For years I’ve ignored my web site. For years I’ve taken a long break from writing for publication – no screenplays, no novels, no short stories. Instead I’ve traveled the world: seeing new place like Romania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Morocco, South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Zambia, Denmark, Spain, India, and a few other counties as well. I’ve also revisited countries like Italy. I spent a lot of time in Mexico and more recently in France.
Long ago, I stopped writing blogs. It isn’t that I have nothing to say. I could write about climate change, political chaos, corrupt judicial systems in the US and elsewhere. I could write about sports, being an avid fan of March Madness (college basketball) or music (where jazz has replaced rock on my playlists) or books, which I read avidly. In the earlier blogs I tried to be witty. But wit has its limitations, and anyway, today’s world is less receptive to wit. Todays world is increasingly George Orwell’s 1984. Without chagrin the US created an agency called Homeland Security. Thank you, George.
By now, I have lived in three countries and traveled to some seventy others. I wonder what Orwell would think of Hong Kong or Morocco or Washington, D.C. I wonder if fake news is the only news anyone will listen to. That was the conclusion of Orwell’s dystopian masterpiece. I believe he called it “the big lie.” Hitler mastered its use 85 years ago. Hitler pretenders are cropping up all around the globe. A few, like Russia’s Putin, are serious threats. Most are like a storm, causing damage, sometimes unrepairable damage, before moving on and blowing itself out. What does one do? Fight? Flee? Isolate?
I have a book that says the universe is nothing but a simulation, a massive video game, played by … ah, now we get to the real question. If the universe is a massive video game, who is the mastermind behind it? And why?
The language is different. But the question is the same one that gripped philosophers like Socrates and Kant and theologians like Tillich and Barth.
Is there really anyone out there?
