Recently, I started re-visiting a childhood obsession. As a parent to two “Gen Z” kids (Whatever the hell that means), it is fascinating to observe what my children’s generation is fascinated about. YouTube, Japanese Anime, Japanese Video Games, and Streamers are the popular things in my house. For me, growing up in the 80s, I was fascinated by Voltron, GI Joe, the NFL, Oingo Boingo, and PEANUTS (Many of these things are now culturally iconic). While at Catholic School, our teacher would give us library time (If my memory serves me, it was once every two weeks) to check out books. At the time, reading classic American and Russian novels, Sci Fi blockbusters by creators like Heinlein, Clarke and Dick, and political screeds about the Reagan era were not my cup of tea. I was fascinated by two things: World War II history and comic strips. Generation X is the generation long tied to making the superhero comic books of Marvel and DC famous. In the present day, these properties have taken over modern-day cinema. But despite reading lots of these comic books (Especially X-Men), my fascination with comic books never reached my adoration for three comic strips: THE FAR SIDE, PEANUTS, and GARFIELD. While the former was brilliant for creating a world where all creatures had a conscience, and were often put into cultural, political, and absurdly intelligent situations inside of one panel while the latter had more of a cynical absurdist and sometimes stupid theme to it, nothing compared to PEANUTS. PEANUTS was never an artistic masterpiece. It often was dead serious. But no comic strip even to this day has dived into psychology, depression, the darkness and frustration of life, and the cynicism of the people in your community (With a little bit of philosophy thrown in AKA Linus) like PEANUTS did. So, I decided to reflect on this aspect of my past. What drove me to be so attracted to this specific comic strip as a young child? Going back to my school library in 2019 during the memorial for my father, I realized that my name was inside every single CHARLIE BROWN book that my old school still has inside their “Comedy” section. Something about reading the frustrating adventures of a boy who failed at everything in life but kept getting himself back onto his feet to try and fail again was appealing to my young mind. So lately, I have been going back and reading them again. Two things really stand out when revisiting PEANUTS. 1) The philosophical debates, child-like situations, and observations by these very mature children really hold up in the present day. These kids, especially the philosophizing of Linus who deals with his own insecurities by latching onto a blanket, were intelligent, grounded, down-to-earth, and realistic. Lucy, inside her psychiatry booth (5 cents), would give a cold, hard reality check to many of the kids who had legitimate problems and her advice would provide them no comfort. 2) PEANUTS also never reveals where it takes place inside the United States. The comic strip seems to take place in an imaginary United States that many people believe existed from the late 1940s into the 1980s. The purposeful intent of this artistic decision allows anyone who recognizes themselves in one of these characters to identify more clearly with the most well-written, psychologically developed children ever created inside of any medium.
Re-reading PEANUTS, I have no doubt that Linus is my doppelganger. I have always been philosophical and fascinated by the spiritual. I was attached to a blanket FOR WAY TOO LONG as a child and yes, it was my “security blanket”, and I had a sister who had a very similar personality to Lucy. As I aged and left this comic behind (Especially after Schulz’s death in 2000), I moved onto darker things in my teen years like Tim Burton and horror films and a fascination with punk and goth music. That sense of sadness that permeated my childhood continued and got worse during my teen years. This depression lingered into adulthood. Only seeing the smiling face of my daughter snapped me out of my mental funk. There is something wrong with your head when lyrics from one of your favorite bands bring a smile to your face and years later, you have a recognition about how dark the lyrics are. For instance, the lyrics to Oingo Boingo's NOTHING BAD EVER HAPPENS TO ME below, Have you heard about the Joneses, my, my, my It happened so quick, and no one knows why Their teenage son, he seemed okay But his suicide ruined everyone's day And I can't believe that anyone would Wanna do such a terrible thing But why should I care? For me, PEANUTS was something I needed at a specific time in my life (Between seven and fifteen years of age). It brought me joy despite the often-depressing content. During the almost 50 years of its existence, PEANUTS continues to be an amazing work of art. It is the greatest comic strip of the 20th Century.
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A couple of months ago, I posted a long, bloviating post about humanity entering a new “era” of history. A new evolution (Or devolution) of mankind that will likely define the next century or two. Even paying attention to the news badly, there is something that is terribly wrong with the world. The most powerful once stable nation states seem to be collapsing. Institutions are breaking. Governments are corrupted beyond saving, and people are unhappy and struggling to maintain their lifestyles. Rule by the people thru the democratic system is in serious decline. As these institutions decline, various “new” philosophies have sprung up in hopes of leading and guiding the people of this planet into a new direction.
The first is THE GREAT RESET, a collection of “ideas” being promoted by some of the richest men on the planet. Through strategic capture of the political systems in nation states throughout the world and help from NGOs (non-governmental organizations) that give tax free money to help propagandize, manipulate, and force governments and corporations into a new social and political direction (Through a manufactured word called ‘governance’), the decline of the nation state can be partially blamed on these self-interested billionaires and their insatiable thirst for total control. But the weakness in our country was also caused by our own arrogance and naivete by continuing to elect corrupt, evil politicians who passed one terrible law at a time that slowly broke down this country’s foundations. When evaluating all the videos and documents related to this plan, no one can really explain what THE GREAT RESET is. The philosophy of this idea is explained with vague information that is spewed out in soulless corporate lingo. It appears to have three main foundations. 1) Create a blending of corporations and governments through globalized entities to rule the planet. 2) Force authoritarianism on the people through the globalist’s own interests in topics like climate change, equity, and central digital bank currencies. 3) Modify human beings for the upcoming technocracy by controlling their bodies and minds. No one really knows what is being accomplished or what the final solution of this RESET will be. But freedom and human rights will probably not survive this transition. The second is authoritarian capitalism best represented by China and Russia. This new political system resembles fascism by design. The difference is that authoritarian capitalists do not actively engage in multiple genocides like Hitler’s Germany did. In comparison, authoritarian capitalists do violate Civil Rights, engage in repression, and participate in propaganda and manipulation for the benefit of the state. But even though the state has strong control over its people, the economic system is more capitalistic and freer than the authoritarian system that the citizens live under, and it mostly benefits chosen elites who have the proper personal government connections with the regular people getting the financial leftovers. Unfortunately, the “success” of China and Russia has led many other nations to pursue this freedom destroying political ideology even though the majority of the wealth goes to the upper echelon. When viewed through an analytical lens, both these new political systems have one thing in common. They both restore the once failed idea of oligarchy. Oligarchy was the foundation of feudalism which was the established political ideology of the Dark and Middle Ages. Throughout the globe, an emperor, king, or queen ruled with a court of nobles who controlled most