Part of my family and I spent a recent day wandering around Fairfield, MUM, and Jefferson County's trails. Seemed like a nice place - an unusually vibrant small town set in a pleasant place. And, some of the odd things we observed were wonderful - the woman being directed to a basket of Ganesh chants in the books store, the home furnishing store selling shrines, the word "roo," the occasional condensing of "Maharishi" to an affectionate "Marshy," how full Revelations was of conversing people late on a Saturday afternoon, that people had time to chat with us and didn't seem rushed, and the unique and marvelous "state championships" sign at the high school - one that lists much more than sports.
But there were some odd things that we couldn't figure out - some that we weren't sure we understood and some that seemed vaguely sinister. If anyone could spend a moment answering some of our question, we'd appreciate it. I apologize if these questions offend - if they do, it's ignorance not intention. And if we just didn't see things right, feel free to be blunt. 1. Where does the name "Invincible America" come from? It reminded us of a slogan that might be used by a neo-fascist group -- rather scary. Is it an effort to tap into the national, post-9/11 paranoia for marketing purposes? Does the name reflect that there is some nationalist splinter group? 2. Is the TM movement attracting new people at the same rate as it did in the past? We noticed that most of the people we saw were older than all of us - late 50s or 60s? In Revelations we saw a family with a couple kids and two college age kids, but everyone else seemed to be much older. On the trails, we saw a number of folks, but again, they were generally older. Vibrant and healthy but over 50. 3. We didn't see any political bumper stickers. Is that a conscious choice? 4. In Revelations, it seemed that most of the people were single. Do people move to Fairfield after their spouses die? Is there something about TM that makes more people stay single? 4. None of the women we met had short hair. We are accustomed to seeing fairly short hair on at least a few women. Similarly, we noticed no piercings or anything that might say "hippie." 5. Is there one gold dome for women and one for men? 6. Shouldn't someone paint and repair the gold domes? 7. There were signs on the door of one of the domes stressing the importance of turning up on time so security could be maintained - or something like that. Why is security in the domes such a big concern? 8. Should Vedic style houses be painted a shade of maize? The only Vedic-style house we saw that wasn't was near the trailhead east of the domes. It was kind of slate/blue. Why? 9. Do people who live out in Vedic City drive back and forth to town and MUM or do they bus or bicycle? 10. Is Utopia City owned by MUM or a TMer? 11. Has the movement changed? Is someone other than the Maharishi really in charge these days? We ask because some of the things we saw seemed out of what we had conceived as the character of TM. Notably, the "Invincible" slogan and the Maharishi Enlightenment Center store in Iowa City. The Center seemed to be a rather typical mall store, selling stuff using the Maharishi and TM as the store's "story." The message seemed to be "buy this and be enlightened." Rather like Eddie Bauer once used the rugged outdoors as its story - "but this and be a wilderness woman." It made us wonder whether the movement's leadership has changed. 12. How do new people in Fairfield meet one another? In our community, people often connect through their children's schools or sports, etc. If a large part of the Fairfield community is past that stage, how does the community integrate new people? 13. Are there a significant number of non-TM kids who go to the Maharishi school? 14. Who gets to ride in the white stretch limo? Whew. That's a lot of questions. I know that many of these questions will appear to be stupid and may even offend. They are not intended to be either. Thanks.
