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2021 is only hours away. Probably every person on this planet is looking forward to the year 2020 moving into our past. Besides the mask mandates, lockdowns, the employment devastation, and the bizarre feeling that every human being on this planet was replaced by pod people from Invasion of the Body Snatchers or by humanistic cyborgs, 2020 will be remembered for bringing the word “COVID-19” into our lexicon. In my 46 years on this planet, I have never seen any tragic event (This includes 9/11) that has changed and had more impact on our lives than this pandemic. Despite the bombardment of bad news our media has been feeding us since March, there is one additional change in our American society that has also distressed me. What happened to our collective sense of humor? It is like a vacuum was turned on inside everyone’s home and our personalities were sucked into outer space never to be seen again. The stress of our lives caused by this virus, the lockdowns, the remote instruction (For individuals with children), the economic uncertainty, the blacklisting of celebrities and other citizens for their lack of political correctness sometimes made decades ago, and a pending sense of doom has completely eliminated the smile (Not to mention the masks) that helps get me through the day. What will be required to bring back the United States’ sense of humor? Maybe this Dave Chappelle monologue below can bring a few back. Dave Chappelle Stand-Up Monologue - SNL - YouTube I do not have the answers to these questions asked above. All I know is that 2020 was filled with more moments of hopelessness, distress, and anger than I can personally remember at anytime in my life. Violence is skyrocketing all over the country inside our urban cities. A generation of children are falling behind in their education. People are just angry, scared and sad. In difficult times like this, it is often best to pare down your life to its simplest elements. When you wake up tomorrow facing a new year, ask yourself this question. What do you have in your life that is important to you? What gets you out of bed every day and motivated to live life? In times of turmoil, these are important questions to ask. Because without that sense of joy, that feeling of love, or accomplishment, what is the point of living? I will give you a sense of my own personal life as an example of this type of reflection. Even though I blanket my life in privacy, there are so many glorious things that keep me going every day. I have a life partner of 24 years who loves me no matter how much we bicker and have fought in the past over ridiculous first world problems. I have two amazing children, a 22-year-old daughter and a 9-year-old son. Whether through an intellectual debate with my daughter about all the varieties of identity in our society and her patience with my lack of understanding about the majority of them to my son who likes to moon me whenever he gets the chance, each of my kids is unique and funny (Especially the boy) and bring me joy in their own individualistic ways. My extended family of my mother, my sister and my niece and nephew can be frustrating, but they always know that I am available to chat and visit them in Arizona when necessary. Their presence in my life has made me this complicated, piece of work. I have even learned to embrace my failures. If you are my friend, you probably get bombarded with text messages sent by me. My hope with these texts is that you learn something or research the topic with as much passion as I have. But I also know that many of these same people would probably like me to stop. These text messages are sent out with nothing but love and respect from my always curious mind. I have also been mostly disappointed with my professional career at this point. Being a person who is good at everything that AI and technology is starting to replace, I have had to maintain an open mind and change with the evolving times. Since graduating from college in 1998, my life has never been stable for any period of time longer than six years (2004-2010) before chaos engulfs me again. My super power is that I can learn and adjust my life on the fly. I never get distressed with these changing circumstances. I also know that many people perceive my intentions incorrectly. This has been an ongoing problem with my life that still has no resolution. If you could read someone’s mind, I guess that could help me resolve this problem. But perception is also very personal, and it is not my business to interfere with someone’s private thoughts. Even though these are some of my worst flaws, I still wake up every day doing my best to resolve these problems. Because without the motivation of trying to be a better person, what is the purpose of life? For all my friends, family, acquaintances, fellow work colleagues and anyone else who crossed my path throughout my life, I appreciate the impact that you have had on me whether you realize it or not. Happy New Years to everyone! Talk to you again soon!
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My blog this week is going to be short. Everything about the year 2020 feels like it came out of a Philip K. Dick sci-fi dystopian novel. So much has happened from a health, political and sensory perspective, it is hard to reflect on the events of this past year with an objective mind. Lockdowns are still active in many states, tens of millions of American citizens have been negatively impacted financially by this virus and governmental actions, while we face a country and world that is changing so rapidly from an economic and political perspective that it is difficult to perceive where all these changes are going to take our country. In difficult and chaotic times like this, it is always good to simplify and focus on the important things in your life. One of the better articles that tries to frame a positive mindset regarding this virus is from the Financial Times of India. Nine steps to improve your life in a world that is no longer recognizable to most individuals on this planet. If the lockdowns have you down, I have also found that taking a 1 to 2 mile hike around my neighborhood and enjoying the outdoors is a fantastic way to bring some much needed clarity.