of the country through their own massive fortunes while keeping the common man under control through taxation, slavery, and religion. Religious leaders along with the nobles often had political power in the king’s court. And if the “monarchy” got out of hand, it was not uncommon for the nobles to put some “magic juice” into the king’s meal to bring about the next hereditary ruler. Even a democratic republic like the United States has been badly damaged and has begun to resemble an oligarchical, feudalistic system. As the tech industry has grown powerful, the hope that this new technology would increase knowledge and lead to freedom movements around the globe has created a new reality where privacy is non-existent, basic human rights are under attack, and an authoritarian system with limited opportunities for the average man is being implemented. The evil tech investor Peter Thiel reflects this common, underlying attitude by saying, “democracy—based on the fundamental principles of individual responsibility and agency—does not fit comfortably with a technocratic mindset that believes superior software can address and modulate every problem.” Before understanding this transition, we need to go back to the rise of the present-day nation state. Many historians believe this new era of political ideology began with the Treaty of Westphalia signed in 1648 by various “nation states.” The treaty ended the Thirty Year’s War which was primarily a battle between Protestants and Catholics and the long running Bringing this into the present day, recent studies have been peer reviewed and published on this technocratic, neo-medievalism/feudalism that the people of this Earth are being guided into. This has especially been brought to the attention of the right as the left-wing Democrats seem to be the biggest promoters of this “new world.” Globalist and technocratic psychopath Dr. Harari agrees on this new direction. “None of these things [laws, justice, human rights, money] exists outside the stories that people invent and tell one another. There are no gods in the universe, no nations, no money, no human rights, no laws, and no justice outside the common imagination of human beings.” And Mattias Desmet has warned us in his new book, THE PSYCHOLOGY OF TOTALITARIANISM, “Totalitarianism and technocracy like to present themselves as the pinnacle of rationality and science but this could not be further from the truth. It is a form of control.” These articles on feudalism serve a very defined purpose, conditioning. They are preparing us for a future that a very small, but incredibly wealthy, group of people through their funding of academic research, capture of governments, and media control wants to begin imposing on the entire globe. Feudalism failed because people started educating themselves. The printing press invented around 1436 AD was the first step that helped unlock the human mind. The next was the cultural, scientific, artistic, and philosophical advancements and re-discoveries of ancient teachings during the Renaissance. Starting around the end of the 14th Century, the ideals of the Renaissance took hold into the 17th Century when the “nation state” and sovereignty became the next step in human evolution. This bleak future can be stopped. But turning to history, this lesson can be missed. Many historians believe that humans evolve in a mostly upward direction with the occasional setback. New inventions and ideas always move our species forward. After a specific period of war or political turmoil, we usually find ourselves on the right path again. But what if this foundational teaching about human development is false. The Egyptian, Greek and Roman Empires were impressive displays of human innovation and intellectual thought. But as the Roman Empire began to collapse and human beings began to decentralize into tribes with traditions and their own religions, humanity took a large step back progressively. It took almost a thousand years to re-discover the ideas of these ancient Imperial thinkers and start moving the evolution of humanity forward again. Today, we have the technology, scientific inventions, engineering knowledge, a more evolved social understanding, and a motivated individuality to again push this species upward. But if we don’t unite and take this threat of the potential of feudalism or neo-medievalism seriously, it won’t be long until the 1200s return with technological upgrades becoming our new reality. Before I complete this blog, I need to make a correction from last week. The city I visited in Saint Marteen was Philipsburg, not Fredericksburg. I get my long Dutch names mixed up all the time. My apologies if you tried to Google that city. This blog will be considerably shorter than the previous one. But to give a little bit of background, cruises are not my favorite form of recreation. While they have their perks, there are also some downsides that really made aspects of the trip unappealing. Let’s dive into the four negatives of cruising.
1) As mentioned in Part 1, I did not discuss our last destination, the private island of Grand Stirrup Cay in the Bahamas. The reason is because the cruise ship never made it to the island. Due to a high wind tropical storm which led to the closing of our top deck for one day that created large swells which made the ship feel like it was going through THE PERFECT STORM (And led to an awful two hour night of sleep that evening), the ship was unable to make it to The Bahamas which based on the passenger reviews, is one of the best stops on the cruise. The good news is that the family got the port fee money back for that failed stop. The bad news is the final day of the cruise, instead of being on a private island with jet skis and swimming pigs, was spent on the ship fighting through rough water on the way back to the Miami port. On the last two days, mother nature got her revenge. 2) Since the family had never been on a cruise before, the experience of opening the door to our room on the ship and realizing that the bathroom in our condo is the same size in square footage is an interesting experience. To make it work, my wife and I slept on the King bed (Which gives you about a foot to exit on either side). My daughter slept on the couch with her feet hanging over (She is 5 feet tall exactly) and my son slept on the Murphy Bed above me. If I had swung my head up too fast because of a nightmare or breathing difficulties, I would knock myself unconscious on the bottom of the Murphy bed. When our cruise ship was built, they obviously wanted to convert the exciting experience of being crushed on an airplane and convert it into a room. It had a very space capsule like, trapped in a trunk feel to it. The bathroom was even worse. It was literally a cylindrical capsule that can literally fit one person at a time. Do you need to go to the bathroom while I am taking a shower? Tough shit, u must wait. My family got very good at running down the hallway and going up a flight of stairs to the nearest public restroom on the ship. Plus, we learned not to use the toilet for any bowel movements. The vacuum flush did not work properly and that smell of 48-hour chicken often would stink up our room for a bit. Thankfully, the sweetheart girl who made up our rooms gave us a bottle of Febreeze and Purell to make the experience a little more bacteria free. 3) My last two complaints are related to one another. This has to do with the nature of how the cruise ship industry works. When I am on vacation, the goal is to relax and gain new experiences. This is why I believe that traveling is one of the most important things you can do in your life because it stimulates your body and mind. But the cruise ship industry wants to make money. COVID-19 shut the industry down for over a year. On the ship, you have a casino. The slots were cold as ice. I never saw one person walk out of that room happy. I made a 100 dollars by wining eight straight hands on a ten-dollar blackjack table and lingering around for a half hour. I did not gamble again on the whole trip. My wife and daughter had no luck. The stores on the ship are constantly trying to sell you things due to the “duty-free” stores. Whether it is alcohol, jewelry, art auctions, books, clothing, technological devices, cameras, and dozens of other products, this rampant consumerism gets frustrating after awhile when you are stuck around it for ten days. Since we stopped at six ports, getting out of the ship does not issue any relief. Every island has a port that is isolated from the city in which it docks. The ports are outdoor shopping malls filled with dozens of different types of stores including restaurants and tourist shops. In the case of Antigua, St. Marteen, and St. Kitts when we left the general port area, the experience is more natural and cheaper (More on this in #4). All prices are much more expensive in the ports. The ports also are a mixed bag. Puerto Plata in the Dominican Republic was the nicest one by far. The other nice port was Philipsburg. Antigua, St. Thomas, and Basseterre’s ports left a lot to be desired. They were acceptable but nothing impressive. Even with the duty-free discounts, many of the items up for sale felt overpriced. After Puerto Plata, my family decided against spending time inside these money-grubbing shops. 