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Before beginning my big project in 2026 (Which may include a Rumble channel), I want to reflect on the year that just ended. 2025 feels like the fastest year from start to finish in my lifetime. If reaching middle age is a race to the end, than the sweet taste of death will be upon me much faster than anticipated. In 2025, I traveled more outside of the country than ever before. Due to being unemployed for a large chunk of the year, the family decided to spend some of our hard-earned savings on experiencing the different nation states and cultures of this planet. Back in March, we spent ten days in Mexico, a country I have always loved. In September, we spent fourteen days in South Korea and Japan. And during Thanksgiving weekend, we spent a few days on two Caribbean islands (Cozumel in Mexico and Roatan in Honduras) as well as experiencing Mayan ruins on a boat ride in Belize. Throwing in my Southern European adventure in late October/early November of 2023, I have visited eleven nations in a little over 14 months. I will admit to being fatigued and exhausted by all of this. Since I am starting a new higher paying job in Texas during the first week of 2026, I am looking forward to a slower, more boring life researching cultures and spending more time on the couch reading historical novels in my free time while helping my son get through high school.
As this will be my last blog of 2025, I want to make a few recommendations for entertainment that was released over this current year. 2025 may go down historically as one of the worst years of American culture in history. There is so much garbage in video games, television, and the film worlds. Hollywood is on its last legs and deservedly so. Video games which had their apex in the 2000s/early 2010s began their terminal decline to the eventual reality of super mergers and less creativity. And television’s golden age ended when the COVID lockdowns struck. But there were a few gems if you look hard enough. Films My two favorite movies this year are EDDINGTON and THE LIFE OF CHUCK. I have written about EDDINGTON here. THE LIFE OF CHUCK directed by arguably this decade’s best director Mike Flanagan (Especially for his television content) is a sci-fi ghost story with a large dose of philosophy that hits all the right notes. One of the most positive films I have seen in a very long time. WAKE UP DEAD MAN or KNIVES OUT 3 directed by the ever-dependable Rian Johnson is the best of the trilogy and a solid third place for the year. He somehow blends a murder mystery with a story about faith. Highly recommended for those who have not seen it. If you notice the pattern above, if a film has a good director (And in this case, all three directors of these films are highly respected), Hollywood still puts out some good content. You must look for it through all the political bullshit. In terms of video games, I have nothing to recommend. I have downloaded a very popular, highly rated game called CLAIR OBSCUR: EXPEDITION 33 for future play which I will review if the game is life changing in any way. Finally, television really begun its descent to the bottom. The two best shows were both from the science fiction genre. Everything else while good either felt underwhelming or disappointing compared to previous seasons. SEVERANCE Season 2 was one of the few fantastic shows with a continued star making turn by Adam Scott. The other show which has not completed its first season is PLUR1BUS which is the new show from creator Vince Gilligan. The first season of all his shows are the weakest before they evolve into must watch television. This first season has been amazing. Both these shows happen to be on Apple TV. So either you already have the membership, or buy the subscription for one month and power watch these shows (The other great sci fi show on Apple TV is DARK MATTER. Don’t miss that one either.) To show you where my head is at for the future, I have become fascinated with the religion of Zoroastrianism. This religion was the foundation of multiple Persian Empires before the time of Christ until the Islamic takeover of that area by the Rashidun Caliphate in the 7th Century which evolved into the Abassid Caliphate which lasted into the 1500s and was more heavily influenced by Persian culture. Zoroastrianism has an interesting back story. It was the foundation of the early Persian Empires, the Achaemenid, the Parthian and finally, the Sasanian which fell to the Caliphate. This religion was monotheistic and very similar to Christianity and Buddhism in many ways. Zoroastrianism was a very positive religion revolving around a God-like entity named Ahura Mazda who is in an eternal battle with the evil Angra Mainyu who creates destructive thoughts. Historians are still torn about how much influence Zoroastrians had on the Christian church and Buddhist spirituality. Without a doubt, Zoroastrians have the best place of worship (Fire temples) on the planet. There is one located near Houston that I will likely attend soon for curiosity’s sake. Anyway, Merry Christmas and a Happy 2026 to everyone. See you next year.
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Before beginning my long-term project (Which I will mention at the end of this rant), I wanted to write a blog that was pure speculation with questions. Since the COVID lockdowns in March of 2020, many of my core beliefs have been ripped out of my brain and flushed down the proverbial mental toilet. I have always leaned politically libertarian with my beliefs and have always perceived that an administrative government inside any nation state inflicts more harm than good on its population. As it increases in size and power, it becomes even more tyrannical, inefficient, and distant from the common voter. Despite seeing this in various government agencies throughout my life, the United States government still seemed like it was a necessary evil and manageable in size. It engages in more harm than good most of the time. Oe so I thought. With the degradation of our culture witnessed during COVID, it became very clear that almost all our institutions outside of our massive, corrupt government were also broken including banks, employers, the education system, the medical industry, charities, etc. This revelation has completely revamped my naivety about how society is supposed to function. When you do a deep dive into the people who are the most successful, especially at the management/administration level, you quickly realize that orthodoxy and a dogmatic belief in a broken system is the quickest path to an upper middle-class lifestyle. Questioning orthodoxies is not the path to success in a world that is heavily controlled by the interests of billionaire tyrants. Here are a couple of questions that have been banging around inside my brain over the last half decade.
