at a quiet level, so as not to awaken the now-sleeping Alienorks. It was decided that when they awoke, I must go to Amok to discuss this atrocity, and what it would mean for our two peoples. I was shaking in fear, waiting at the edge of their enlarged circle of stones for them to awaken at their normal hour in the late afternoon, but it was my duty.

Amok saw me and came to the edge of the circle of stones, standing on the inside across them from me. Perhaps he saw the fear in my face, but now he spoke in haughty disregard. He said to me I don’t think we will have any more problems, because now we Notorks all understood The Alienork Way. Our Notork women must wear the black blankets and stay in their huts, and our Notork men must stop and bend low and look down at the earth when an Alienork man passes by. A Notork must never strike an Alienork, even if an Alienork man or a group of Alienork men are enjoying an hour or two of pleasure with a Notork girl or boy or woman. And if any Notork man ever strikes any Alienork, for any reason at all, a hand of Notork girls will be taken, and a hand of Notork men will be beheaded in the manner of Napok. And there must be no more talk of sharpened spears, as a spy from within the very Council had already reported to Amok before Napok had been killed.

I was shaking in fear and disbelief, but still I asked him if he had been lying to me when he first came into our valley, and told me that The Alienork Way is the way of peace. He said it was not a lie, because a lie only had meaning between Alienork men. To lie to Notorks about The Alienork Way was also a part of The Alienork Way, and thus, it was not a lie at all, but an even greater form of truth.

I suddenly remembered pretty Nona, the daughter of Napok, and asked after her. Amok said that she had joined the Alienorks, and therefore, I was not allowed to see her or to speak to her ever again. The men and the boys did not awaken this time with Amok, to draw their swords or throw pebbles at me or curse me as a Notork monkey-dung. Amok said that it was a very good thing that we Notorks had finally learned The Alienork Way, and that he was finally hopeful that our two peoples could now live side-by-side in peace. He also mentioned that we needed to provide them with much more food to keep up with their growing numbers, especially fish, in accordance with our Second Law of Bounty, which would be retained in full effect.

Instead of gathering the Council to report Amok’s new demands, I took my wife and my two small sons to the beach behind the higher rocky point, where we kept our village sailing canoes, because they were protected there from the waves. They are the boats that we used for fishing on the deep waters, and also for going out to meet the occasional even larger boats visiting Near Plenty from far away. We took gourds of water and baskets of food, and we set out downwind. After sailing two hands of days, we came to this island, your island, Happy Island as you so truthfully call it. And as you have seen, my two sons were in a condition near death when we arrived, and my wife has not spoken a word for a hand of days even before we landed.

I am happy that our tongues are not so different, and also that you are very kind and generous people here. And now I am asking your people, your Council of the Wise, your Assembly of Elders of Happy Island, if my family can please stay here, to live in peace, while my sons grow stronger, and my wife returns to her mind. When my sons grow to be young men, I will teach them to be warriors, and someday we will go together back to the Island of Plenty, to fight against the invading Alienorks, if that becomes possible.

But in the meantime, I am also before you to warn you, in the direst terms, that you must not, under any circumstances, never, ever, allow even a single Alienork to place his feet upon your beautiful Happy Island. For if even one single Alienork comes to your island as a visitor, and is allowed to have a hut within a circle of stones, and to dance and to howl to the moon, and to carry a sword about him on a sash, with each passing moon there will be more Alienorks upon your island, and they will badly mistreat your women and your girls, and they will force you to submit to The Alienork Way, and to serve them, even though you are not Alienorks like them.

Thank you for your consideration. Now, I will retire to the hut you have kindly provided to my family, to await your decisions.

Happy Island

The next day, the decision was announced by the Assembly of Elders after much discussion and reflection. The visitor Naku had stated that he had come from a place called the Island of Plenty, and he had then proceeded to spin a most bizarre, terrifying and even disgusting tale about a group of people called the Alienorks, whom he said behaved more like demons from hell than like any of the people who inhabited Happy Island. All of the members of the Assembly of Elders agreed, unanimously, that the Alienorks could not possibly exist, except as a twisted and damaged part of the visitor Naku’s mind, probably due to the privations of the long and difficult sea voyage he had endured to reach Happy Island.