4) Besides the consumerism everywhere inside the ports, my other problem had to do with the ports themselves. It does not take long for an observant person to notice the large ten-to-twelve-foot walls with razor wire along the top and guarded on the outside by armed private security guards (And in the case of the Dominican Republic, by that country’s army itself). The Dominican Republic is a tragic country. My family decided to leave the port and were immediately overwhelmed by poverty. From the moment we left, we were bombarded with taxi drivers wanting to take us on rides deeper into the island. I wanted to see two historical streets that were a short hike away. We made it to both (Umbrella Street and Paseo de Dona Blanca) before heading a mile back towards the Macorix Rum distillery. Despite dressing down, you can’t help but stand out amongst the Dominican people. Walking that one mile changed my kids’ lives forever. They had never seen poverty like this. Everyone owns a motorcycle since no one can afford a car. They make up about 80% of the traffic. Cars are broken down everywhere on the side of the road as they buy used parts from a mechanic (Leftovers from the United States and Japan) to get their engine working one more time. Little creeks filled with feces, clothing and harmful bacteria are flowing under bridges. On the way to the rum distillery, I wanted to confirm we were walking in the right direction. I approached a member of the Dominican Army (Who spoke no English) and talked with him in broken Spanish (Casa de Ron, Sur or Norte?). He ended up escorting my family across the street while holding a Mossberg shotgun in his hand and an AR-15 strapped over his shoulder. Even though this was the most distressing experience, going to the other islands was not much better. Antigua and St. Kitts which are part of the British Commonwealth are a little wealthier. But there is still homelessness in large parts of the island, drug addicts everywhere, and if you leave the port and drive around the island, which we did in both locations, the villages scattered around the island are third world poor. The only island we went to that had a middle class; upper scale vibe was Saint Marteen which was beautiful everywhere we went. But these other three islands took the joy of the cruise away and spiraled me down into the cold, hard reality of the world. The Caribbean is a poor place and the only positive thought I had that balanced out these sad experiences is that my United States dollars helped them at least temporarily live a better life for that day. Because of this underlying reality, I really hated these ports. I FUCKING HATED THE PORTS. They often would have dancers from the island there or individuals playing the music of the island. For instance, steel drummers were in every part of the St. Kitts port. Because every port was protected with heavy security, this Disney-fied experience felt artificial and fake. I personally despised every second of it. I know these cruise ships want to protect people from the crimes that poverty can create. But our family left the port in all four locations, and nothing happened to us. In three of them, police were nowhere to be found and we were able to sightsee and enjoy our time on the island. Anyway, drop your thoughts on this. I hope you enjoyed this summary of my family’s first ever international cruise. Whether I do it again, we will see. From December 11 to the 21st, my family and I embarked on our first ever Ocean Cruise with Norwegian Cruise Line, a journey to the Caribbean from Miami. This was the first international trip that my family has taken together. My writing will focus on the positive aspects of this trip. This post will be the first of two parts that will review this life changing vacation.
First, a little background on how this trip happened. My wife won a contest at a local casino, and she was able to get a voucher for two free tickets for a cruise of her choice. The cruise had to be used within 15 months. The other limitation was that the cruise could not exceed 11 days. Knowing this, we decided to pick a cruise in the middle of December (The Caribbean is still 80 degrees plus) for 10 days to seven islands and ports. We bought the remaining two tickets for a little under 700 each for our two children so they could join us on this adventure. Here are the islands that this cruise would go to in order. Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic Dec. 13 (Day 2) San Juan, Puerto Rico Dec. 14 (Day 3) St. John’s, Antigua Dec. 15 (Day 4) Fredricksburg, St. Marteen Dec. 16 (Day 5) Basseterre, St. Kitts Dec. 17 (Day 6) St. Thomas, Virgin Islands Dec. 18 (Day 7) Great Stirrup Cay, the Bahamas Dec. 20 (Day 9) If you are keeping track, that is five independent countries and two United States territories. For the geography buffs, the Dominican Republic is half of the large island of Hispaniola that is shared with Haiti to the West. Haiti is a primarily French speaking nation. The Eastern and larger half of the island is the Dominican Republic which is Spanish. San Juan is the capital of Puerto Rico and a United States territory that was gained during the Spanish American War in 1898. Antigua (One island of the nation Antigua and Barbuda) declared independence from the British crown in 1981. It is a member of the Commonwealth (Which also includes countries like Canada and Australia) that recognizes King Charles III as head of state. St. Kitts (One half of the country St. Kitts and Nevis) declared their independence in 1983 and like Antigua and Barbuda, is also a British Commonwealth nation. St. Kitts and Nevis is the smallest sovereign nation in the Western Hemisphere encompassing just 101 square miles of land. St. Marteen was founded by the Dutch and still has cultural influences from this part of the world all over the city of Fredericksburg. What makes St. Marteen unique is that it is the only island in the Caribbean that has two nations on it. On the northern side, the island is called St. Martin and is a separate nation that has major French influences. Finally, there is St. Thomas in the US Virgin Islands that is another territory that was purchased by the United States from Denmark for 25 million in gold coin in 1917. The Bahamas will not be discussed in this evaluation. More on the reason for this later. As a person who has travelled domestically for almost all my vacations (I have only been this far away from the United States one other time), I have no real memory of what it is like to travel internationally. I have been to 39 American States but only four foreign countries. So, upon entering the cruise ship on December 11th, here were my thoughts regarding my home at sea for the next ten days. Our boat was the Norwegian Sky which upon learning during the cruise, is one of the oldest ships in their fleet. It is also the second smallest and can hold slightly over 2000 people. The ship was originally deployed in 2000 and renovated during the COVID-19 lockdowns. The ship has a classic feel to it. The dining rooms had an early 20th Century design where you could imagine individuals with top hats and designer suits enjoying a classic meal while discussing the politics of Calvin Coolidge almost a hundred years ago. Most of the activities on the ship were between the fifth and eighth floors. The eleventh and twelfth floors were for athletic activities like basketball, shuffleboard, ping pong, and multiple pools and spas that spilled outside into the sun. Due to the age of the ship, it did not have many of the family activities you see on more modern ships like water slides, laser tag, Go Kart racing, and the like. Here is a summary of what was enjoyable about this ship.
