Why’s it called HPANWO?

I’ve had an interesting letter from a regular HPANWO-reader whom I also know from talking to him on an internet forum. He appreciates my contribution very much and reassured me that he was not being derogatory, but he asks something that many other people have over the past few years: “Why have you set up a group called ‘Hospital Porters Against the New World Order’?” People make the point that it’s not really a group at all, it’s just a name for what I do on the internet. That’s true and I’ve never pretended otherwise. My correspondent, I’ll call him “Jerry”, has been discussing this with a friend of his and they had found themselves unable to grasp why I had chosen the acronym HPANWO, partly because it’s misleading; it suggests there are a large number of hospital porters involved. In fact there’s just me, however a few of my Brother and Sister Porters at the John Radcliffe are open-minded to the subjects I discuss and I’ve been contacted by porters in other hospitals who are on my wavelength. Another problem Jerry’s friend had was that I’m “doing myself an injustice”. He put himself in the position of somebody new to the Truth movement and thought they might see the HPANWO brand as a fantasy dreamed up by somebody with “delusions of grandeur”. He fears this could be used to discredit my work, after all the media has trained the general public to react to anything to put on the laughter cue card. I replied thus (notes in parentheses are not in my letter):

Hi Jerry.

Thanks for writing; it's good to put a real name to a username.

Several people have made this comment to me, in fact Tony Topping does in my recent HPANWO Radio interview, see: http://hpanwo-radio.blogspot.co.uk/2015/03/programme-130-podcast-tony-topping.html. The origins of the name Hospital Porters Against the New World Order were inspired by a man in America called Jack McLamb who set up a group called "Police and Military Against the New World Order" (McLamb was instrumental in resolving the Ruby Ridge incident; without his negotiating skills the whole Weaver family might have been slaughtered). I thought, if the police and military can have an organization against the NWO, why can’t hospital porters? I was very proud to be a hospital porter and considered myself an essential member of a life-saving team doing one of the most important jobs in the world. There were many who resented my feelings, in the hospital and outside it (I sometimes think we’re not meant to enjoy our jobs or be proud of them. I know people who feel guilty because they like their jobs and those who feel envious of others who do. It’s as if a job, by definition, has to be something you hate doing, a punishment for some kind of inherent crime of being. See here for more details on the hospital portering situation: http://hpanwo.blogspot.co.uk/2007/12/dont-tell-em-were-porters.html). Of course my feelings were based on something that was factually correct; it is conformism alone that says hospital porters are not allowed to be proud. It's strange and disappointing that this conformism extends into the Truth movement as well. After all Gary Heseltine has an organization called PRUFOS- Police Reporting UFO Sightings, and I don't recall anybody having trouble grasping that. Nobody has ever suggested Gary is doing himself an injustice or having delusions of grandeur. For that matter, nobody ever criticized Jack McLamb for the name of his group either.

I think being in the Truth movement means standing up to all kinds of pathological authoritarianism, including psychological and cultural conformism, (I’m very much inspired by Robert Anton Wilson here, and his philosophy of discordianism) and that is one of the reasons I call HPANWO what it is; and I don't wish to change it. No matter what we do, the elite will find something to put on the laughter cue card; we saw this with the recent Channel 4 UFO programme I wrote about on the forum... a programme which I refused to have anything to do with (See here for more details: http://hpanwo-voice.blogspot.co.uk/2015/03/letters-of-complaint.html. Plum Pictures have returned The Great UFO Conspiracy to 4OD and my face is obliterated on the updated cut).

 I'm glad you appreciate my contribution, Jerry, and I hope I've explained myself to your satisfaction. Please pass on my comments to your mate and I hope he will understand too.

Kind regards

Ben