Therefore, it was decided that Naku could remain in our village, but only if he obeyed the One Law of Happy Island, that only happy thoughts and ideas may be expressed in public. He must refrain from blurting his darkly provocative and frankly insane imaginings among our good people, lest he upset the successful formulation for maintaining social peace that had been learned over many generations, ever since the last wars among our distant ancestors.

It turned out that Naku knew a very useful way to make foot coverings from bark and vines, much better for walking on the sharp rocky shore than our old coverings of dried sea kelp. He soon became a very useful member of our Happy Island society, except for a few dark asides randomly whispered about his imagined demons, the Alienorks. His frail wife passed away. His sons grew quickly, running and swimming with the other youth of our valley, popular among the boys and the girls alike. And everybody was glad for the better foot coverings that Naku taught us to make for ourselves. Otherwise, life went on as it always had.

Until, that is, the day that a small sailing canoe came into view, with a single man steering it. He was an older man with white hair and a white beard, it became apparent as his boat drew closer. His sail had been spotted near the horizon, so the Assembly of Elders was able to go down to the beach to greet him, even before his canoe touched the sand. The old man on the boat did not look much different than the gathered elders of Happy Island, except for his white hair and beard, and the unusual black robe that he wore. As he stepped ashore from his beached canoe he was smiling, his arms and hands open in a symbol of peace that invited a warm welcome.

But then suddenly from behind I was roughly shoved aside, knocking me to the sand, as Naku, our off-island guest of many years, dashed at full running speed toward the old man while screaming Amok! Amok! Amok! And as we all watched in complete horror, Naku plunged a sharpened bamboo spear straight into the heart of the visitor, driving him back over into his sailing canoe! Naku, still in a mad frenzy, screaming about Amok and the Alienorks, pushed the canoe back through the small waves, turned it around, jumped aboard and filled the sail, trimming it flat and sailing around the second rocky point and out of our view. We were in such a state of shock that almost none of us dared to speak of the matter. There was not a single happy way to describe the terrible incident, so we did not, in accordance with our One Law of Happy Island.

A few days later, Naku returned to our village afoot, and he was soon pulled and pushed by several of our strongest men before the quickly gathered Assembly of Elders. Naku freely admitted that he had killed the old man, and that he was glad that he had done it, and that he would do it again if another Alienork ever appeared on our shores. He said that only by his swift action had he saved us from a great disaster, a true calamity for the good people of Happy Island, and he begged us to believe that every single word that he had ever spoken of the Alienorks was true. He was even so bold as to suggest that we should actually reward him for his unprovoked and insane brutal murder of a single, harmless, elderly visitor!

Our worst punishment was banishment from our valley on Happy Island. The Assembly of Elders decided that Naku must depart and climb the sharp ridges to the next valley, and then go quickly on to the next, and the next after, and that he should not tell any people that he met along the way anything about his paranoid and dangerous so-called “Alienork Way” conspiracy theories, which, after all, only existed in his severely damaged mind.

— Matt Bracken, January, 2016

This allegory was published earlier at WRSA in a slightly different form.

Matthew Bracken was born in Baltimore, Maryland in 1957, and attended the University of Virginia, where he received a BA in Russian Studies and was commissioned as a naval officer in 1979. Later in that year he graduated from Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL training, and in 1983 he led a Naval Special Warfare detachment to Beirut, Lebanon. Since then he’s been a welder, boat builder, charter captain, ocean sailor, essayist and novelist. He lives in Florida. Links to his short stories and essays may be found at EnemiesForeignAndDomestic.com.

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54 thoughts on “The Alienork Way

    • l think its a story that is repeating again here in England we need to do something l hope its not to late .

      • Guns are low tech, make some.

        Cross bows are even lower tech and arrows are even easier to make. MAKE SOME.

        Stop whining and start fighting.

  1. Thank you, Mr. Bracken. I appreciate your writing very much.

    The story is superb. It takes talent to write an allegory that adds something valuable rather than simply mirror the original reality. Especially when that reality already has such a high profile to begin with, in the readers’ minds.

    I wish the real-life equivalents of Naku could be counted on to draw the same conclusions from their own experience.

    It seems to me that one of the greatest, and least discussed, current threats to freedom is the outflow of defeated indigenous population from Marxist hells like Sweden into less-compromised Western societies.
    (By “Marxist hells” I mean specifically those diseased European nations where Marxism is the true, natural expression, and perhaps inevitable end-game, of the national character. In the Eastern Bloc it was imposed by force and has been more or less at odds with the local culture).