I hope everyone enjoys the Holiday season. Remember to be responsible and most importantly, be a free thinker and do your research before making decisions. I have been to six states since the COVID-19 lockdown (California, Arizona, Nevada, Oregon, Idaho, and Montana) and have not been afraid of interstate travel because I take responsibility for my actions. If you protect yourself, there is no reason to live in fear of COVID-19. Until next time and Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! “You’re going to find that many of the truths we cling to depend greatly on our own point of view.” / “The truth is often what we make of it; you heard what you wanted to hear, believed what you wanted to believe.” – OBI WAN KENOBI from The Return of the Jedi (1983).
During this Christmas season, it is time to wax philosophical about our culture. There is no better quote to help find perspective on this incredibly chaotic year than this Obi Wan speech from a beloved science fiction film franchise. So what is Obi Wan trying to tell Luke Skywalker here? From my perspective, it is the foundational understanding that the unique cultures, families, and regions that impact and influence us during our lives is what develops us into the individuals that we become. This includes a diverse range of personal beliefs, ethics and morals that help frame the human point of view. Because human beings develop these wide range of perspectives, something that one person finds to be ‘true’ can be perceived as ‘false’ information by different individuals. Our culture is supposed to debate, study, and analyze these differences and make the best choices for our society. The important aspect that is often forgotten when debating these type of personal morality and social issues is that even if you disagree with someone about these topics, it is always better not to ‘force’ your belief onto these individuals. If you are correct in what you believe, the person will either discover the ‘truth’ in time or will continue to live their life with this delusion. But also, maybe their point of view is the correct one and you are stuck in the delusion. But a third possibility especially when it relates to ethics is that there is no proper answer or solution. As a person who grew up in the Catholic Community and walked away from it at 18 due to personal dissatisfaction with the church, I understand the atheistic and often liberal point of view about the ‘evils’ of religion. The Catholic Church did not do itself any favors with the child sexual abuse scandals which engulfed the entire world. The problem is institutional and may never be fixed. For people who despise the church, the Catholic religion is self-destructing on its own. But the one thing that our government has difficulty emulating is the sense of community that the church provides. Even considering my own personal problems with the church, many of the people that were part of this community are still part of my life almost 30 years later. Many individuals of the more ‘conservative’ political persuasion still find importance in these local institutions which also include organizations like Freemasonry, the Boy and Girl Scouts, local sports like the AYSO (American Youth Soccer Organization), various organizations that fit your personal interest like the Audubon Society or Hiking Clubs, and charities. These organizations and charities help frame an individual’s morals and is why many conservatives are inherently more distrustful of governmental institutions that often expect compliance over social and moral issues that make many of these individuals uncomfortable. This love of community can also be seen as the reason for the strong nationalistic feelings that have captured conservative politics during the Trump era. Another example that serves as a generalization of many individuals that define themselves as left-wingers (With exceptions of course) is their faith in government and belief in full equality which represents their own ‘form’ of religion. This writer analyzes in this article how the modern system of progressivism is obsessed with eliminating systemic tools of oppression and creating a culture of moral righteousness and equality in a socialized utopia which is similar to the 18th Century Puritan’s belief in individuals participating in their society for collective ends. Per this quote about Puritan culture, “The individual was free insofar that the individual consented to enter a covenantal union to be guided by law so to build a just community that could last forever.” This progressive belief in social and economic equality enforced by the government is the 'religious' belief for many of the best left-wing thinkers. This also explains why corporations are a primary target of progressive anger. When an economic system creates massive inequality among the financial overlords at the top compared to the workers at the bottom, the corporation can be seen as the ‘Bond’ villain that must be boycotted at all costs. Considering these two divergent perspectives (And there are many others), there is a strong ‘puritanical’ belief system that impacts American’s thoughts which leads individuals to strongly defend their personal ethics. This strong belief system has existed and evolved since the immigration of the Puritans from England back in the 17th Century. This is one reason why the United States can be considered one of the most individualistic and meritocratic countries in existence since its founding. This is also why many Americans have utopian dreams about creating a more perfect community and country. Every ideological group in the United States can be perceived as radical. Our country became independent from the United Kingdom because of radicals. This could also be directly blamed for why many individuals in this country are consumed with their own sense of moral righteousness which leads to the inevitable closed-mindedness towards perspectives that differ from their