What is a cruise without the ports and excursions? In order, I will discuss each country and location. Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic There is not much to say about this location, In Part 2, I will dive much deeper into my family’s experience on this island. Two things stood out.
1. This was our final and best excursion. My family took a catamaran to a private cove on an island off the coast to snorkel and observe sea turtles, stingrays, and every single fish that is in the FINDING NEMO films while getting horribly drunk on rum during our cruise back to St. Thomas. 2. There was not much further exploring we could do as our port time in St. Thomas was very short. This will also be discussed in Part 2. After this, there were two long days at sea to get to our final port in The Bahamas. The last part of this experience as well as some of the negatives from this cruise will be explained in Part 2. I hope you enjoyed this and come back next week for the exciting conclusion. Another NFL season flew by in four months and now that 2024 has burst into existence, the playoffs have arrived. Like I have promised in the past, if I predict less than half the teams correctly (Six or less), I will skip my postseason NFL blog and write about the things that truly inspire like Jennifer Lawrence’s ass, the mating patterns of the Regent Parrot, and whether Napoleon was one of the worst dictators in history because he was angry about being born small. Here are my predictions from early September.
AFC
NFC
Here is how they finished. AFC
NFC
SUPER WILD CARD WEEKEND Here are my picks. Cleveland over Houston Houston has found a franchise quarterback in CJ Stroud. He had a wonderful rookie season and stepped up at the end to lead the Texans to a division title. The future is bright with this kid. Cleveland’s playoff run may have been even more impressive. Winning eleven games despite starting four quarterbacks. Their 4th starter, 38-year-old Delaware graduate and Super Bowl champion Joe Flacco, has had a career renaissance with the Browns late in the year. I believe this will continue for another week. Kansas City over Miami The Chiefs are the defending champions and despite having a Super Bowl caliber defense, the offense has been abysmal especially during the second half of the season. Despite their decline, the rest of the AFC West was pathetic which allowed Kansas City to win an 8th consecutive division title. Miami was impressive early but as soon as they started playing some of the NFL’s best, they began to struggle only winning at the last minute over Dallas at home and losing the rest. If this game was in a dome, I would be leaning towards Miami. But this game will be taking place in freezing weather in Kansas City. Miami historically does not play well in this weather. Kansas City will bumble and stumble their way to a victory. Buffalo over Pittsburgh Not much to say here. Buffalo struggled and was sitting at 6-6 in early December. They are now 11-6 and hanging onto the 2 seed as possibly the hottest team in the AFC entering the playoffs. Pittsburgh again slips into the playoffs as Mike Tomlin keeps his insane non-losing record streak alive for another season. The talent gap in this game is immense. Unless a bomb blows up and kills half the Bills team or Josh Allen has one of his infamous high turnover games, the Bills should roll. Dallas over Green Bay Dallas won the division as expected even though it took until the final week to do it. Green Bay’s Jordan Love matured in the 2nd half and took a struggling 3-6 Packers team and guided them to a 6-2 finish to slide into the 7 seed. Green Bay is young and Dallas, who is undefeated at home, should defeat the Packers. Detroit over LA Rams The Detroit Lions were my favorite pick in the preseason. I was impressed with how Detroit finished in 2022. I expected this to carry over with an even more talented team in 2023. The Lions rewarded my prediction by rolling to an NFC North division crown. The LA Rams being in this spot is a huge surprise. Going into the bye week with injuries to three of their top four skill players and sitting at 3-6, the season was starting to resemble the miserable 5-12 2022. But in a shocking turn of events, the Rams came together and finished 7-1 and slid into the playoffs only one year after blowing up their roster due to salary cap issues and starting over. Detroit has two significant advantages over the inexperienced Rams, a great D-Line and two very good running backs. If they play conservative and use their superior line talent to control the line of scrimmage, the cursed Lions franchise should advance for the first time in 32 years. Tampa Bay over Philadelphia Tampa Bay is the most shocking surprise of this NFL season. They lost Hall of Famer Tom Brady and were heading into rebuild mode. In comes Baker Mayfield who wins one more game than Brady did with a more talented team the previous season and steals away a shocking division title. Philadelphia looked dominant at 10-1. Since December started, the team has completely fallen apart. Jalen Hurts looks like he has regressed, and the defense can’t stop anyone. If this play continues, I believe Tampa will blow the Eagles out and move them into their offseason with a likely new coach. AFC Divisionals Baltimore wins a close one over Cleveland. Buffalo blows out Kansas City NFC Divisionals San Francisco blows out Tampa Bay Detroit upsets Dallas AFC Championship Baltimore wins after a late Josh Allen turnover. NFC Championship San Francisco handles Detroit Super Bowl LVIII A rematch of Super Bowl XLVII from eleven years earlier. Baltimore won this game 34-31 after taking a 28-6 lead and holding on. Joe Flacco, who is now with Cleveland, was the winning quarterback. Baltimore walloped San Francisco earlier in the year. This Super Bowl will be a repeat of that game. Baltimore jumps out early and cruises to a 37-27 victory capturing their 3rd Super Bowl title and sending the 49ers to their 3rd straight loss in the Big Game since 2012. Baltimore will become the 11th team to win at least three Super Bowls putting them into a five-way tie with Las Vegas, Kansas City, Washington, and Denver. Enjoy everyone! ** SPOILERS: IF YOU HAVE NOT SEEN ‘LEAVE THE WORLD BEHIND’ ON NETFLIX, DO NOT READ THIS ARTICLE UNLESS YOU WANT THE FILM SPOILED. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED. **
Recently on Netflix, the platform released one of their most anticipated movies of the year with the goal of delivering some decent content and preventing people from cancelling their membership for at least another month. The movie is called LEAVE THE WORLD BEHIND and is based on the novel by Rumaan Alam that was released in 2020.The movie stars Julia Roberts, Ethan Hawke, and Mahershala Ali. The movie is directed by Sam Esmail, an up-and-coming director who is most famously known for creating the incredible techno futurist, four season thriller MR. ROBOT. This post will dive into a review of this film followed by an analysis and evaluation of the story and some interesting observations about this film, political events and the future it seems to be showing us. LEAVE THE WORLD BEHIND starts innocently enough. A stressed-out wife played by Julia Roberts makes reservations at a luxury home on Long Island to get away from the city and relax with her husband Ethan Hawke and two children played by Farrah Mackenzie and Charlie Evans. Upon settling down and enjoying the beautiful beach, which is part of their rental’s backyard, the film begins its transition into a disaster movie. An out-of-control tanker crashes into the beach which begins a series of events that the family cannot explain. As the distress increases, the owner of the home played by Mahershala Ali and his daughter played by Myla’La come to seek shelter from the disaster unfolding all around them. As a straight up thriller that has apocalyptic undertones throughout, the movie does a great job building up the intensity. At first, Julia Robert’s Amanda is very distrustful of the newcomers. This tension is slowly relieved as the tragedies increase and the need to depend on each other becomes vital to everyone’s survival. The movie has one specific problem though. As the resolution of the story is occurring on Kevin Bacon’s doorstep, the reveal of what happened is going to leave a lot of viewers unsatisfied. As a film, the structure and story make the 140 minutes fly by. The