    In real life, a Naku would be much more likely to recreate, rather than prevent, the social disease that allows the Alienorks to make inroads into that community. This is the truly scary part in the allegory: to think how THAT would’ve turned out in reality.

    Freedom fighters everywhere should give some serious thought to this problem: how to deal with seemingly like-minded newcomers who have fled diseased European societies overrun by IsLeft and are asking for shelter. It could prove to be an uncanny replica of the way Third Worlders recreate their hellholes of origin in the midst of the Western societies they have escaped to.

    • A lot to ponder there. Herd patterns and migration flow directions are not always possible to discern in advance. The best laid plans etc. I would say it pays to live somewhere that is “first world” but off the beaten track of possible mass migrations. Chile and not Norway.

      That is one of the aspects of ocean sailing. It is sort of a mobile meritocracy of those who can do it. Each crew has to be able to trouble shoot a diesel, install a radar, set sails in all conditions, etc etc so they are pretty much fit in brain and body to a certain degree. If it was simple or easy, everybody could do it, and more would. Sailors go where they want to go, they don’t have to get a scan and go through the human corrals at the airport as their only possible way to cross an ocean.

      It’s really what always attracted me. The ability to say, as the old sailing cliché goes, “FUJIMO,” F-you Jack, I’m moving out. No matter what, if you are not mobile, they might drop a few airbus loads of “Syrian refugees” on your town in middle America, and say, “Here ya go, your own bumper crop of cobras and mambas, and they need to be in school next Monday with your kids.”

      Nope, I have a strong yearning to be mobile. Almost anyplace permanent might find itself in front of a migrant tsunami, even if it’s your own govt sending a convoy of buses to your local high school to drop the next hundred Tsarnaev Brothers off.

      Frankly, I don’t see the Notorks winning this one. You can’t beat something with nothing. Even a bad value system beats a no value system like nihilist Europe. Voluntary human extinction, once the ladies are only making 1.5 per. Just a matter of who is replacing you, after that. And if your values survive, even if your tribe is gone.

      I’d say Europe is Eurabia in ten years or less. Nobody will fight, everybody runs. Too many run, at least. Hell, I got a sailboat, right? But the Alienorks just keep coming, like cockroaches. How can the trend be turned back now? Raspail was dead right, we won’t fight.

      New year’s eve was only the warmup pep rally and syncing of wireless nets. The boys were just having fun and blowing off a little steam and shooting off some fireworks. Just wait until they start handing out the AK-47s and the TATP vests. 2016 is going to change everything.

      • Quite so, I’m afraid.

        Cologne (and the rest of those attacks) were only a small step away from Tet, Take Two. The symbolic meaning of closing 2015 and opening 2016 with such an act can’t be overlooked.

        By the way, I wish Raspail would have written Camp of the Saints as a short, matter-of-fact narration without those endless ramblings (I know, it’s a French problem). It would’ve helped immensely in making the book stand out as a stark warning; such verbosity inevitably neutralizes any urgency the content may have.
        I had to do my own “editing” by skipping about 80% of the book and focusing on the actual events – which are pure horror and reality merged into one.

        • Yes, Raspail’s writing style was not going to make it a blockbuster mass audience hit. I switched from novels to short stuff about three years ago, they just take too long. Since then I’ve been writing essays and short stories like “Alas, Brave New Babylon” and “The Alienork Way,” trying to push them out gratis to a wide audience, but today, just plain readers are becoming rare, and it’s an aging demographic. I wish I could get Alienork onto YouTube, maybe as a narration, since the story is told in that form anyway. Maybe I’ll do it myself. FWIW. We all do what we can, but the Orks are winning, and the Notorks still don’t even know what Alienork means. We are still building extra huts and bringing extra food to them, and excusing their rapes.

          • Yes, at this point efforts should probably be spent on the few who still stand a chance. The majority isn’t going to wake up in time.

            A YouTube version of Alienork sounds like a great idea. I can imagine it as narration + still frames with changing drawings, like those old storytellers who would show you hand-drawn pictures as they went along. It’s far less costly to produce than any form of animation, and it’s just right for narration-style stories.

            Even a well-made audio narration, as a simple MP3 for listening, could be quite effective. Sometimes, slowly unfolding horror stories are even scarier without the visuals.

        • Another prescient novel describing the things we are witnessing is Guy Thorne’s When It Was Dark: The Story Of A Great Conspiracy.

