Off and on since the late 90s. Mostly observational, stray thoughts, ideas for designs, or writing. Intense emotional moments are often channelled into my writing.
This may be anecdotal, but it may also be a canary in a coalmine.
I have seen a civilian population tear down its president and vice-president. Peacefully, and just before an election. It took months of activism. Weeks of protest and a 1-day general strike.
Look up Guatemala, 2015. Otto Perez Molina. #noletoca.
This was underreported, I think. Three presidents later, therr is Bernardo Arevalo. He is a president whose legacy hearkens back to before their Civil War, after WWII, and before US intervention.
Anti-hero: the protagonist whose methods, while effective, are not openly supported or celebrated because they fly in the face of "norms."
While I agree with your analysis on Holden. Reluctant hero, to be sure. He sure did screw over Earth and Mars on a fairly regular basis to make his points stick. He disobeyed orders and protected a Belter ship, which got him bounced from the Navy. He declined promotion so he could keep shagging the pilot of the Cant. He went alone on sending out the message that got them caught by the Donny... and that was all before shooting down a medical relief vessel, shearing off the drive section of a UNN vessel, targetlocking every ship in the Ganymede AO as he escorted the Weeping Somnambulist away. In-universe, Holden will do just about anything to advance his own ends. He's a privateer, his motives and methods transcend in-universe moralities, which we can only see because we know all the pieces. It's not 'til the Behemoth that he gains the patina of "saviour" — in contact with the dead, chosen by the protomolecule for direct communication, and having escaped death enough times to engender trust.
For most of the others — Amos (that guy --> just walk away), Naomi (clubbing Cyn ‐‐> waking the Presence), and Alex (we don't talk about Alex) for running with Holden; Fred (stealing missiles, selling Inaros out to the Inners --> "in my quarters, stop them"), Drummer (executioner --> "speak plainly"), and Bobbie (warrior, defector, ronin, mercenary --> fucking Valkyrie) for materially supporting Holden; in-universe, they would also be regarded as Anti-Heroes until they're not because of their arcs. Don't hate the playa. Hate the game.
Maybe "hero of the belt" = anti-hero precisely because it undercuts the frame of a "classic" hero. Much to be learned, then. Maybe I just want them to be anti-heroes because I have so much respect for these characters, their subversion of "norms" and willingness to address a greater good.
Nice touch with the comparison between Amos and Shinji Ikari. If this had been 2 years ago, I wouldn't have known. I see it now.
They know that Israel is at the eye of the global shit storm. Iran might close the strait of Hormuz, and the Yemenis are definitely going to take shots at ships heading for Bab-el-Mandeb (Gate of Grief). Iran may start boarding ships as well.
This is a business decision.
The rest of this post is bullshit. If it comes true, well, then, I'm an unprofitable prophet.
Goodness knows how this is going to go once the NATO-backed EU sanctions on Israel hit in mid-July. US will try to sanction/tariff their way around that, an attempt to support their pals, but, surprise! Domestic unrest will force the felon's hand.
That frees up some space for more integrated transport across Europe, Canada, and emerging markets across north and west Africa, quelling some of the decolonial "unrest" in Mali, Burkina Faso with offers of "trade."
The wedge in the anglosphere will widen, and the US will be more isolated. They'll either attack Canada or suffer Civil War by November, about the time people start to realize they can't pay for their heating this winter and can't even afford "2 dolls instead of 30" this Xmas.
If I said yes, I'd caveat that by saying, "we're not special." There's no interaction, quid pro quo or otherwise, with whatever presence, energy, or overmind that I would conceptualize as a deity.
Not an architect. Not a creator. Omnipotence and omniscience defy temporality. There are, similarly, no subdivisions of the deity; there are no places that it is present, and others that it is absent. No underboss gods, angels, demons, heavens, hells, or purgatories.
The deity, in my understanding, is simply a unity: An answer to paradoxes, a solution to the incomprehensible, a layer beneath and above all other measurements, concepts, and capacities. A holographic whole that encompasses and inhabits every possibility. It is older than the universe and beyond our feeble attempts to comprehend it, let alone write its character and tell its story.
A bearded white dude who impregnated a virgin, hates masturbation, holds vendettas, destroys cities, sends plagues, and permits humans to hide from "HIM" in the garden of good and evil... it is all just silly by comparison. At that's just from the tradition I was raised in.
I mean, a burning bush? Or tests of faith?
We, people and all other organisms that are aware of one another, need to get on with finding ways to coexist. Biodiversity is the scorecard.
How many kinds of life are there, and are they thriving? What are the bottlenecks and boundaries for species that slow or stop their progress?
Well, as a living, all-consuming, extinction-level event, I'd say we are making the experiment more impossible. We are a confounding factor, a bias most foul, and the primary flaw in the experimental design.
If only there was guidance in terms of balancing our biological impact and capacity for sustainable development. If only there were some models that have and had worked for millennia. If only there were living groups who could share their wisdom.
If only.
So, for now, plunderous expropriation rules: violent, resource-heavy, rational modern warfare; apathetic, resource-heavy, throwaway consumer culture; and ignorant, resource-heavy, industrial machinations.
Nice to meet you, too. Thanks to 세종대왕 (Sejong Dae Wang, King Sejong) for creating a Hangeul, a stronger phonetic system. I look forward to its use for a long time to come.
IIRC, the food, therefore the word, was introduced to Korea. It is a transliteration. Like "tae-kwon-do" is a transliteration from the Korean 태권도 (taegwondo).
Note: Korean is not my first language. It is first non-English script I've managed to learn to read and write and makes me happy every time I interact with it.
My read/spoken Korean is atrocious and barely functions.
Jewish communities are not monolithic. This, like the genocide itself, is a wedge issue. People are being forced to confront the reality and scope of these past 20 months, and the occupation writ large.
Good trouble. This is the answer.
And good books, we're not alone out here.
I just finished One Day, Everyone Will Always Have Been Against This by Omar El Akkad. Not just about Gaza and the collateral damage of empires, but also about the tiny manipulations we're all subjected to that make us feel alone.
Great reading.
Note: the link is to the Chicago Review of Books.