own. Both sides of the political aisle are guilty of this behavior. Conservatives often have difficulty embracing cultural and social changes in our society that bring them personal discomfort. This causes them to reject certain realities about our ever-changing culture. But liberals often believe in their own moral superiority and arrogance due to their personal quest of improving society while ignoring the fact that not everything they preach can be supported by reality. Liberals have difficulties with individuals like libertarians that reject the values that they promote with their facts and prefer to opt out of their utopian ideals. This leads me into my main point. Why is there hardly any anger over the increased censorship that has been occurring on the internet by our largest technology corporations? Specifically, Facebook, Google, and Twitter seemed to be aligned with the opinion of the Radical Center. The Radical Center promotes itself as the ‘realistic’ and ‘pragmatic’ solution to the insanity of the left and the right. Another proper description for the Radical Center is a political fusion of corporate and government power. During this COVID-19 lockdown, there has been a tremendous rise in online censorship that has devastated many conservatives and other thinkers from a far-left perspective. Tom Woods, a prominent libertarian thinker, got removed for questioning the narrative of the “Covid Cult”. Popular socialist websites have also seen the ban hammer from Google. J.P. Sears, a person I follow on YouTube who makes satirical videos about our present-day society with 1.5 million followers, was recently threatened with being de-platformed from the website. J.P. Sears did a TED talk a few years back that has over a million views. So what has changed? Why is censorship becoming a massive problem for anyone who thinks outside of this ‘Radical Center?’ If we look at the idea of truth from the perspective of the multiple viewpoints mentioned above, it definitely appears that the ‘Radical Center’ or the technocratic industrial government complex is enforcing their version of the ‘truth’ on everyone else. But are their facts actually the ‘truth?” The CDC tells you that wearing masks is necessary for slowing the spread of a disease. A recent study from Denmark informs us that masks have no impact on preventing the spread of COVID-19. Reason magazine even did an analysis on a flawed study that found mask wearing causes a decline in COVID-19 cases. So who is telling the truth here? To follow up that question, why is the only point of view getting censored online involve the people who are opposed to mask wearing? The same goes for people who oppose the lockdown. The mainstream media is in full support of these lockdowns which are having an unbelievable cultural impact on our nation. The WHO (World Health Organization), which is an organization that the United States supported until recently, has never supported the lockdowns since April of this year. So why is the only point of view being censored online revolve around any medical professional calling for the end of lockdowns? Don’t we have the right as American citizens to evaluate both points of view and make the decision on our own without government bureaucrats choosing the ‘truth’ for us? The problem also seems to impact anyone who believes that November’s election may have had some instances of fraud. According to the Boston Globe, only 60% of Americans think Joe Biden won the election fairly. News outlets keep telling us that this is the case. But many news organizations are also compiling massive amounts of evidence telling us that fraud occurred primarily in the six states that were undecided after Election Night. So who is getting banned? Well, the tech companies have picked the side of a free and fair election. Any questioning of this narrative gets you banned from YouTube. I can not tell you how dangerous this type of censorship has become. Based on the political issues that have been getting removed and banned online, the tech companies are specifically banning any ideas outside of the narrative that the government is promoting. When it all boils down to it, the tech companies, and their government enablers maybe accurate with their facts. But as a citizen that supposedly lives in a free society that likes to question any perspective with an open mind, can I not come to this conclusion on my own? Because when it comes to censorship, history has proven that authoritarians and governments that engage in this activity usually have something to hide. So because of this, I hope that MeWe, Parler and Rumble succeed. Because our country needs these platforms to succeed if we are concerned about censorship. Help the EFF fight censorship here. This is unacceptable to allow this as a society in the 21st Century. Last week, I published a blog related to futurist and satirical novelist Kurt Vonnegut that was supposed to tie into the two topics being discussed this week. But after going off on a 400-word tangent on Kurt Vonnegut and the brilliance of his first novel Player Piano, I decided to publish that blog as an appreciation for that novelist and push these topics back till today. As I waited another week to discuss these topics, more news was released that helps bolster the information in this blog. This blog will cover two topics that recently came to my attention. The first subject revolves around recent investment tools which most individuals probably have no knowledge of and the impact that these investments could have on our society. The second subject is a few updates related to the crypto universe that relate to our primary topic as well as a couple of interesting ‘experiments’ that border on the ridiculous. It is shocking how much things have changed in 2020 where the ideas presented in this blog would have been considered outside the norms of legitimate debate. Now, they just seem to be the new normal in our rapidly devolving world.