cinematography and music is fantastic. But there are decisions made revolving around the unfolding disaster that came across as utterly ridiculous (The overused stampede and large gathering of animals and the pool flamingos). Plus, there is one gigantic problem. The movie was produced by HIGHER GROUND Productions which was founded by Barack and Michelle Obama. Because of the involvement of an ex-president, it muddles the ending of the movie when the cause of the disaster is finally revealed. As a person who is always open-minded about films and what a writer or filmmaker is trying to tell me, my brain began to wonder about this film’s purpose. And some of these questions that lead to my hesitancy to endorse this movie need to be answered because an evaluation of a movie that is produced by an ex-president must consider the political angle and point of view that was revealed. The big TWIST in this film is that the United States is undergoing a cyberattack. This attack leads to the crippled oil tanker beaching itself right outside their rental home. Later in the film, a few more bizarre events occur. Planes end up crashing near Ali’s character upon visiting a neighbor’s home. Tesla’s begin to auto-drive and crash into themselves on the nearby parkway. Hawke’s character Clay drives off and gets bombarded by a drone dropping leaflets in Arabic. The final moment revolves around Ali’s character explaining a “secret” program that apparently was going to be used to destroy nation-states around the world. It was a three-step program that starts with a cyber attack and leads to a Civil War. But the attack only commences once the nation is “weak enough” for it to be initiated. This movie has led to quite a few evaluations on its subject matter. If Esmail had been able to direct the movie, I believe he wanted to make, I think the nations or organizations behind the “cyberattack” would not have been clearly defined. The movie would have worked better if an explanation had never been given, nor the antagonists ever discovered. Horror always works better when less information is revealed. The movie can still be seen this way if you dismiss certain events as “disinformation” which Ali said is a key component of the enemy’s attack. But, Barack Obama, who was a gigantic fan of the book, gave away the film’s purpose in an interview. Here are a few quotes from this article about the making of this picture which shows that our ex-president had a very hands on producer role in terms of creating its underlying reality. “In the original drafts of the script, I definitely pushed things a lot farther than they were in the film, and President Obama, having the experience he does have, was able to ground me a little bit on how things might unfold in reality,” Esmail said to Vanity Fair. This is the final quote from Ali’s character at the end that gives away the underlying story. “This (Defense) program was considered the most cost-effective way to destabilize a country because if the target nation was dysfunctional enough it would do the work for you. Whoever started this, wants us to finish it.” In the film, there is a comment made by a character about whether the “elites” are behind this attack. After considering this for about a whole second, this idea is quickly blown off. Ali’s character is more concerned that no one is in charge at all. In the real world where a medical elite recently shut down the entire world for over a year for a virus with a 99.9% survival rate, this aspect of “no one being in control” is hard to stomach. The problem we have in the present day is our leaders’ need for control. Many governments are making the push to control the last bit of freedom that most people have: their minds and body. Plus, if you read the news even badly, our elites are warning us all the time about future apocalyptic events. Global Instability Will Lead to Cyberattacks from the WEF Reporter believes a black swan event will occur in 2024 Doomsday Clock Warns World of Catastrophe in 2024 If I posted all the threats of nuclear bomb usage, I would have another half a dozen links. But going back to my main point, why did this movie need to be made? And if there was a cyberattack on the United States, wouldn’t it make the most sense that our own government participated in some fashion in its continued war against the people? We already know that Dr. Fauci’s ECOHEALTH ALLIANCE funded the creation of COVID-19. I would have liked the movie more if the reality of the situation is that the United States initiated the cyberattack to begin its final descent into full blown authoritarianism. It would have made more sense than the movie we got. The other flaw with this movie is its underlying cynicism. I always saw Obama as a cynic during his presidency. It was the one thing that drove me nuts about his personality. This movie reflects some of Obama’s personal viewpoints. There is a short scene where Ali’s daughter warns him about this family because they are WHITE. This is the only time it is brought up as the families quickly unite after this comment. Kevin Bacon’s character is meant to be an unsympathetic, right-wing survivalist who is supposed to be the antagonist during the last scene. His distrustful point of view and lecture about protecting his own family made him sympathetic to me. But I do not believe this was the point. I believe Esmail, Obama, and Netflix want us to see him as a villain. The type of villain that you live around every day inside the United States of America. Here is another article that dives into this idea especially regarding the Obama’s elitism. My personal favorite contemplation regarding this movie involves deception. Could Obama by creating a fictional movie be showing us a glimpse into our future? But when confronted with this observation, he denies that is the purpose. But it really is the purpose. Take this as an example. “Whereas animal lures are straightforward, the human being is unique in being capable of a special kind of lure which involves a ‘double deception.’ This is a kind of lure which involves deceiving by pretending to deceive (i.e. telling a truth that one expects to be taken for a lie)…The classic example of the properly human lure is the joke quoted by Freud (and often cited by Lacan) about the two Polish Jews: ‘Why do you tell me you are going to Cracow so I’ll believe you are going to Lvov, when you are really going to Cracow?’…Other animals are incapable of this special kind of lure owing to the fact that they do not possess language.” Is LEAVE THE WORLD BEHIND a lure? Or is it just a harmless disaster movie with no actual agenda? That, my readers is up to you to decide. HERE IS WHY ANALYTICS WILL NEVER BE THE SOLUTION FOR SPORTS, CENTRAL BANKING OR ANY HUMAN PROBLEM11/29/2023 Back in 2003, mainstream journalist and FTX lover Michael Lewis released his most famous book, MONEYBALL: THE ART OF WINNING AN UNFAIR GAME. The book immortalizes Oakland GM Billy Beane who had to cut payroll and rebuilt the Athletics into a 100-win team using the art of analytics in only one season. A few years later, the Boston Red Sox became the first team to win a World Series using this system of analytics as their foundation. Since this book and the entertaining 2011 movie were released, analytics has taken over the game of baseball. Creating new acronyms in our society like OPS (On Base plus Slugging Percentage) for hitters, BB% (Walk Percentage) and K% (Strike Out Percentage) for pitchers, and WAR (Wins Above Replacement) for everyone, the means in which players are evaluated has completely changed from the game that was played in the 20th Century. Every aspect of the game is divided into percentages and statistics. What is the batter’s hit rate if the pitcher’s first pitch is a strike? What is the likely ERA of a starting pitcher after he has thrown 70 pitches? What are the chances of the Los Angeles Dodgers coming back from a 2-run deficit with San Francisco’s set up man and closer pitching the final two innings? Every aspect is now based on mathematical formulas. While there have been some interesting benefits to this system which has revolutionized the game, after over 20 years of usage, it is time to analyze what analytics or sabermetrics has done to the game from an entertainment perspective and where it has gone wrong. Then, we will analyze how other mathematical data analysis is used in another key aspect of our lives, central banking.
