The most important reasons for my unhappiness being social isolation and alienation, and that no one will cry when i die. Related, and perhaps the main reason i sometimes think of moving to a different country is that for many americans if not most, there is little sense of community. When i hear in the media some place like my little hometown being described as 'tight-knit', i think that's bs. I don't even know the names or for that matter the faces of most of the people living on my street, and i think that's not all that unusual in america. Our society is highly individualistic, with the general mentality being it's up to every individual to sink or swim on their own. By contrast, there's a documentary on PBS titled La Manplesa that's about what was a tight-knit community of latinos mostly from el salvador in a washington dc neighborhood who got along pretty well until things changed, including the police harassing and brutalizing them for hanging out in public and being noisy, which from what i understand is typical behavior in latin cultures. In this doc. the residents describe how close they were and how the spirit of community among them was very strong. Since i'm so used to american culture i don't know how well i would adjust to such a change, but the thought of trying does intrigue me.
Saturday, September 26, 2026
Tuesday, September 22, 2026
"This is a sick society."
note: this post was originally composed as a letter to a friend in denial who is 'confrontation shy'.
i tend to shy away from confrontation too, but as i'm sure u're aware, this can be problematic. a sign of weakness or cowardice. a reason for shame.
i'm ambivalent about confronting u as i am about confronting people in general, for several reasons, including this one: rather than setting one free, awareness of unpleasant truths can be debilitating or even sickening. this is because knowledge isn't necessarily empowering; it may simply be vexing in the extreme. much of what i've learned about our world via my independent reading and research has been this way. things like manmade climate disruption and our species ongoing predilections for war crimes including genocide, knowing about them doesn't empower one to do anything about them. trying to do something, being a brave selfless activist like greta thunberg and the millions of people around the world who have demonstrated and protested against war in general and genocidal war in particular, has accomplished little if any desired change. when taking into consideration that such protests also often lead to being arrested and sometimes victimized by police brutality, it's easy to see that it might be better to limit one's knowledge and awareness of such things. to use the red pill blue pill example, maybe it's better to opt for relatively blissful ignorance (taking the blue pill) than to take the bitter red pill of immiserating truth.
it's also said that misery loves company, but i'd rather not make anyone miserable, at least not unbearably so. the truth of this world does make me miserable, but not unbearably so.
i've been learning more about and from the author of that book i just read (only partially) titled AN ARMY LIKE NO OTHER. his parents survived holocaust death camps. he was raised in israel and in the military there for 2 wars, which led him to move to the UK and become outspokenly critical of his native country. this has placed him at odds with the authorities in his adopted land, who, as in other nations in the western alliance, are staunchly pro zionist (israel). the quote which serves as the title of this post came from the article linked below, in which he shares some of his views with the middle east eye, a non-western media source with a decidedly non-western worldview, the sort of worldview that consumers of western mainstream media are never exposed to. here's another quote from the article:
"We are in an upside down world, it's an inversion of reality; our elite - the media - is supporting the breaking of international law, refusing to admit this genocide is taking place."
i think this guy knows what he's talking about and is telling the truth about 'the democratic republic of genocide', as he refers to israel in this video:
so which do u prefer, the bitter truth, or the comforting illusion that israel and it's western backers are fighting a moral battle against 'terrorists'?
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