My radio drama/Play Who's Been Fooling Who , concerns an idealistic musician in the future who is trying to escape the confusion in the world through music, communication and art. Lance, the main character, is being trained to submit confusing information into a symbol translator which then helps him weave through the maze of confusion and helps him live. BELOW IS THE LITERARY AND AUDIO FORM OF THE  RADIO DRAMA ADAPTATION OF THE SHORT STORY  WHOS BEEN FOOLING WHO   

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Lance knew it was time for a change. Performing music could not and would not be able to support Veronica and himself any longer. "I love to communicate my ideas to others, but in our society it just isn't as important as it used to be." To bring you up to date, Lance is a musician in the year 3010, where society has become hopelessly confused. One of the fastest growing industries are confusion clinics and anti-confusion devices. It has reached epidemic proportions. Lance is going to school to become a cultural, anti-confusion symbol translator.

 

He is being trained by a tutor, to submit confusing information into a computer and a symbol translator. "The problem we must solve is the problem we must all solve; to become uncluttered, to become unconfused. Ever since 20 A.C. (After Computers) when we began submitting sociological information into these little beasts, we have made progress in discerning and deciphering our societies values. The symbol translator is also useful in judging the complexity of symbol manipulation. Let us take a pill break for fifteen sixty second intervals and then we will come back to our topic."

 

Lance immediately flips on the radio to hear some pop music with meaning, which is his first love. The radio begins to broadcast the following song:

 

Do you remember how to feel?
Are you just a block of ice?
Do you think it's right...
That we judge peoples' values
with symbol translators?

 

"I really like this guy’s message" thought Lance. "I think I'll call Veronica and tell her my thoughts." Taking the phone out his pocket, he calls Veronica and says, "Veronica, you know I have been thinking; I'm not so sure going to school to be a cultural, anti-confusion symbol translator is really in the cards for me. My heart gets all excited every time I hear music on the radio. I believe music and communication and art can still be effective tools to touch people in a way that nothing else can." This was very difficult for Lance to say, for he enjoyed the benefits of his relationship with Veronica, and he feared the losing of the closeness and affection that he received in turn for his agreeing to be silent when she insisted that he go to symbol translating school.

 

"You're not getting any younger Lance. Do your music on the side, like the rest of the self-contained functioning units in our society." Veronica, when she makes statements like these, leaves little room for doubt where she stands in regard to Lances' choice of his career.

 

With that the tutor interrupted abruptly, as only an unquestioned authority could do. "Lance, I may have to leave a bit early, so let us cut short our break. I noticed a beam of light coming from your eyes while the music played on the radio. Why don't you keep the music in the background? A recent research has indicated, through the data that was discovered and discerned, that those who enjoy music relax and concentrate when their particular brand of tones and melodies play in the background. You will need the relaxation, for we are beginning to enter into the actual on-the-job submitting of information into the symbol translator."

 

"All right Lance, read the first bit of confusion into the audio receptor." Lance, not agreeing with the statements he is about to read, (He had practiced reading them earlier) begins to recite the information into the translator, hoping that somehow the machine will cut through the confusion.

 

"If I think I will become rich and famous I will.
The spoken word has power.
If I continue to confess good things, good things will happen.
If I have a positive outlook everything will be fine."

 

"You read that very well. Now, simply turn the knob, wait until the symbol translator digests the information, step back three steps (The stepping back of three steps is something that no one really understands, the stepping back is just a custom, that has been handed down) and wait for the reply."

 

Lance obeys and waits for the machines audible voice as well as the familiar type written sheets.

 

"What is this, Whistle a Happy Tune?
This is 3010, not kindergarten, 1963.
Oh let me try it. I want more electricity.
I want more information.
I wish I was a human so I could date women.
Rub Aladdin’s Lamp."

 

"This guys a little sarcastic, isn't he?" asked Lance.

 

"He tells it like he thinks it is approximately," the tutor said, with the proud look of a father who had somehow mingled and become a modern hybrid of man and machine. "Try another one Lance."

 

"May I have a music break father, I mean good sir tutor?"

 

"Of course, some relaxation will undrain you and fill you with more energy, so you will be able to draw your information from the information that is given you."

 

"Can't he ever say anything simple and normal?" thought Lance.

 

(Once again the radio begins to play, but this time it's a commercial)
"Are you confused? Well come to the Confusion Clinic and we will unscrew you up and place your feet back on the ground. You have questions; we will answer them. For example; John Lathura wants to know, should he date a woman, who is living with a man, if the woman says it is a platonic relationship, but she hasn't told the man, she just thinks he knows? Are you always allowed to turn right on a red light? Should clones be allowed to mate with our children? Yes, we will attempt to answer these common inquiries, and if for some reason we can't come up with a solution, we will tape your conversation and let you try to figure it out. For further information, send out strong vibes in the direction of the North East Vibe Meter."

 

Okay kids, have we got a treat for you! Way back in time in 2993, a brontosaurus of a hit, from the smash cassette the golden hits of 2993: "I want to eat food with you."