          The theme was one that Freud cited in his work on Group Psychology. The novel tells the story of a hoax where the body of Jesus Christ is found at an archaeological cite, having been buried by Joseph of Arimathea.

          With the revelation the resurrection of Christ was a lie, all of Christianity collapses. Civilization breaks down – and the Islamic Hordes pour into Europe. In the novel just as it is at its bleakest – the hoax is revealed and the day is saved.

          The connotation being, the assault on Christianity for 70+ years now has rendered Europe much like it was depicted by Guy Thorne after the launching of the Great Conspiracy.

          In the face of a virulent enemy driven by spiritual malignancy and belief in a supernatural sanction, European faith in themselves, their history and their belief in God is at a nadir.

      • Much of Europe must have thought the same thing in 1683, especially the last stand fortifying inside Vienna. Much can change very quickly. The European mind can do astonishing things when it is inspired.

        In the darkest days of WWII, it looked like the Nazis would rule for a thousand years. They didn’t.

        The hope lies in the the uncivilized and derided cultures in Europe. The Sicilians, Albanians etc. A thousand years of Islamic intrusions altered their societies to be at the ready to spill blood at the drop of a hat. It is in their DNA to repel these hordes.

        Something will break soon. It will get bloody and ugly one way or another.

  2. Wonderful, vivid story driving the point home. But folks…

    “The First Law of Plenty is that anybody can believe anything that they want to believe, or not believe anything they don’t want to believe, and that is okay, because all ideas are equal on the Island of Plenty. The Second Law of Plenty is that if you give kindness and plenty to other people, they should always give kindness and plenty to you in return. After all, it is the Island of Plenty, and the bounty should be shared.”

    Living by these laws would have prevented Naku and his people provided they recognized that while all ideas are equal (in the sense it does not make sense to fight over them), not all behavior is equal, in fact, quite the opposite.

    What you have before you is a society who lost its sense of healthy boundaries, and therefore, is easily preyed upon by predators. If the elder said to Amok, we extend peace to you and therefore you must extend peace to us, there would be no sword wearing. When the nephews came and attacked the people of the village, defending their land grab, there would be immediate eviction. And it would be according to their Second Law, that when you extend kindness and plenty to others, they in turn extend plenty and kindness to you. When they plainly don’t, they must go. Basta.

    • Your point is valid but this story well mimics Western society.
      Our laws do guarantee peace.
      Our laws are not however enforced on certain foreign groups.
      Our ways of dealing with each other are set aside in favour of the ways of the newcomers.
      When a young British man will throw acid into the face of a young British woman because she wanted to leave her much older moslem boyfriend/abuser (who got the young man to do the deed) then you know Western society has ceased to exist in certain places.
      There are huge safeguards for children today, yet atrocities like Rotherham occur because those safeguards are ignored if a foreign group is involved.
      Better to have countless thousands of young girls and women become victims than admit that nationalists might have a point.

      • Totally. If only the tribe enforced its two laws, they would have been ok. Same with us. So that brings up the question, why isn’t our social immune system working?

      • I take umbrage with your “a young British man….”
        NO young British man would do such a thing!

        I’ve been saying for the last 20 years to anyone who would listen:
        muslims living in the west are just that–‘muslims living in the west’, and as their Koran tells them indirectly, they are NEVER British, Swedes, Canadians etc..

        If our so-called leaders would just understand that and all the side issues with islam, we wouldn’t be in the mess we find ourselves in now.

        • Peter35,

          They’re molsems, not muslims:

          “According to the Center for Nonproliferation Studies, “Moslem and Muslim are basically the same word.” But the choice of spellings is a sensitive subject for many followers of Islam. Whereas for most English speakers, the two words are synonymous in meaning, the Arabic roots of the two words are very different. A Muslim in Arabic means”one who gives himself to God,” and is by definition, someone who adheres to Islam. By contrast, a Moslem in Arabic means”one who is evil and unjust” when the word is pronounced, as it is in English, Mozlem with a z.)”

          I ALWAYS refer to any islamist/follower of mo-hamm-head as a moslem; to call them a “muslim” gives them and their putrid criminal fake prophet and totalitarian death cult an aura of legitimacy that neither deserve!!!

          Other than that you’re spot on; moslems will always be moslems, and never British, Swedes, Canadians or anything else that’s free and independent of islam.