“Everyone sees it, everyone knows it, everyone recognizes its killing baseball, yet it persists. Baseball is ruled by math based on the broadest possibilities; ones that spread corrosion posed as wisdom.” Phil Mushnick When I was in school, I was very good at math and statistics. There is a basic logic to math that if you follow a specific formula or problem-solving mechanism, you will get a universal and definitive answer. You can’t lie about the solution to a math problem. But there is another problem with math. It is incredibly boring. Watching a baseball game where both teams strike out twenty times, most of the runs are generated by quick one or two run homers, and a pitching coach or manager make ten trips to the mound cumulatively between the two teams has sucked the air out of the game. Most baseball games are unwatchable now. Even Michael Lewis agrees with this. The game has become robotic, predictable, and worst of all, boring as hell. To fix this latter problem, the MLB had to institute a pitch clock to speed up the game and keep the fans in their seats due to the increase in pitching changes that analytics brought about. Because taking pitches is now one of the foundations of this movement, strike outs and home runs seem to set new record highs every season. Baseball used to have big personalities,” Lewis said. “It hasn’t accommodated them recently. Baseball has steadily been drained of emotion. The analytics movement has drained it of emotional content. What used to be a source of great drama was the manager coming out of the dugout and lifting third base and hurling it into the outfield and kicking dirt on the umpire. There’s no point in doing that anymore… You raise your hand and say, ‘Can we review the videotape?’ It’s become much more slickly professional.” In addition, there is no guarantee that analytics has created the “perfection” that was promised. One of the best examples of the failure of the analytics movement is Game 6 of the 2020 World Series. Blake Snell was unhittable through 5 1/3 innings. He gave up his second hit to Austin Barnes and was pulled after 73 pitches. He was replaced by Nick Anderson who preceded to give up a double to Mookie Betts. A wild pitch and fielder’s choice later, Tampa Bay was losing 2-1 on their way to blowing the World Series. Based on analytics, Snell should have been pulled in that scenario before facing Betts. But with the way he was pitching, a little common sense and leaving him on the mound through the sixth inning may have been the better outcome. Analytics cost the Tampa Bay Rays that game. There is no way to know if Snell would have blown the game if he had been left in. As people obsess over analytics and its robotic efficiency, they often fail to notice how the proper reliever may be brought into a game and not have his best “stuff” that evening. Or maybe a specific umpire has a tighter strike zone which will be a hindrance to your best side arm reliver who lives on the corners of home plate. Baseball analytics works when the percentages, and the formula succeeds. But it fails because analytics eliminates the emotion of the game, dehumanizes the sport, and does not account for the variables of the human experience, which is unpredictable, random, and chaotic. Taking an analytical stat like DRA (Deserved Run Average) seriously is ridiculous. The chaotic nature of sports means nothing is truly earned and nothing is deserved even on a percentage basis. If a player is having a bad run of luck or no support from his lineup, a statistic like DRA means nothing when evaluating a player. SIERA (Skill-Interactive Earned Run Average) and WAR (Wins above Replacement) are just percentage calculations and change nothing about the player’s current statistics. So, understanding the problems that analytics causes, what other fundamentally important aspects of our society are being burdened by mathematics? Well, there is the question of central banking. Almost every country in the world has a Central Bank. There is even an International Bank called the IMF run out of the United Nations that helps give assistance loans to third world countries as long as certain political goals and contractual obligations are met. In the United States, we have had a Central Bank since 1913 called the Federal Reserve. With a system set up to control the nation’s money supply with data coming in from every aspect of this nationalized economy, it would be logical to think that these “experts” would understand the economic problem and be able to fix it. But the Central Bank managers are incapable of doing anything other than putting out small fires while allowing larger infernos to blaze beneath the surface. There was never a Great Depression till we had a Central Bank. There would have been no tech crash without a Central Bank. There would not have been a mortgage collapse without the Central Bank. You can also not blame this problem on just one nation’s Central Bank. Every country in the world has different economic problems usually caused by a previous action undertaken by their Central Bank. Inflation in the UK Property Crisis in China Basic Overall Failure of the US Federal Reserve So, what could be the cause of these problems? Why can’t these Central Banks keep the economy healthy? First, almost every Central Bank will distort data which causes many of their projections to be incorrect. This inevitably leads to mal-investment and the creation of a new problem. This distortion of data allows the Bank to create a more positive narrative about the economy and prevent people from engaging in bank runs or losing confidence in their investments. Why is the bank incapable of projecting economic numbers? Because there is an inherent flaw with banking statistics that it shares with baseball analytics. The world is unpredictable and chaotic, and decisions made by human beings cannot be predicted by a computer algorithm. There is a famous book that explains this phenomenon and why the elites with their administrative need to control the flow of money can never succeed no matter how many data points reach their computers. After World War II, Austrian economist Ludwig Von Mises wrote the greatest economic book of all-time called HUMAN ACTION. It explains in detail that centrally controlled economies, especially Communist ones, will always fail economically. Because no matter the intention, Central Banks will distort an economy and create the conditions for bad investment, misplace demand for labor, and worst of all, allow preferential treatment of certain individuals and institutions over others. Human beings will make the market work through their own consumer actions and these actions will adjust the market to its proper pricing mechanism. These actions are incompatible with administrative spreadsheets and economic statistics. Here is the summary. “Mises argues that market-generated money prices are essential to determine the most highly valued uses for resources to satisfy consumer demands. He attempts to demonstrate the inconsistencies of piecemeal political intervention in the market economy and the pernicious effects of political control and manipulation of the monetary system. In Mises's view, government interventions that distort market prices always result in misdirection of resources, including labor, and mal-investments of capital, leading to inflationary upswings followed by inevitable economic downturns. Mises believed that the market economy was the only system that provided freedom and personal choice to all members of society while generating the means for coordinating the actions of billions of people in the most economically rational manner, and that monetary manipulation by central banks was one of the most disruptive distortions to the process of economic calculation.” All this is important to keep in mind because the globalists have every intention of plugging in every imaginable data point and statistic into artificial intelligence and allowing it to control our lives. AI can be manipulated based on the data that is inputted which is one major problem. But as mentioned above, how can a computer determine the intricacies of human speech, intelligence, and personality with statistics? It is an impossible task. But if we allow it to happen, baseball and Central banking aren’t the only things the administrative state is going to ruin. Online censorship, digital money, and digital identification are coming. These things will be just as bad if not worse than everything discussed here. It is time that we wake up to what is being prepared for all of us. A world run by data and statistics that has turned every living being into a dehumanized data point is not the future of humanity that we want. After all these con jobs, attempts at upselling, and data mining my information, you would think that this miserable ordeal was over. But before I could grab a craft beer and pour it down my gullet in celebration, another irritation came upon me shortly after final publication. I will explain this problem in two condensed parts.