 

You know baby, what I want to do is eat some food with you.
I believe that eating food is as important as air and breathing.
I need you, I really do.
We could have Have a nice green salad...
Then we will eat it all down.
We could get a pizza or salami sandwich.
It doesn't matter to me.....
I want to eat food with you,
I want to eat food with you,
I want to eat food with you.

 

I want To Eat Food With You MP3

"Wow I love this station" thought Lance. They play such good oldies from 2993, it's great.

 

"Back to work" interrupted the tutor. "Okay Lance, read another one. First strike terrorism. If you are good, you must protect yourself from the enemy, and you should strike him before he gets you. This is a theory that became popular in the governments in the early 1980's."

 

"Turn the knob, let the symbol translator digest, step back three steps, and wait for the reply," muttered Lance under his breath.

 

"On an idealistic level" said the machine, "you are to love your enemies as the sacred scriptures have instructed you. But we are talking economics, and the least number of casualties. Let's face it, nobody really knows. It's a crapshoot. Seven come eleven. Try another topic Lance.
(The radio plays in the background)
Hey do you need to lighten up? Music is the way to do it. When you are bogged down over all this confusion in the world today, tune into our station and hear some real value clarifying hits from all eras."

 

"Back to work Lance, submit some more information, but this time put the info into the computer."

 

"Many groups in the world believe in a fatalistic and pessimistic attitude and have many different theories about their own particular philosophy. What shall we do to decipher all of this?" Once again Lance, who has become used to the procedure, waits for the computers reply.

 

"Someone should attempt to write a clarifying book on this huge and complex subject. The Chinese say that a journey of 1000 miles is started with one step. We must bring these things out into the open, so we can get to the bottom of this information and truly become free. We need someone, more qualified than a computer to research this important current topic, the ramifications, we are still not able to measure. If you think that the world is going to end and there is no chance for survival, and you are a fatalist, you are not going to do much about the nation’s economy or do anything to affect social change. In conclusion, when you go to buy food for your family, you want to know the price to pay and the contents of the food. So too must we be equally sober the type of spiritual food we eat. "My, what a fine, upstanding little computer," thought Lance. "What a difference between the computer and the symbol translator. It's too bad I have to learn about both of them. The computer is like a light, while the symbol translator is like a lesser light."

 

"Well, as Veronica says, you need money to live, and you have to work to get money, so I guess I should just keep going with the symbol translator and the computer."

 

"Okay, one more thing into the computer before I try the symbol translator again. Some groups, called the Literalists, believe to be as gentle as doves means to try and lay eggs. They believe we are all part of God, and since God chastises those he loves, we should beat each other up. This is a summation of the Literalists."

 

"Submit it into the computer Lance" said the tutor. "This group is correct. What you say is what you get. What difference does it make how you are chastised and punished as long as you are."

 

(Silence with Radio in the background)

 

When you are far from the problem, you are close enough to help....
Aim at the center of the target...
God meant for us to live this way...
Don't you want to live?

 

"Enough!" screams Lance (in a painful, freeing yet frightened cry)" I've had enough of symbol translating and the confusion that goes into them." "Veronica (talking in a phone) say what you want honey, but I can't be honest and stand for this. I'm a musician, not an anti-confusion symbol translator. I have to live like I was meant to, as a writer, musician and communicator. I can feel it."

 

(Pause)

 

Veronica is frozen with emotion, defensive, distant and cold. Lance begins to feel the pain of having a tender loved one slip away.

 

Veronica speaks, "I must find security; not love. I must find technological order, not peace. I must find a man who will work, not someone who will amount to nothing. Good-bye Lance, I will begin after this conversation, to date someone else. Our contract is now null and void."

 

"You are free to leave, Lance," the tutor says with a look our limited language of this decade can't describe.

 

Lance grabs his coat; walks out the door; away from the computer and the symbol translator, who are busy arguing over the intellectual implications of water; away from Veronica; away from the tutor, but much closer to his real self.

 

 

WHOS BEEN FOOLING WHO RADIO DRAMA mp3 on Blog Talk Radio

 

                The song I want to eat food with you was written influenced by CS LEWIS the famous Christian writer .In his book “Mere Christianity”he attempts to get a hold of the question of sexuality.. He states  that  during the Victorian times people were repressed and wouldn’t talk about their sexuality ,but in our times it is the exact opposite. We constantly talk about it and are fixated with it..He said that modern man argues that a sexual drive is natural and therefore should be expressed, but Mr. Lewis’s conclusion is that it is a natural drive but it is out of proportion in today’s society. To illustrate his point CS says that if you went to another planet and all they talked about was food (another natural drive) and then have constant jokes, double meanings or coyly seductively attired food, you would say that although food is a natural desire, that particular cultures natural desires have gotten out of hand and twisted. So when I wrote my radio drama Who’s been fooling Who ?  set in the future,(it was written in 1985) where society has been become helplessly confused, I wanted to have some weird songs to match up with this out of whack society. So that’s when I wrote “I Want To Eat Food with You