Also ten dystopian novels per day.

When I was an undergrad I took an English elective, Dystopian Novels.
We read everything on the topic going back to Plato up to modern times.

I keep thinking about that class recently.
Trump has covered every novel we read in that class.

Orwell's 1984 was an instruction manual for his regime.

Any titles you care to share?

my mind evolved exponentially in the class of
a really outstanding classical civilization
professor named Thomss McEvilly.

We had to study and memorize the constitutions of
various civilizations.

But it was what he taught about the evolution of
religions that really moved me forward, away from
thiking in terms of separateness and becoming
able to see themin a whole new light.

Yes the religions are not separate, they are all the same.

One illuminating day, the professor was recounting a story about Buddha.

The story is that one day Buddha was sitting under a tree meditating,
he cut off his hair and threw it up in the hair. The hair did not fall to earth,
but floated in front of him.

The class all laughed at the absurdity, but the professor then asked how is this any different
from the story that Christ walked on water. We don't laugh at that story.

A class of mostly 18 year olds were stopped in their tracks and silent.
Their life long religious dogma challenged and put in proper perspective.

The professor was an interesting man. He had red hair and pale skin, to me he looked Irish.
But he was a (devout) Jew of Eastern Europe descent. He was also deaf and had learned to read lips
and speak. He had a quiet, humble, sweet demeanor, but like your professor moved us all
forward into thinking adults.

The reading list in the other class was standard as I recall.
Plato's work about the nature of reality and humanity.
And then the more modern dystopian classic novels.
Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell.
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury.
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. ...
A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess. ..

What McEvilly did was show me that Jesus wasn't
created out of whole cloth, but was a direct
descendent of Mithra and Zoroaster. When he
illuminated the history of the way Christianity
came about, that really blew my mind and got
me to think about religion in a whole new way.

Later, Joseph Campbell came along and I delved
deeply into his life and writings; and weirdly
enough he had direct contact with my favorite
author, John Steinbeck, though not in a good
way. He fell deeply in love with Steinbeck's
then wife Carol; and at some point they
actually came to blows when Campbell didn't
like the way he treated her. But Steinbeck
being Steinbeck handled it with grace and
dignity.

Life is just so weird sometimes.

I didn't know that story about Steinbeck and Campbell.
Wow.

Yes my professor with a simple story showed us that all religions
are the same. The same mythology, same propaganda, all of them
really the same. And yes we followed the various sect lines and how it all evolved.

Our professors did a good job at turning us into thinking and educated adults.

The mysticism, the way prayer works,
the healing methods...

Religion per se is not inherently bad;
in fact, I'd say it's good and necessary
in a way.

Jung said people are hard-wired to worship.
I've seen this over and over, even in atheists
and agnostics.

It's the organized, top-down, money stuff
that corrupts it.

A connection to something greater than ourselves.
A way to feel supported and comforted.
Given some direction, hope, optimism.

The greedy and corrupt use this innate need for their personal gain.
As per usual, something good is used as a weapon.

Macbeth created the same world in Shakespeare's Scotland.

LADY MACDUFF Whither should I fly?
I have done no harm. But I remember now
I am in this earthly world, where to do harm
Is often laudable, to do good sometime
Accounted dangerous folly. Why then, alas,
Do I put up that womanly defense
To say I have done no harm?

Evil is rewarded, goodness is punished.

It does no good to state you are an innocent good person.
Society does not give a damn and it will not help you.

This was written over 400 years ago.
Human nature does not change much does it?

You know, all that hoopla about his real identity...

He probably didn't want people to know who he
really was.

I tend to go with Edward de Vere, the 17th Earl
of Oxford... but who knows for sure?

Who was Shakespeare.
Who was Jack the Ripper.
Who killed JFK.

What happened to Hitler. Did he die or go to Argentina.
Are there extraterrestrials here on Earth.
What happened when our men went to the moon.

Who makes the crop circles.

What are the biggest hoaxes than mankind bought hook line and sinker

What is Stonehenge.

Who were the most important people who ever lived that we do not know about.

Will humans ever overcome their evil dark underbelly and become decent people.

I assume St Peter will tell me to take my list, sit down and shut up.

Those are really good questions.

Was Jack the Ripper a member of the royal family?

I always found that idea both plausible and
fascinating.

Jack the Ripper was probably someone with medical training or butchering skills.
He was able to disembowel his victims very quickly and efficiently.
At that time most of the royal family had no training in any field?

It was nothing compared to this.

And back then there was a large group of Americans fighting for the right thing.
Justice, equality, peace, etc.

Now Americans just roll over for pure evil.

Yes I never thought this could happen in the USA.

Misogyny - check

White male privilege -- check

Puritanism -- check

The South shall rise again -- check

And so on.

