Evolutionary Tactics

In 1979, the United States Army created a top-secret New Age unit called the First Earth Battalion. It was to be a testing ground for new fighting techniques such as remote viewing, walking through walls and killing goats just by staring at them. The army's plans for a troop of Om-chanting warrior monks was never fully realized, but the spirit of the First Earth Battalion lives on today.

Journalist Jon Ronson uncovers all this and plenty more in The Men Who Stare at Goats. I just finished it, and let me tell you it's unstoppable. Unputdownable. Alternately hilarious and terrifying, the book represents the most spectacularly bizarre set of facts about the US military that I have ever encountered. Ronson manages to detour through—and elegantly link—George W. Bush's bloated Black Ops budget, the Heaven's Gate cult, Waco, Gitmo, and MK-ULTRA, the CIA's secret LSD program from the 1950s.

Key to the book's success is its wild cast of characters, including men such as Lt. Col. Jim Channon. As the Army’s resident futurist, Channon spent the late 1970s interviewing the founders of the New Age movement on the US dime. Energy healing centers. Primal arm wrestling. Chakra rubdowns. He did it all, in the name of military progress.

Channon synthesized his research into the First Earth Battalion Operations Manual. Read it for yourself here. Bask in its jaw-dropping, free form collage of charts, illustrations, occult symbols, hippie-speak and militaristic theorizing. It's also the origin of the award-winning slogan, "Be all that you can be." Talk about lasting impact...

Fast fwd, 2003: remember a story about US troops using the Barney the Dinosaur theme song as an interrorgation aid at Abu Ghraib in Iraq? Turns out it’s true. And only part of the story. Additional (unwitting) performers at GhraibStock include Kris Kristofferson, the Dixie Chicks, Celine Dion, and (perhaps most chilling) Matchbox 20.

Such bizarro psychic artillery is all part of the legacy of Channon's Battalion. In the operations manual, Channon proposed nonlethal, psychoelectronic weaponry designed to disorient and stun, rather than destroy. I personally cannot imagine a more injurious weapon of mass destruction than Rob Thomas' maudlin croon.

And that's just the proverbial tip of the iceberg. If you're a fan of quirky stuff like This American Life (which often features Ronson) or Malcom Gladwell's connect-the-dots causality trips like The Tipping Point, then The Men who Stare at Goats is your next summer read. Dare to peer into the abyss of George W. Bush's nutball administration, before the abyss peers back at you.

Comments

[the cubicle of fecund aromas]

i wonder how many associations the US military has with goats. i remember reading that okinawans during WWII referred to US soldiers as goat-eyes becuase they believed the US soldiers could only see during the day becuase they only attacked during the day. the okinawans believed that goats could only see during the day.

[Jim Channon]

I really enjoyed the way you navigated through Jon Ronson's material and with equal color revealed an aspect of the military mind not normally seen by the public. The Army of the eighties was a very inspired and creative machine. It still is. For practical reasons it cannot develop wildcard leaders who then must attend to the chaos of the war, but they are genuinely interested in as many peaceful applications as they can find. I am proud to assist in taking the bright young leaders into creative excursions such as the First Earth Battalion. Pls see my global positive vision for the year 2100 on You Tube google jim channon.
Enjoyed your crafty and exciting site. GOPLANET!