          Yours In islam free Liberty in America!
          Northgunner from Arizona

          • Great lesson, I was unaware. Moslems it shall be. I also like Mohamedens (various random spellings) and Turks and Moors and when I’m feeling funny, Koranimals. And of course, Alien Orks. The uniformed people of Near Plenty had no idea what it meant, or what hit them. Or just Orks. Which is what they are, in human disguise.

          • So that’s why a certain world leader raised outside the US always pronounces it with an s. I had wondered.

          • I agree. Where I grew up in the ’50s, in a 3rd world country about 45% moslem, they were known as mohammedans – followers of mohamed. The religion was mohammedanism. Later they were known as moslems. Much later, by co-opting language, they became islam and muslim. I still use ‘moslem.’

    • The users always beat the naïve law abiding ninnies. The first law? That means you must agree to all of our beliefs, even if you find them repugnant. Witness Europe. The second law? You must share all we need with us NOW, and we promise to return the favor much LATER, (after we have instituted full Alienork Way rules, and our feet are on your necks.)

      A heathy society would never have let Amok lead local boys astray. Witness America and Europe, welcoming radical preachers to poison minds in a thousand mosques.

      It’s almost lemming-like. Running for the cliff. The Last of the Mohicans, hanging himself.

    • “Living by these laws would have prevented Naku and his people provided they recognized that while all ideas are equal (in the sense it does not make sense to fight over them), not all behavior is equal, in fact, quite the opposite.”

      This is a typical fractionalist philosophy that doesn’t make the connection between ideas and behavior.

      Ideas lead to beliefs which direct behavior. Actions don’t exist in isolation, disconnected from beliefs. Beliefs determine actions, so it makes no sense to say that “ideas” are equal but actions are not. These things aren’t disconnected and isolated from one another.

      Another way of saying it is that the beliefs are the software that drive actions. It would be ridiculous to say that destructive computer behavior was bad but the software is perfectly good and nobody should “fight over” fixing the software or preventing bugs in the first place.

      • Yes, that’s right. And when a belief systems defaults to no belief, namely, the idea that all beliefs are equal, then it gives up its ability or will (same thing in the end) to even defend itself. The victim is no better than the mugger, and gladly hands over his wallet and then his wife, and agrees to hang himself out of guilt for long-past transgressions committed by his dead great grandfather.

        That is Europe, on suicide watch. Brought to you by the Frankfurt/Fabian/Gramsian Cultural Marxist traitors. That’s where I start “Tet, Take Two,” FWIW.

      • “This is a typical fractionalist philosophy that doesn’t make the connection between ideas and behavior.”

        Of course there is a connection. The point I am making is that the connection varies from person to person. One person takes “Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live” as a reason to kill uppity women, and another person does not. It seems to me that the Peace of Westphalia was about the realization, at long last, that fighting about beliefs was self-destructive, and laid the foundation of the Enlightenment. What happens if you toss it out? Whom are you *really* joining if you toss it out?!

        By their *fruits* ye shall know them.

  3. I know this story. We’re halfway through it. The main problem is the Council of The Wise. In Britain it’s currently known as David Cameron and his bunch of appeasing apologists. And it’s in thrall to the Alienoks of Saudi Arabia.

    • And what is there chief demand? Bring in more Alienorks. You don’t have to be Einstein to see how this movie ends. The Orks eat the last Notorks on the continent, and move to Used To Be Happy Island, Blighty.

    • Look around you, it is happening all over the western world and why?
      Because there are so many utterly guileless, naïve people in western society, who absolutely refuse to see anything negative in the ‘culture’ of the Alienorks/muslims and even go so far as to defend the invaders, as most western leaders and so-called ‘elites’do.
      While many will disagree, a large part of this guileless naivete is directly attributable to religion–unfortunately.

  4. Reads like Mr. Bracken is firmly on board the Trump train.

    If not, he should be. He’d be a welcome addition.

    • The Trump Train? Our choices are a parody of a satire. Hillary vs Trump, America gets what it deserves either way. History repeating as farce, then comes the tragedy. Batten down the hatches. No matter who wears the CINC hat next year, it’s going to be a train wreck. 2016 gives me the mojo of aspects of 1914, 17, 29, 39, 45, 63, 68, 2001. I’ve never been as nervous about a coming year, ever. That’s why I wrote Tet, Take Two. Time to warn people. I truly hope I’m wrong, and Europe is great next year, and everybody is laughing at what I wrote. That is my sincerest hope. Trump train? Over the same railroad bridge that’s about to be demo’d as the Hillary train or the Bernie train or the Cruz train. A better or worse POTUS is not going to pull some magic switch and pull our train over in safety. Not this time. This year everything changes. I hope I’m wrong.