It is the iconic human condition.

Good vs Evil.

Fighting the good fight is a given as long as humans live I guess.

living here in Texas with country, farming roots.

In my experience, people who live in the heart
of the big cities are generally OK.

But the ones in the suburbs and exurbs are not.

White flight is huge in Texas, and there you will
see a lot of pickups with confederate flags on them.

It's not pretty.

Pickups with Trump flags.
Scary.

But I don't see those around much any more.
Guess they feel they don't need to wave them around now.
They are in control.

Yes confederal flags are unreal. Bad and ugly.

Great great aunts in Nebraska were prominent
in the women's suffrage movement.

Aunt Kate Dore McGerr was prominent in the
Democratic conventions, and she was the
first woman to run for public office in
Nebraska, more than once.

Yes my Irish father, aunts and uncles were all Dems.
The women were strong and outspoken like your ancestors.

One thousand years of subjugation by the British gave the family a certain attitude.

The Irish women in my family have all been amazing,
including my sisters and their kids.

But the history of the boys is totally different.

My ex sister-in-law was also from an Irish Catholic
family in Wrentham, Massachusetts.

She went to UT law school, became a lawyer, and
eventually married my brother.

She was the legal counsel to the Senate Committee
on Education in the mid eighties, when Texas was
still blue. They did so much good for teachers,
including me.

The Dore side also has attorneys and a lot of
successful businesswomen.

British oppression made us what we are... and I
really kind of like us strong, independent,
Democratic women!

And though there are a few nutty trumpers here it’s surprisingly blue here. Than again it’s in Maryland.

Watching the morning shows with my sister was bizarre. “Buy this thing for the Fall season” or “Gear up for back to school with these fashions!”. Everything seemed very normal and so not normal at the same time. I hated it and despite my fears for my family, I couldn’t wait to leave.

On the one hand people are acting perfectly normal.
Back to school, beginning of football season, chatting about the weather.
Going about their daily life, business as usual.

On other hand, every day we witness the demolition of the US federal govt,
science, education, healthcare, US Constitution, Bill of Rights, Rule of Law.
And the witch hunt and revenge tactics against good and decent Americans.

So perfectly normal every day behavior on the part of the American people,
against a back drop of the end of American life as we know it.

It has been unbelievable to watch this in real time. The end of US democracy
and way of life. And the people, institutions, colleges, military, industry, courts,
congress, etc don't just go along with it, they cave in and are part of the destruction.
Not innocent bystanders but part of the demolition crew.

Events seem messy and anti-causal because of enormous external interference -- the timeline gets shunted in little ways we can't see or comprehend, but it's this would-be time machine owner(s) taking necessary steps to ensure they get or invent the time machine at a certain point. Clearly this is a complicated job, earlier adjustments likely leave little-to-no memory imprint on the loop participants, like dreams of a closely-related reality where a few things are noticeably different.

Yeah, complete fabrication of course, fictional flight of fancy, maybe dozed off watching Primer or Dark, but at least it's more entertaining than attributing humanity's stupid results to... well... humanity's own stupidity.

Some sort of giant karmic lesson for humans who have become lazy, greedy, stupid, and evil.

Or in other words a version of hell.

Perhaps Earth has been hit by a meteor of epic proportions and we all were
sent to our just reward. A little trip to the dark regions of the universe.

My friends, we have just entered the Twilight Zone.

I hope the country can survive it.

On so many levels.

Even if we survive, we will never be the same.

No, I don’t accept this group maga dystopian nightmare and when we come back to our collective consciousness we will construct a society built on trust and love…

We have witnessed the collapse of our country and fellow citizens.
It has been brutal and stunning.

The planned destruction of our government by the oligarchs and their cronies, and is not constructive.

Collapse is not the correct term, degrading of our democracy has happened and the consequences are going to be felt by many people.

Again I will repeat, I am the same person, yesterday, today and tomorrow.

It is a profound historical event of epic proportions and horribly sad.

Chapters of fascism and we will endure this one.

There are many people that want us to succumb to the oppression brought on by our current overlords including some right here on DU. !

You are an intelligent, feeling, kind person and know that is true.

perfect it. His first term, as many noted, was a test run, and they spent Biden's term to create Project 2025.

Hear many comparisons to the McCarthy era. Was a kid when that was going on and it was on TV every day when I got home from school. Many people don't realize that the silencing of speech continued into the 1960s with the House on Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC). College professors, at least in Fla., were being fired if their lectures leaned left and a student turned them into college administrators.

If we survive this administration, it will take years to recover all our freedoms and revive our economy.

A tragic series of events that Rod Sterling could never have imagined.
He fought in WWII. And never would have guess one day the USA would fall
into fascism.

Stephen Miller smelled blood and it was time to go full steam.




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