I am going to be diving into a topic that is definitely not an ‘expertise’ for me. But I want to try to understand the goal and purpose of what is trying to be accomplished. My feelings on global warming are mixed. I do believe that the planet Earth has been warming up for the last few decades. My problem is that the reasoning for the warm up is not clearly defined. People of the liberal persuasion want to blame corporate mega-polluters and irresponsible governments for global warming. Al Gore told us that the polar ice caps would melt in 2013, the ocean would rise 20 feet leaving Florida underwater, and the polar bear would starve to death. Well, Al Gore is a politician. Politicians are prone to lying to promote a viewpoint that they are passionate or financially motivated about. Gore’s predictions have not been very good and the polar bears appear to be just fine. On the other hand, conservatives tend to support the idea of a warming sun as the cause. This is a legitimate reason as the earth has gone through periods of warming and long-term, hundred million yearlong ice ages (According to this article, we are currently living in the Quarternary Ice Age). So considering all this information and whether you believe it or not, count me as a cynic on the global warming topic from the point of view of it being human caused. One of the best things that Donald Trump did was get the United States out of the Paris Agreement because if the sun is warming up and our current ice age is coming to an end, there is absolutely nothing we can do from a human perspective to resolve this global warming problem unless we want to build Mr. Burns’ Sunblocker. Plus, there is just not enough evidence showing that one opinion on this topic is more legitimate than any another. Keeping this in mind, I received a recent email from Uphold, an investment company involved in international currency, metals, a small amount of stocks and cryptocurrency. Uphold came to my attention through the usage of the Brave Browser. I have been using the Brave Browser on my PCs and Android phone for over two years. The genius of Brave is that they block internet advertisements and serve you ones promoted by their company. Many of the advertisements promote open-source corporations and websites, a callback to my Linux days. Acknowledging the advertisements gets you paid in the crypto BAT, the Basic Attention Token, which you can donate to other online publishers or collect for yourself to invest on the Uphold platform. Currently, I have invested a little under 300 dollars on the platform and the money has grown to nearly 400 over the past six months. I have invested in nine cryptocurrencies, two stable currencies (The Croatian KUNA and the Singapore DOLLAR), and silver. I recently received an email from Uphold about a new crypto token that is related to this global warming movement. Called Universal Carbon (Symbol UPCO2), it allows people to buy, hold or sell tokenized carbon credits. These credits can be purchased by the biggest corporate or governmental polluters in the world to offset their carbon production. Where have you heard this idea before? Well, there are two places. The first is the idea of cap and trade. As this article states about cap and trade, “It’s a system designed to reducepollution in our atmosphere. The cap on greenhouse gas emissions that drive global warming is a firm limit on pollution. The cap gets stricter over time. The trade part is a market for companies to buy and sell allowances that let them emit only a certain amount, as supply and demand set the price. Trading gives companies a strong incentive to save money by cutting emissions in the most cost-effective ways.” The second is from Article 6 of the Paris Agreement where one of the primary solutions of global warming revolves around the idea of multi-national corporations attempting to create a carbon market for bankers and financiers to trade this element. As Wikipedia notes, “Broadly, it outlines the cooperative approaches that parties can take in achieving their nationally determined carbon emissions reductions. In doing so, it helps establish the Paris Agreement as a framework for a global carbon market.” If there wasn’t money to be made, do you really think that global warming would be an issue that we have been propagandized to believe over the past 25 years? Turning the element of carbon over to a financialized trading market to help reduce emissions (If that actually is the case) is not going to resolve this problem in anyway. In fact, all that a carbon market can do is create scarcity and likely lead to a potential ‘carbon’ tax where every individual on the earth will have to pay a fee or buy a Universal Carbon token to offset their breathing, commuting and resource burning that occurs in their daily lives. Because if we eventually do convert everyone to a ‘green energy’ world, carbon will always be created in some way (Animals and humans, Petroleum, Manufacturing). Also, if carbon dioxide is going to be eliminated, what is that going to do to the precious Amazon rainforests that environmentalists constantly show concern about? Don’t trees need CO2 to survive? The second aspect of this new ‘financialization’ of everything in the world revolves around the most important liquid asset of all: water. Well, starting this week, water will now be traded as a commodity on U.S. exchanges. As this article states, “Farmers, hedge funds, and municipalities will soon be able to trade water contracts linked to the $1.1 billion California spot water market, according to Bloomberg, citing Chicago-based CME Group. Water contracts will help users manage risk and better align supply and demand. They were first announced in September as wildfires ravaged western states. "Climate change, droughts, population growth, and pollution are likely to make water scarcity