The first problem revolves around the media. A couple of weeks after my book was published, my publisher released a “press release” to hundreds of newspapers, magazines, and websites for promotion. So far, I have done one authentic interview with a small-town paper. Before I explain what happened, I have to provide a little background. As an individual who worked in the television industry for 12 years, I have a firm understanding of how the money was made and how my toast was buttered so to speak. Advertising is the key to making money in television, magazines, and newspapers. It has been the foundation of the industry for generations. Without it, the newspaper industry would not have survived for centuries. But in the present day, there are other types of advertisements. One of the biggest is subscription fees paid by the consumer for a service or money received by a cable provider to carry a particular station to its consumers. Another, which this blog will be focusing on, is sponsored advertisements. If you do a Google search, usually the first search result will say “Sponsored.” Sponsored ads appear in newscasts to promote certain products. On television, the best example of a sponsored ad is a thirty-minute infomercial that usually airs at night. Once my “press release” was sent out into the world, the nightmare began. First was something called the Spotlight Network. It apparently exists only on Roku. The network contacted me for a ten-minute interview. But being from the television industry, my first question was, “How much is this going to cost me?” Confused by my response, the salesmen asked me why I thought this advertising would cost money. After explaining the concept of sponsored advertisements and the fact I worked in television for over a decade, he came out and stated exactly what I expected. $999 out of pocket for a ten-minute infomercial on a station with virtually no viewership on Roku. I told him I wasn’t interested. This did not stop the calls. For this nightmare to end, I had to register his phone number as spam on my Android Phone to block all future phone calls. Then, two magazines started to contact me (These shall remain nameless). They were only interested in my book based on how much advertising I could spend in their mediocre publications. The problem with both these magazines is that the demographic I was interested in targeting had no relation to the subject matter in either one. Finally, there is one last problem which will serve as a warning. Once the book is published, third party book services or providers scrape Amazon, my publisher’s website and Barnes & Noble to acquire the information regarding my book. They quickly create a page to buy the book for resale and charge an exorbitant price in a different currency. I have no control over stopping these websites due to them being created outside the United States. Here are several examples on Google alone. Indigo in Canada Mighty Ape in Australia Germany Bruna in the Netherlands Libris in Romania Prospero in Hungary Rakuten in Japan And many more. If you are interested in my book, buy it on Amazon, Google, Barnes & Noble, Thrift Books, or my publisher’s website. Do not get conned into purchasing it from any other source. Hopefully soon, this marketing nightmare will come to an end. Before posting Part 3 of my battle online with scam artists and con men revolving around my website and published novel, I want to take a slight, short diversion to current events. Over 3 weeks ago, the date October 7th became a part of the global lexicon. The terrorist organization Hamas with the help of gliders and parachutes launched an attack on Southern Israel that has killed over 1300+ people based on the latest estimates. This has led to a retaliation from Israel that has been brutal. The approximate numbers of dead in Gaza have surpassed 8000 people so far, most are women and children. The blood that is being spilled is extraordinary and has been continuous since Israel declared itself a nation back in 1948. While my anger with both sides regarding this dual tragedy is immense due to my peace-loving nature, I refuse to favor a particular side in this battle. I will not be taking up an Israeli or Palestinian flag and marching in solidarity with protestors. There are multiple reasons for this below. First, the crimes of the Palestinians.
1) Killing over 260 people at a musical rave where young people are just getting together to dance, have a good time and maybe to engage in a little drug use is unacceptable no matter how you justify it. 2) Killing another 1000 plus innocent people during the attack is not going to promote any sympathy on the global stage. Mass murder even for political reasons is still murder especially if the killing is indiscriminate (More on this later). 3) The three primary monotheistic religions, (Christianity, Islam, and Judaism), who want to claim the Holy Land for themselves has led to nothing but violence for over thousands of years. No side has a righteous claim when so much violence has been committed. Islam is very much a contributor to this problem. Now, the crimes of the Jews 1) Turning Gaza into an open-aired prison and concentration camp. Not many people on this planet want to be locked down in one spot, get intermittent internet service for a few hours a day, have their water shut off whenever Israel wants to punish the Palestinians, and submit themselves to security checks and constant searches while being unable to travel outside the territory. Human beings are social animals that do not like being locked down (See the COVID-19 pandemic backlash for more evidence of this). 2) The Israeli belief in collective punishment whenever the Palestinians fight back against their often-draconian measures. Collective punishment is a war crime. Despite how the Israeli leaders feel, the women and children of Gaza (And most of the men) due to the high population had absolutely nothing to do with the October 7th attacks. Unfortunately, Israel punishes them all the same. 3) Zionism is not the same as Judaism. Zionists are Jewish Nationalists in the same vein as the Ukrainian Nazis and America First Movement are Nationalists. I fear that the only way this Israel/Palestinian War ever ends is when one side is either forcibly removed or exterminated. And the Zionists are much more capable of this due to their technology and weapons of war. There are other questions that also need to be answered. How did the supposedly omnipotent Mossad “miss” all the training that Hamas did inside that constantly surveilled open-air prison as well as receiving warnings not only from the United States but Egypt as well? Did Israel blow up the Gaza Hospital? Evidence says no if you base it on a simple missile attack. But what if it was something else? The problem with every one of these stories is that Israel and Gaza are at war. With a warlike setting, there is propaganda which will be promoted by both sides to gain international sympathy. The world seems to support the Palestinians with protests occurring all over the globe (That were not staged). So, do college kids and an anti-war Jewish group? The United States media especially on the conservative side of it is very much propagandizing in support of Israel. And this is where my particularly unique opinion on this war is strongest. Conservatives who have been so right about the Ukrainian War, the evil rights destroying online technocracy being created, and the COVID-19 lockdowns are splitting over Israel and Gaza. Like always, the strong religious background of many Conservative Christians and their undying support for Israel, the country that can do no wrong, is fracturing the good elements of Donald Trump’s movement. Scumbags like John Hagee who disappeared from public consciousness after Bush Jr. left office is back with a vengeance. With this development now occurring inside the conservative movement, where does it leave us? An overwhelming number of conservatives and a strong minority of liberals support the war in Gaza waged by Israel. The liberals continue to support the other war in Ukraine. And the military industrial complex is laughing all the way to the bank. Eisenhower was correct. Too bad our stupidity blinds us to this basic reality. In addition, the damage being done to Trump’s movement with this ongoing split where Conservative Christians are aligning with the Never-Trumper Neo-Cons over Israel is an interesting development that could lead to his permanent destruction as a viable presidential candidate. Right now, not even Tucker Carlson is talking about this. But I think this conversation is inevitable. P.S. Fuck Ben Shapiro. There has been suspicion that overrated podcaster has had contacts with Jewish intelligence for years. One of his closest confidantes basically confirmed this. With conservative allies like this, I hate to see what the enemies look like. Before getting started on the incredible number of problems I had with my publisher, I would like to thank everyone who has purchased a paperback, hardcover, or eBook version of my book. I greatly appreciate your support and the next time we see each other; lunch or dinner is on me.