1) During a period of collective orthodoxy with a good majority of individuals believing in false ideals, does this explain religious beliefs and some of the interesting questions asked by people like Elon Musk? Do we live in a simulation? Is there a God-like figure manipulating our lives with an Xbox controller and pressing buttons just to see how humanity reacts? Were the Wachowski Brothers right and our lives are also simulated while we are being harvested for our bio-energy? The answers to these questions are unknowable. But ask yourself this? If our world wasn’t filled with so much bullshit propaganda, tyrannical leaders, and political and tribal divisions, would we really be asking ourselves these questions? Back during the Roman Empire before the rise of Christianity, the Roman people used Gods as symbols to explain concepts that were outside the norm of understanding. The chaos of the world was unpredictable. If the island of Cyprus got hit with a hurricane, it meant that Neptune (Or in Greek, Poseidon) was likely angry with humanity. Living inside this bizarre 21st Century world, I understand these beliefs and why the Romans embraced this. Regarding Christianity, the thriving Roman Empire saw this religious sect as a cult during its heyday. As the Western Roman Empire began to crumble in the 3rd Century, more people turned to this new religion. It provided a form of mental comfort and meaning in a world bombarded with barbarian raiders striking all over Europe. When radical and often violent events don’t make sense and originate outside of a person’s reality, it may appear that supernatural forces are impacting your life. It may feel like the devil (Hades) has come to take your soul away to the underworld. For those who do pay attention and can perceive how insane the world has gotten, it makes sense that young people are flocking to religion since the COVID era. Individuals need some form of guidance, and the Gods of technology and government administration have turned out to be false prophets. So, religion is once again becoming the guiding principle for many youthful lives. 2) Has democracy failed? In a capitalist system where money leads to influence and power, is “reality” the world that the people with the most wealth and power inflict upon us through various psychological means? Is the “truth” whatever the most powerful people say it is? These questions have made me remember the infamous GRAND INQUISITOR poem from THE BROTHERS KARAMAZOV by Dostoyevsky. After capturing Jesus during the Inquisition, the Grand Inquisitor explains to Him how the world works. For humanity to unite, have success, and to get three meals a day, people need to allow the forces of the Devil to control them. Even the Church Jesus’s followers helped create to spread His message used the exact same tactics of control to gain its influence. The Inquisitor’s entire speech is given to demoralize Jesus and inform Him that his faith in humanity was misguided. On this note, it does appear we live inside a world loaded with fake science, false beliefs and false prophets, and even a form of monetary exchange that can be manipulated and counterfeited at will. Nothing feels honest or real in this world anymore. Every single truth can be questioned and likely considered a fabrication if “studies” were allowed to take place. And what we often believe is exactly what people with the influence want us to believe. Whether the constant dogmatic opinions and advertising propaganda is true is insignificant. A wealthy individual with influence can achieve his self-interested goals and continue to attain personal wealth and power at our expense. With any democracy, propaganda will always be present and controlled by the people with the most influence over our culture. Corporations spend billions of dollars on advertising to influence your mind even if what they are promoting is a lie. Per this wonderful quote from an article discussing our present-day cowardice regarding COVID: “The language used wasn’t scientific; it was religious. “Do your part,” “Protect the vulnerable,” “Follow the science.” Dogmas, not method. Questioning became heresy. “Denier,” “anti-science,” “murderer.” Moral accusations, not scientific disagreement. Experts as priests. Young people as sacrificial offerings. Obedience as virtue. All for a “greater good” that never existed, that was a deception. In the Cold War, the military-industrial lobby controlled fear. During Covid, the pharmaceutical lobby was the one running the show. Decisions favored record profits while 160 million people were pushed into extreme poverty. Not a coincidence. We are, in fact, the most cowardly society of all time. It wasn’t cowardice to be afraid of Covid. The fear was legitimate. The disease was real. The deaths were real. The cowardice was something else. It was accepting the moral inversion — old people sacrificing the young — without anyone raising a voice. It was obeying misleading propaganda from corporations with a $33 billion history of fraud fines. It was creating nothing — no art, no movement, no meaningful culture — from the greatest collective trauma in decades. It was forgetting quickly when remembering became inconvenient. The Cold War gave us “Born to Be Wild” and the slogan “Make love, not war.” Covid gave us vaccine passports and delivery apps. No transformative art. No revolution of thought.” Maybe the Grand Inquisitor was correct. 3) What is there to believe in? The most important of all these questions asked above. Living in a world where the truth seems to be in flux depending on which president or political party rules, the answer lies within yourself. A person with a healthy sense of personal morality and integrity will know how to live their life inside a world that feels like a construct created inside a virtual reality program. For every individual, they need to discover their purpose outside of the constant and persistent noise forced upon us that exists to destroy our individuality. Without gaining this insight, you may end up lost in the woods forever. IN TWO WEEKS: I will begin writing blogs about the origin of every nation state on the Earth with an introduction. Until then, I wish everyone a peaceful Holiday season. |
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December 2025
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