      • There are limits to what anyone could do as president even if they had the most optimal goals and beliefs, but some choices are clearly much worse than others when it comes to president.

      • You connected everything I had been thinking and observing perfectly. Crystalizing the undercurrents and doing the wisest thought exercise I learned in college: when something doesn’t make sense, find out who benefits and then it will all make sense. Summing up the end game in your essay Tet, Take Two, you made me see who thinks they will be benefitting in the end – now it all makes sense.

        I understood the twin Axis of Marxism and Islam as the enemy aligned against us, but couldn’t see how it was to be used to benefit our “elite” until I read your final paragraph. It is the ultimate in deductive reasoning that you put forth something that makes so much sense that it is Occam’s Razor personified.

        I continue to share the links to your essay wherever I can.

  5. Matt, once again you’ve written a masterful piece that all should read, and heed it’s lesson.
    Will be sure to pass along this word to the wise, and especially those less so.

    • Not for many years, but thanks. Actually, when I read it now, I hear Dennis Prager narrating it. I was channeling some DP in the days leading to my writing it in a one-day binge. It was just like dictation. All I did was blink up an allegorical location and microcosm. All of the basic concepts are straight Prager. Any listener of Prager will know what I mean, point by point.

    • That sounds fascinating, thanks for the link.
      Check this out:
      The Maori and Chatham Islanders

      On Chatham Island (pronounced CHAT-ham), 800 kilometers east of New Zealand, lived the Moriori, who were related to the Maori. They were hunters and gatherers, sparse in population and, perhaps because they were few in number and isolated they were unpracticed at warfare. In late 1835 about 900 Maori from New Zealand landed on Chatham Island. The Maori were armed with guns, clubs and axes. They announced to the Moriori that they were their slaves. Moriori chiefs conferred with each other and drew from their religious heritage. They offered the Maori friendship and a share of the island’s resources. The attempt to appease the Maori failed. The Maori began killing the Moriori, including women and children. The Maori put people in pens and feasted on the tender meat of Moriori children. A Maori conqueror described it:

      We took possession …in accordance with our customs and we caught all the people. Not one escaped. Some ran away from us. These we killed, and others we killed – but what of that? It was in accordance with our custom.
      http://www.fsmitha.com/h3/h43-pa4.htm

      • I researched the Moriori in depth, and it’s all true. Like in the story of the Alienorks, they held a council into the night. Their young men wanted to attack the Maori, after the Maori beat them with sticks and threatened them. But the most respected elder ruled against them. Being peaceful was their way. The council of the wise decided to offer them a part of the island, after all, land was plentiful, and so was food, as the Moriori were excellent stewards of the island. In the morning, a massacre ensued.

        There was also the part where betrayal comes in. The Maori were able to charter an English ship to deliver them to the Chatham Island in force. Many whites objected, to no avail.

        • This doesn’t explain why the Chatham Islanders of today are Morioris–not Maori.
          They look different and their art is different.

          Over 50 years ago I worked on the Benmore hydro dam in the South Island of NZ and my next door neighbour’s wife was a descendant of Morioris–and very proud of it.

          • Some of them survived as slaves to the Maori. And there may have been a few on Chatham that escaped… I saw pics of some people who continued to live there, albeit somewhat westernized. The Kiwis put out a very nice book about the whole conflict. Moriori: a people rediscovered.

  6. Great story, I just wish that’s all it was. I’m never sure if my seeing the West as naive fools is a flaw within the Anglosphere’s people or a character flaw in me. No matter how long I dwell on it I still come to the conclusion that the m[oslems] are out to force us to submit to their insane cult.
    Anyway good work and I’ve past it on to other sites I visit.

  7. This tale needs to be translated into all European languages and spread, as many people can’t read English. Thank you.

  8. There is arguably a movie version of this story – Man Friday. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0074849/ Though a little more barbed and directed more at the western ‘civilizers’ of ‘primitives’, and you could argue that the native americans saw us in pretty much the same way. (not that i’m taking side of an anti-western view or trying to diminish the points of the author, just interested in how cultural conflicts are portrayed in general)

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