Explanation Of A 30 Day Hiatus

Those of you who follow this blog and/or visit it regularly have probably noticed that this is the first blog post I have written and posted during the month of June 2021 which is not my usual modus operandi.  I usually post at least 4 or more new blog posts in every calendar month and rarely do less.  This has been my practice over the last several years and the number of the followers on the blog has steadily grown over the last couple of years from about 50 to nearly 200.  I appreciate the continued interest in what I have to say in my writing.  I attribute a large part of the recent growth in the number of followers to my use of Facebook Appalachian themed groups to promote this blog and specific blog posts.  For me, this has been the best part of being on Facebook other than the ability to maintain contact with numerous friends on the site, both old friends from as far back as 50 years ago, and new friends whom I have gained from being on Facebook.  When I say "New Friends" with regard to Facebook, I am referring to a small group of people whom I have come to know through the site on a meaningful personal level and not those who have sent me a Friend Request because something I posted there appealed to them.  But for me, over the last several months to a few years, Facebook has steadily become an ever growing irritant due primarily to the mercenary advertising practices they use, especially the fairly recent practice of selling undeleteable, unblock-able ads and posting those ads repetitively on my personal timeline.  I despise the practice and everything it connotes about Facebook and any company or agency which would stoop to attempting to force Facebook users to read their ads in order to see the content they actually came to the site to see.  So I took a 30 day hiatus from Facebook where some of you blog readers also have regular contact with me.  It has been a pleasant month since I have not had to read any unblock-able, undeleteable ads.  I haven't missed, posted on my timeline before I logged off on May 30, 2021, that I was going to take a month off, and I am certain that I will use Facebook far less in the future.  I have actively considered leaving the site completely and will still not rule out that possibility.  I put my time to good use this past month, submitted a collection of short stories to publishers, wrote some stories I needed to write, and also submitted several other unpublished stories to magazines, etc.  I also stayed in e-mail contact with most of the people who matter the most to me personally.  This was actually the second time I have taken a month off Facebook.  In October 2017, my wife Candice and I took a 28 day road trip in the Southwest through Louisiana, Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona.  We even spent a few hours in Nogales Mexico.  And, not once did we use Facebook during that entire trip.  It was also a very pleasant month.  

As of right now, I will continue to use Facebook in a limited way to maintain contact with real, live friends and to promote this blog and new posts in particular.  But I will likely never again make a habit of being on Facebook for, at least a while, every day.  I will also use the same Facebook Appalachian groups for personal learning and promotion of the blog.  But I will continue to do one thing I had been doing for quite some time before I took this month off and will IMMEDIATELY log out of Facebook anytime an unblockable, undeleteable ad appears on my timeline or on any group I might be using at the time.  I will also never sign into my personal timeline and begin scrolling down it because anytime you do that the next thing you see will be an unblock-able, undeletable ad; and that is when I will also log out.  When I log out under those circumstances, I will not log on again until, at least, the next calendar day.  I suggest that all of you do the same.  Do not allow Facebook to force you to see ads you do not want to see.  Do not allow their corporate greed to make you tolerate more of their corporate greed.  What Facebook and their advertisers are doing with these ads in nothing more or less than the corporate based totalitarianism which writers like George Orwell and Noam Chomsky warned us about.  They are using their power to control you and your actions.  Don't allow them to do that anymore.  Read the quotation below from Noam Chomsky and you will understand exactly what I am talking about with Facebook and these unblockable, undeletable ads. 

“It’s ridiculous to talk about freedom in a society dominated by huge corporations. What kind of freedom is there inside a corporation? They’re totalitarian institutions - you take orders from above and maybe give them to people below you. There’s about as much freedom as under Stalinism.”
― Noam Chomsky

1984 by George Orwell--A Textbook For These Times

Orwell, George: 1984 (Delhi, India, Pigeon Books 2009)

Recently, "1984" by George Orwell shot back to the top of the Amazon Bestseller List based on the illegitimate inauguration of the TRAITOR Donald Trump and his occupation of the White House. Please note when I refer to his occupation of the White House I always use the word in the military sense.  Since November 8, 2016, I have been diligently reading all the literature I have time to cover which addresses misfeasance and malfeasance in office, treason, totalitarian governments, the US Constitution and civil rights.  "1984" has been a classic ever since it was released in 1948.  It is a masterpiece of fiction about a futuristic, totalitarian government and was a part of that body of Orwell's work to which he referred when he said: 

"Every line of serious work that I have written since 1936 has been written directly, or indirectly, against totalitarianism.  Animal Farm was the first book in which I tried, with full consciousness of what I was doing, to fuse political purpose and artistic purpose into one artistic whole." George Orwell, "Animal Farm" pp. vii

George Orwell

"1984" is an excellent example of that effort on Orwell's part to fuse both political and artistic purposes.  The book made him famous worldwide and its Orwellian language Newspeak has introduced several words into everyday usage such as "newspeak", "Big Brother", "doublethink", and "thought crime".  The book is taught worldwide in classes on politics, literature, philosophy, and psychology.  There is no more important time that American citizens should be reading "1984" and other works by George Orwell such as "Animal Farm" than today. The book is fiction but it is fiction with a political purpose.  It can be easily read and understood by the person who does not ordinarily read philosophy or political science.  By virtue of reading the works of George Orwell, that type of reader can begin to understand the importance of observing the actions of government and its leaders and also begin to develop skills necessary to resist destructive, disruptive, and totalitarian actions of government.  

