The New Normal "R"

The Rise of the New Normal Reich: Consent Factory Essays, Vol. III (2020-2021)—Not a book review.

Have fun with it and figure it out, or don’t. Enjoy the colorful “Truth.”

I think it's wrong to ban bad books. I think it's wrong to silence the most stupid, uninformed, and vicious conspiracy theories. Throughout history, the powerful tortured and killed heretics. We can now use powerful high-tech tools to brainwash and destroy people. But where freedom dies, and opposition is suppressed, there can be no "progress" and no "democracy," only tyranny. So "Q" and Stanley Kubrick's most significant film,  "The Truth About Apollo 11," should be welcomed and responded to enthusiastically, tongue-in-cheek, and with an earnest desire to understand what is going on. 

(Truth, as it were, being ever so illusive, cheeky, and difficult remains mostly out of reach.)  

We are slavish consumers of fashion. We crave novelty. We ascribe to New Normals because most of us are natural followers—we want to Fit In. Rare people indeed live in the new normal for years and years, and then one day take a pill or become readers in hip stuff, and suddenly they put on the magic glasses and think they're privy to some dark, deep secret. It feels good, I know. But as the Good Lord is my witness, they haven't a clue as to what to do about any of it; they haven't the imagination to build a better tyranny. 

I'm sad they banned her book, but I'd skim it and put it back on the shelf if I encountered it. 

Anyone wanting to know what's going on can read good books and figure it out themselves. Then they can become the pet (team player) they were meant to be or build a cabin in a village with lots of spuds and cabbages. They can hang up their thinking caps and start watching birds and handling worms. If they are lucky, they will share some projects with folks and have a few friends to chat with daily. 

(I feel bad that I presume to know what a good book is. There's simply no accounting for it, but I have a tad bit of confidence in my judgment. Hopefully, that will continue to grow until C19-related Altheimer's sets in and destroys what's left of my precious, little brain.) 

Entertaining, obsessional people know how to preach to their choir and give their "market" what it wants. “THE ANSWERS, damn it, I want all the answers!”

Vanity, it's all vanity.

To chat about nothing in particular and feel relaxed doesn't have to be an art. Embrace the pastime.