WHAT, WHY, & WHEN
By Alex Ness
March 17, 2024
After five years of health questions and issues, I've finally come out of the end. In September Joe Monks and I released a horror Chapbook, for a horror con, and we were sponsored by Hot Comics. I felt like I woke up, able to write more than reviews, or do interviews. I've written poetry since age 7. It has never stopped. But writing prose requires a thought process. I need to develop an idea before it flourishes into a story. Well, my being in hell for pain, being on meds that make thought much more difficult, and having numerous issues from the events of health, makes writing nearly impossible to achieve with a good result.
I'm about to announce some large events, positive events, and creative projects. Not yet, but you'll see it here first when they happen.
ABOUT CULTURE
The previous 70 years are often seen as golden years for American power and society. But it wasn't. But it isn't from hubris, which I often point to. It was a mass of catastrophes striking at once. In the disguise of common events. You may or may not remember when American culture changed. No it wasn't the 1960s. It wasn't before then either.
It happened specifically when America dropped two atomic bombs on Japan. No, the world didn't chemically or physically change more than a little during each. The world didn't altogether politically change then either. What changed was how Americans viewed the world. Now, this isn't to say for better or worse, but it changed. America was touched by war, people died, money was spent on building weapons. Oahu and Pearl Harbor Hawaii were the most damaged US possessions, and frankly, in a few years it couldn't be noted what was damaged, but for the USS Utah and USS Arizona. America financed much of the war after it began, and provided the many of the weapons, the equipment, and munitions. Much of Europe was destroyed. Japan and China were bomb damaged and ravaged by battle. But the US was already a world leader in economies, if not the top, very high. And when the war was over, the US stood supreme, with an absolute monopoly upon atomic weaponry, and starting from a base of tech built for the war. With comparatively few casualties to the rest of the allies and axis, the US was now fully ready to be the world leader in manufacturing, heavy and light, housing and streets made for convenience of large industry, and women now working in industry nearly as a often as men, the US was prepared to dominate the world's economy, military boundaries, and finance.
So, if I was speaking about our culture changing overall what do I mean? From the 1950s, Open air nuclear testing, polluted ground water, and environmental erosion meant that the future generations would face changed environmental standards. And an example of what that can mean, is the growth of cancer, and the generational lowering of IQ scores. America might well have ruled the 1950s, and did so without close challengers, but they did so without realizing the cost. By the time the world caught up, the US had weakened its previous strengths, and the governmental efforts to remain atop led to corruption in Government, and corrosion in trust in the American citizenry. People from every side of the political divide often blame the 1960s generation for resistance and revolution, abandonment of honor and citizenship, and straying from the "American Way". Eventually though, it will be realized, no matter what people are protesting, they will realize, the cost of every rise and every fall, is not paid by government but by the citizenry. As such, the populace loses the advantages gained by competition with other nations. As such the government loses ground by paying costs it did not predict nor did it prepare for.
For the US that means that the generational divides between the war generation, the baby boom and generation X, could be seen in how each gen viewed the previous gens, and how worthwhile such sacrifices proved to be. As such our elected officials attempted to run upon the "values of the day" which were often platitudes and bullshit. The war gen and boomers were elected, but gen x was edged out, so their outlook was not embedded in American politics. The US cultural decline is not from Capitalism or Socialism. It was from false issues, and expensive wars. And this is my point, that as a culture when the majority follow leaders preaching false doctrines or doctrines that are expensive and useless, it robs the culture. Every bomb built is money that won't go to a library, or museum, or university.
Many great ideas and concepts were developed from 1950 to the present. But how many came into actual being, with money to pay for them? Someone will no doubt write me in private and call me a weasel for not revealing my political stripes. But, I don't have them. I have core beliefs, but they don't fall on either side of the divide.
Some books to read to research the changes in generations and over time...
Not everyone will agree with these choices, I don't blame you for disagreeing, we aren't all the same. But these books definitively explain one specific version of the erosion of the American century. In the meantime, below these I offer the books that thrilled me to read, and to share with my wonderful son.
BOOKS I LOVED AS CHILDREN AND AS AN A PARENT READING TO MY SON
Remember, it is deeply important to keep the spirit of hope, innocence, and dreams being possible, and children are our beautiful gifts of the chance to once again dream.
LIFE IS GOOD.
LINKS
CONTACTING ME FOR REVIEWS OR OTHERWISE:
I
can be found on X, Bluesky or through email Alexanderness63@gmail.com. I accept hard copies, so when you inquire at
any of these places, I'll follow through by telling you my street
address.If you send hard copies for review I will try to always review them,
but if you prefer to send pdf or ebooks to my email, I will review these
at my discretion. I don't share my pdf/ebooks, so you can avoid worry
that I'd dispense them for free to others.
My Creative Blogs:
5k poem blog AlexNessPoetry.Blogspot.Com
My personal blog AlexNessFiction.Blogspot.Com
Published works AlexNessPoetry.Blogspot.Com/2007/01/My-Work.html
Social Media:
Bluesky
X/Twitter
All images are copyright © their respective owners, use is simply as fair use and no ownership rights to anyone else's work is asserted.
“No, child, you’re wrong. They’re not the same. Life means hope, death is nothing at all.” Euripides, The Trojan Women
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