After completing my book back in May of 2022, the next step was getting it ready for publication. There are various ways you can go about this process. 1) You can send your manuscript off to some of the biggest publishers and hope the book is good enough to grab some attention. As an individual who has no connections in the industry, this proved to be a mistake. As a writer with no previous titles to my name, the work has to stand out and attract a massive audience. A travel book that analyzes the landmarks along a historical road is not going to give off any “Harry Potter” vibes. 2) Self-publishing was the next choice. There are lots of online classes and YouTube videos that explain the entire process. My biggest issue was not having the resources on my computer mixed in with the surprisingly long amount of time it was going to take to learn the process. In addition, accounting for my 40 hour a week job, my parenting and husband responsibilities, and my diverse number of interests, I just could not find the time to sit down and learn this skill. Intellectual exhaustion also had an impact. 3) So, the final choice was passing the responsibility off to a third-party independent publisher. After doing research and getting recommended a publisher from a podcaster who contacted me, I went with the publisher Xlibris. I bought their classic package for colored books. The total amount for publication was just under 2500 dollars. Certain aspects of marketing were given to me for free as the editor who reviewed my manuscript was impressed by it and gave me a thousand dollars of credit which I used on an editor and press releases. If only the experience could have ended here, we could have had a fairy tale Cinderella story. But this is when the nightmare began. After signing the contract, the phone calls began. Xlibris hassled me daily for a little over a month with constant phone calls and emails. Here is what impressed me about this harassment. The salesperson never gave up. Giving him a NO answer led to contacting me back with a cheaper offer. When this didn’t work, they resorted to psychology. “Don’t you want to be a bestselling author?” “We think your book has the potential for greatness.” “Spending money is the only way to make money.” While that last statement does have truth to it, I am also only an occasional idiot. But not a complete one. There were three main problems with their marketing offers that I saw right through. 1) The marketing to their “clients” had nothing to do with the clientele I was interested in acquiring. My manuscript is a historical travel book about a very specific region of the country. The people interested in this type of book probably number in the tens of thousands. So having my book appear at book shows in Europe and Asia seemed like a colossal waste of money and effort. As I mentioned to them in multiple phone calls, if you want to sell my book, put it in National Park bookstores, museums in the West, travel and road magazines, travel websites, etc. The money involved in marketing is not worth the price of trying to appeal to liberal intellectuals. So, for this process, I created my own business. After my first round of royalties, I am going to use whatever profits accumulated and reinvest it into the proper advertising demographic online and via print. 2) The advertising that was appealing to me like a personalized review in the NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW were brutally expensive. To do this sponsored review, I needed to drop close to 5000 dollars of my own money. For me to break even on this book, I would then need to sell close to 1000 copies of my book. The other problem was if you purchased all the marketing services in a package (At a reduced price per the salesmen on the phone), the cost runs up to 15,000 dollars. At this point, the whole thing becomes a giant scam. Here is the reality of the book publishing industry. Most books don’t even sell 100 copies. Per this article, “In 2004, 950,000 titles out of the 1.2 million tracked by Nielsen Bookscan sold fewer than 99 copies. Another 200,000 sold fewer than 1,000 copies. Only 25,000 sold more than 5,000 copies. The average book in America sells about 500 copies. Those blockbusters are a minute anomaly: only 10 books sold more than a million copies last year, and fewer than 500 sold more than 100,000.” And these numbers are even worse now as the publishing industry has declined by around 20% since the early 2000s. If I happen to sell more than 100 copies (Which according to my sales figures, could very well happen before the end of the year), I have already surpassed most authors. Since my book is evergreen and will still be historically accurate in ten years, this was my long-term goal with the novel. Anyone can buy this book and read it during my lifetime. I did not write this book to become rich. I wrote it because this experience of driving this road was something I was interested in sharing with the public. 3) Finally, the worst part of this whole process is the psychology that is used to try to convince you to part with your money. As a person who studies and is fascinated by propaganda, it enraged me that the tactics that governments and media outlets throughout the world use on their populace were being used to convince me to purchase a services product. Despite how I may be perceived, I am a pretty humble person and am realistic about my talent. I understand that this book is being written by a no-name author that only about 1000 people on this planet know personally. I am not going to become arrogant and believe that my novel is the greatest thing ever written, Because if you think this way, that is how they financially trap you. If you want to know what the experience was like, read these reviews online. There are people that are out over 20,000 dollars or have had their project completely ignored while also being bombarded with endless marketing calls. The only reason this was not an issue personally is that my editing was solid, and I understand the process. So, I would not let them get away with slacking on my novel. Despite all this, it still took 16 months for them to publish it. So, what is the lesson here? I don’t know. But it feels like every creative industry I have been involved with in my lifetime is a gigantic con. This includes the film and music industries also. The publishing industry is just another one of the immense frauds that bombard our lives daily (Insurance, Registration Fees, Property Taxes, Ticketmaster Fees, etc.) We live in a capitalist society where none of the capitalists have any sense of morality or ethics in their quest to make a precious dollar. Maybe this is one of the main reasons why this country is hanging on by a thread. Next week, the final part! |
AuthorEXPERT OF SOME Archives
February 2024
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