issues and pricing a hot topic for years to come," said RBC Capital Markets managing director and analyst Deane Dray. "We are definitely going to watch how this new water futures contract develops." Tim McCourt, global head of equity index and alternative investment products at CME, said billions of people around the world live in areas where water scarcity is a major problem. "The idea of managing risks associated with water is certainly increased in importance," McCourt said.” Memories of the rolling blackouts that ravaged California back in the early 2000s have come rampaging back into my mind. As history showed us, Enron used the deregulation of the energy market in California to manipulate and drive-up prices which led to the energy being in short supply leading to the summer blackouts. Thinking about this from the carbon perspective, this is probably an honorable goal with good intentions that could lead to oppressive, authoritarian tactics. But from a water perspective where the quest to make a profit greatly outweighs the importance of individuals who can die to a shortage of water, this new ‘water market’ will attract greedy investors, and this can only end in a human created tragedy. Besides carbon and water, there are plenty of other investments that revolve around important resources that you can make. Oil ETFs and Futures. Check. Corn ETFs and Futures. Check. Wheat ETF. Check. Livestock ETF. Absolutely. How about Video Games? Yes, youcan bet on the future of that industry also. I have always been a proud individualist with more of a libertarian-left, mutualist focus. Not everything in our world needs to be bought, traded, and sold. Some aspects of our life should exist for the public good. Electricity, Water, Carbon, and National Parks are four great examples of this. City run utilities are usually more efficient than corporate run ones. Water and Carbon are naturally occurring commodities that are required for human beings to live. National Parks are probably the only entity run by the U.S. government that it handles well. If something happened to these Parks, it would not be shocking if a charity or organization came into existence to take over the maintenance and protection of them. I also believe in co-operative type organizations. Has there been any invention over the last thirty years that has had more social impact and cooperation from the public than the creation of the decentralized Linux community? Trading commodities is a step too far for our Great Reset loving, authoritarian capitalists. All these financial tools will do is create more scarcity and difficulties for the average person who will not even be aware that the shortages in their town are created by these investment tools. So ExpertofSome, how does this all relate to crypto? Well, the UPCO2 token is likely showing us the way. As the Universal Protocol Alliance states on their website, “Every asset class will be digitized and tokenized.” My Brave Browser’s BAT is one form of this tokenization by paying me in crypto when I view advertisements that are served to me. One of my personal favorite coins, SushiSwap, allows you to buy crypto and exchange it for delicious sushi. Pepsi Company has created PepCoin, a way for the company to pay you in corporate controlled crypto for every product that you buy. Because blockchains are public ledgers, they track every crypto transaction that has ever been made. Now that this technology is further understood by governments, corporations, and the public, the blockchain, which was created to celebrate the idea of decentralization, may actually be the greatest financial tracking tool ever invented. There is a reason why governments and corporations are pushing us towards a ‘cashless’ digital society. Blockchains may be the final nail in the coffin for financial freedom and privacy. Because if the United States is contemplating the idea of a Fedcoin, you know that the blockchain will be controlled by a centralized Federal Reserve database that will be able to monitor every financial transaction that you make. This future is not certain. As a person who invests in crypto on a speculative level, there are plenty of options out there where you can maintain some aspect of privacy and bank outside of the financial system. The idea that Bitcoin has set off has led to some amazing innovations in the crypto currency universe. Ethereum changed the conversation by creating a platform that allowed the building of applications onto a single blockchain powered by the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) that processed the smart contracts created by developers that are put into the Ethereum blockchain in a permission less fashion. There are now hundreds of different cryptos that have been developed onto this Ethereum system. I invested into Cosmos which is tied around the idea of various blockchains from different cryptos communicating with each other in a decentralized way. Besides this, there are also some amazing privacy coins where anonymity is the primary feature. ZCash created a crypto with a private blockchain that records the transaction, but the data is confidential meaning that the sender, receiver, and transaction amount are all private. Monero encrypts all of its data to shield personal data and transaction amounts on the blockchain. One of my new personal favorites is called Pirate Chain (ARRR, Get it?). This one goes even farther by shielding all activity on the blockchain (Because users can reveal themselves on privacy coins by ignoring the security protocols). Pirate Chain is 100% anonymized and private and will likely become more popular as the system is tested. There are always various options out there to protect your freedom in an increasingly oppressive world. Let me know your thoughts on these topics above. Talk to you next week!  