The book is set in a fictitious, futuristic 1984 with a totalitarian government which controls literally every function of the lives of its citizens, restructures their reality on a daily basis to fit the needs of the government, and literally wipes those citizens off the face of the earth, without a trace remaining, when they no longer meet the needs or oppose the actions of that government.  The protagonist of the book is an ordinary citizen, Winston Smith, who works in the Ministry of Truth where his job is to rewrite history, both small and large, in order to meet the aims of the government.  Winston finds himself involved in an affair with a young woman much like himself.  Their love affair and joint opposition to the government lead them into the dark world of the government and its actions to control the citizenry.  

The book is now and always has been a harbinger of possible and probable tyrannies to come in the real world.  It is a billboard of truth, writ large and boldly, warning the citizens of the United States of today that such tyranny is possible and is the goal of people who are living today.  The goal of every American citizen should be to prevent such tyranny from ever happening or becoming possible in this country.  We are teetering on the brink of the most destructive times in American history.  A malignant, malicious, and well organized effort, centered in the White House is working on a daily basis to deprive this country of freedom of the press and individual constitutional freedoms.  Media members have been arrested while doing their job of covering multiple news stories which were contrary to the aims of TRAITOR Trump and his minions.  Religious believers are being targeted, arrested, and deported simply because they are not members of a majority religion in this country.  More crimes against the US Constitution will come and they will come soon.  Every citizen of this country should be working to prevent the possibility of such destruction of individual and collective freedoms.  Go out and read books such as "1984" and "Fahrenheit 451".  Study the US Constitution and fight to defend it.  Learn about outspoken defenders of freedom such as Thomas Paine, James Madison, Thomas Jefferson, and other, more modern patriots who spoke out for freedom and Constitutional Rights.  Join organizations such as The American Civil Liberties Union.  Financially support organizations such as The ACLU, National Public Radio, The Southern Poverty Law Center, and others which fight on a daily basis to protect the rights of ordinary citizens and work to keep the citizenry informed in an honest, ethical fashion. 

This link will take you to a post on this blog about "Animal Farm" another of George Orwell's excellent books about totalitarian governments.

Animal Farm by George Orwell--A Textbook For These Times

Orwell, George: Animal Farm (New York, Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, 1946)

Hopefully, most of you are already familiar with George Orwell's classic satirical novel, "Animal Farm".  Even more hopefully, many of you have either read or reread it within the last two weeks.  There will never be a more appropriate time to read and study this little masterpiece.  It is regularly read and studied in high school and college literature classes all over the world as well as many philosophy and political science classes.  The book is only 128 pages and can easily be read in one sitting by most readers.  Yet it contains lessons that will last you a lifetime.  As I recall, I read "Animal Farm" the first time in about 1968 or 1969 which was also a most appropriate time to read the book.  At that time, Richard Nixon was rising to his second ascendancy in American politics after his famous Checkers Speech  in which he stated that we "...won't have Richard Nixon to kick around anymore...".  What a shame that he never stuck to his word!  Nixon was elected to the Presidency in 1968 and went on to escalate the Viet Nam War to the point that we lost 58,220 of our finest young citizens.  Nixon also went on to perpetrate the Watergate Scandal and resign from office rather than face impeachment.  

George Orwell

Now as we discuss my most recent reading of the book "Animal Farm", the White House is being illegitimately occupied ( I use the military sense of the word "occupied".) by a career criminal, self admitted sex offender, and seriously mentally ill individual, TRAITOR Donald Trump.  TRAITOR Trump is totally out of control, exhibiting a serious megalomania and an unwillingness to accept advice or criticism.  In less than three weeks, this lunatic has the country on the verge of total disgrace in the minds of both our allies and our enemies.  Could there ever be a better time to read a satirical novel about the dangers of blindly following a leader with megalomania and no respect for his citizens?  There are moral, political, and ethical lessons to be learned from "Animal Farm" which can help every citizen of the USA to learn to stand up to tyranny, injustice, and criminality at the highest levels.  Looking back on the Nixon Administration, we can at least see that the country does have the backbone and moral strength to stand up to and put an end to the nefarious efforts of a would be tyrant.  

A few years after the original publication of "Animal Farm", George Orwell stated: 

"Every line of serious work that I have written since 1936 has been written directly, or indirectly, against totalitarianism.  Animal Farm was the first book in which I tried, with full consciousness of what I was doing, to fuse political purpose and artistic purpose into one artistic whole." George Orwell, "Animal Farm" pp. vii

Thank God for the work, the vision, and the political foresight of George Orwell.  "Animal Farm" tells a satirical story about a small English farm which is seized and operated by the animals as what appears to  be intended to be a cooperative, a communal effort, or a socialistic experiment.  Over the course of the novel, the pigs who are in charge of the management seize power and turn the farm into an obvious totalitarian state with absolute power in the hands of one Napoleon, a pig with a serious case of megalomania which he carries to the extreme and ruins the lives, hopes, and dreams of the other animals.  The book is a literary classic which has never fallen out of popularity in the three quarters of a century since it was written.  It is also a metaphorical "burning bush" for the citizens of America today.  There are marked similarities between Napoleon the pig and Donald Trump the TRAITOR who several sources tell us conspired with Vladimir Putin to hack the American election of 2016 and seize control of the White House.  

Do yourself and the country a favor and read "Animal Farm" as soon as you can get your hands on a copy.  If you have read it in the past, refresh your memory and reread it with a focus on comparing Napoleon the pig and Donald Trump The TRAITOR.  Then make a personal commitment to join the American Resistance and fight to save America from an illegitimate megalomaniac.