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I’ve driven well past my 150 milestone of blog posts, a white stone that was supposed to signal a “checkpoint time” to see how I was doing.
My new goal has been to reduce my number of posts so as to focus on writing fiction instead— as I told my writer’s support group. That didn’t work out, as events in the real world impelled me to comment. But with my last post, quoting real live Russians, I think I’ve said all I can about a war we never declared, but a war declared on us, on our culture. We wanted a world order of justice, putting laws and rights above the whims of “autarchs” who never want justice. Now we have a new word, “Autarchs,” standing in for despots, ayatollahs and presidents-for-life, for all those “dear leaders” who will die in office because they don’t dare retire to go tend their roses, not in their law-of-the-jungle world.
A retired Roman leader, back in safer times, could tell some senators who wanted him back in office, “If you could see these cabbages I have raised with my own hand, you would not talk to me of empire.” But today, round much of the globe, people are not living in safer times. Not like in my blessed country where we know in our bones that the tree of liberty must be refreshed by the blood of patriots.
(Speaking of democracy, the US midterm results are in, and there was no “red wave” even though normally a president’s party loses seats at midterms. Here’s an excerpt from filmmaker Michael Moore’s e-mail:
We were lied to for months by the pundits and pollsters and the media. Voters had not “moved on” from the Supreme Court’s decision to debase and humiliate women by taking federal control over their reproductive organs. Crime was not at the forefront of the voters “simple” minds. Neither was the price of milk. It was their Democracy that they came to fight for yesterday. And because of that drive, we live to fight, and hope, for another day…
Once again, massive thanks to all of you for helping all of us build a Blue Wall that stopped an ugly red wave.)
On February 24th of this year “big government” and “big intelligence agencies” were proved right, and western European leaders who had lengthy friendly telephone calls to the Russian president were proved wrong: Russia did indeed launch an invasion of Orcs, a war that did not surprise Russia’s former “friends” and “allies” (“Workers of the world unite!”) in Eastern Europe. I wrote a number of posts about Ukraine, doing my little bit to counter Russian troll farms. You will recall that here in the west some folks would believe in the Soviet Union, and believe in communism, right up until the day the Berlin Wall came a-tumbling down.
Human nature over here, and Russian culture over there, hasn’t changed. The latest news is that the children of Soviet propagandists, all grown up now, are now diligently trolling in cyberspace, interfering in western elections, spreading anti-vaccination alarms, and more—knowing that some folks in the west will believe. This while westerners in general just turn their heads like someone in a Bob Dylan song. (Ultimately, when you turn your head, you enable cannon balls to fly—example)
It’s queer: While none of our long haired radicals, unlike in the 1960’s, are making big white buttons that say Question Social Media, the Finns have assembled a national program to warn school children and the public about Russian secret troll farms. I blogged about that last year. (Up to the minute story of how Finns Could Help the U.S. with Social Media)
This year, besides blogging on the agony of Ukraine, I did a few posts while in London England about what was on my mind there: racism. —Yes, I’m a racist too, as is every man, woman and child in our culture, or so I am told— In the next year, when I travel again, I hope to do a few more London posts about things (new, nonracial) that catch my eye.
Maybe at long last, this time around, for my next 25 posts, I’ll become a hermit, far removed from acknowledging the exercise of power in the world. Instead of putting my man-hours into essay-sketching and crafting and polishing, I will try to merely post stuff I’ve already written on Free Fall Fridays… to relieve me of the temptation to craft essays. Let’s see how that goes, shall we?
… …
… …
Sean Crawford
Somewhere in cyberspace
(Hello Lain!)
Lain’s TV song in English.
Reminder: Japanese Anime is not descended from US children’s cartoons: Hence the shows may cause tears, and the teen heroes may pass away from this mortal plane.
November
2022
Button note: It was a cliche, back in the ’60’s, to wear Question Authority.
Blog note: I mentioned this post, (finished two weeks ago) to my writer’s group. I humbly told them, “We’ll see.” If cutting and pasting my Free Fall stuff doesn’t work, then heck, I’ll go to simply posting a quotation every week.
Music note: Here is a choir in Kiev—now the church may be full of holes, the children scattered like leaves—singing the opening song, in Latin, to the anime Elfin Lied. (German for ‘cry of the elves’I can’t recommend it to anyone my age because of the violence. I found Elfen Lied very moving, partly because I had a chip on my shoulder for parents and oldsters back when I left home as a minor, younger than the two heroes in the old inn.
Incidentally, I reviewed it on a lengthy post on my old blog, back when I was younger and angrier.