I have delayed writing about crypto since this lockdown started due to the rapid changes undergoing our domestic and global economies. This pandemic tied together with rapid job loss and remote schooling and work has thrown the world into increasing chaos. As a previous August post of mine notates, the billionaires have made their intentions clear on the direction they intend to guide the world. As Dr. Strangelove Klaus Schwab sociopathically explains here about the world he is helping to initiate, “Nothing will ever return to the ‘broken’ sense of normalcy that prevailed [earlier]. We … will be surprised by both the rapidity and unexpected nature of these changes – as they conflate with each other, they will provoke cascading effects and unforeseen outcomes”. Whether you agree with the World Economic Forum’s leader’s vision is up to your personal morality. But from my perspective, the world he has planned is a technocratic authoritarian dystopia that will not be beneficial to the United States citizen’s values of freedom, individuality, and happiness. The ability to pursue and achieve the lifestyle of the future that is satisfactory for your needs will likely be dependent on an algorithm or artificial intelligence. When you evaluate the “Great Reset” and the overall plan, it is a hybrid mix of the dystopian novels “1984”, “Brave New World”, “Fahrenheit 451”, “Minority Report”, and “Player Piano.” Since these first four novels are stone cold classics and contain elements of our potential future technocratic dystopia, I want to focus on this last one mentioned since most people are likely unaware of it. The novel was the first for author Kurt Vonnegut, still one of my favorite writers of all time. Vonnegut is probably more well known for his novels Slaughterhouse Five, Cat’s Cradle, and The Breakfast of Champions. These novels are known for their sharp wit, dark comedy and fourth wall narrations. As Billy Pilgrim often tells himself in Slaughterhouse Five, “So it goes.” The plot of Player Piano discusses a world from two points of view. After World War III was fought, industrialists created a technologically advanced world where automation replaces middle and lower-class workers who are not given their jobs back at the end of the war due to the efficiency of the system they created. The workers that are displaced are excluded from society and are forced to work civil service jobs as their unique talents are replaced by more efficient machines. But like all novels about the dangers of technology, the elitist “managers” and “engineers” also slowly start getting replaced as the technology continues to improve and evolve. This eventually leads to a reckoning of the society that was created by these industrialists. The second plot point revolves around a foreign leader, the Shah of Bratpuhr, a spiritual leader for six million people of a small undeveloped nation who is observing this technologically advanced world as an outsider as he tours the country. This book has aged like a fine wine. As Vonnegut even acknowledged in 1983, “this novel is becoming more timely with each passing day.” What Player Piano gets right revolves around two main ideas. First, the idea that automation and artificial intelligence is going to replace a large majority of workers is a legitimate threat in our present-day world. Article, after article, after article has been warning us about this future. The technologically advanced world that was supposed to bring about personal independence, open-mindedness, and endless opportunity has quickly been exposed for the lie that it always was. Instead, we are getting technology similar to the type that Vonnegut so eloquently explains in his novel. Technology exists for the supreme efficiency that it creates for the world’s wealthy. The concern and needs of the lower and middle class are conveniently ignored. If you want to see this idea taken to a radical extreme in our present day, please watch the Netflix documentary American Factory. The documentary focuses on a Chinese company’s purchase of a failing American factory. The Chinese oligarch quickly becomes disenfranchised with his blue-collar workers and slowly begins to replace them with machines. By the end of the movie, the entire factory is almost all robotic and most of the workers have had their jobs eliminated. No documentary in our recent times has been more of a reality check than this one. Americans need to understand that this future is rapidly approaching whether we accept it or not. Second, the novel exposes another problem in our present day, our elite’s superiority complexes that have made them arrogant. The problem is that like Vonnegut’s book, once a system like this has been created, the victims of that system become endless. Just like the elimination of supposedly lower and middle-class skills that are done more efficiently by machines, it does not take too long until the engineers and managers can also be replaced by more effective automation. How long before computers can code better and faster than the best computer engineer? If you have never read Kurt Vonnegut, there is no better time to dive into this brilliant author than in our present day 21st Century dystopian lockdown world. The man was an underrated genius who has left an indelible impression in my mind through his own creativity. One of my favorite moments with Vonnegut was his cameo in the movie Back to School starring Rodney Dangerfield. Rodney hires Vonnegut to write an evaluation of a 'Kurt Vonnegut' novel which his literature professor Dr. Diane Turner (Sally Kellerman) rejects after she finds out Rodney did not write it. She also blasts the writer of his evaluation (Vonnegut) by saying, "And to tell you something else, whoever did that does not know the first thing about Kurt Vonnegut." Such a brilliant scene! |
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