I’ve finished this first book in a gripping series suggested for 8–13-year olds.
<THIS IS NOT A SERIES I WOULD RECOMMEND TO CHILDREN>
Although the topic was compelling to me, it would be criminal to suggest it to kids younger than 18. If you care about childhood innocence, then please accept this as a warning.
It doesn’t delve into the usual topics that cause alarm. I even liked its well-written thought-provoking topic.
It is a 1984-ish fiction about a futuristic totalitarian government imposing terribly intrusive and cruel policies on the population. So far (I’ve ordered the next 2 books.) it is somewhat stomach turning in its plausibility.
It’s not a good or proper thing to frighten kids for any reason, IMHO. That goes for all the climate crisis stuff too. It’s clearly a pollutant to innocence and peace-of-mind. Children are powerless in affecting change but more importantly understanding complex problems. By intentionally imposing “adult” topics on kids, you’re committing a deliberate theft of children’s childhoods for some adult political selfish service later on.
I DO suggest that adults read the series. There’s quite a bit of a warning in it that adults might want to consider.
There’s a gripping youth series of books that I’ve just started reading that- like 1984- sends an alarming warning on our possible futures. Now, more than ever, it seems less a fiction and more of a possibility.
“The Government justifies keeping everyone else in poverty because people seem to work the hardest when they’re right on the edge of survival.” ― Margaret Peterson Haddix, Among the Hidden
If only funding could cure problems and ills Our children would be excelling in schools. Printing money helps no one while Congress gets thrills. If only funding could cure problems and ills.
Big Pharma sells shots and delicious new pills, While clapping seals keep voting for fools. If only funding could cure problems and ills Our children would be excelling in schools.
It’s disturbingly dystopian when citizens applaud a government that has started ‘fires’ then proposes it will put them out by ‘spitting’ on them. ~ sillyfrog
Janus is the god of beginnings, gates, transitions, time, duality, doorways, passages, frames, and endings. He is usually depicted as having two faces. The month of January is named for Janus.
Source: Wikipedia
We counted backwards at midnight on 31st December 2022.
How should we go forward now? I need to know how many months, weeks, days I have to make my life or this world a better place to survive. I may not die at the end of this year, nor will the world end. But it will be criminal to lose time.
Or do you prefer going with the flow, and letting life unfold on its own?
I would love to see your take on this.
A Story of Arrogance Sponsored by Greed
Shelly was excited to get busy! Her major in Earth Sciences had prepared her for a career in meteorology but her university experience had given her an unrequested minor in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. She was determined to make a BIG impact and “save the world”!
Immediately Shelly was inducted into a graduate program with a mission to ‘solve’ Climate Change. It was well funded by the U.S. government so Shelly knew her scientific energy wouldn’t have any barriers. She began at once.
The weather was after all primarily influenced by the winds, so she decided to chart all incidences of the doldrums-which was a name for the stagnating occurrence of a ‘pause’ in the flow of ocean winds. She felt that increases in that ‘pausing’ of wind currents was a crucial clue that could lead her to making an impactful discovery thus solving the Climate Change Crisis and saving the whole world.
Having spent the first morning in an induction mandatory “equity” training, she couldn’t wait to jump into her research! But like an electric shock, her training’s ‘philosophy’ abruptly bumped up against her ‘scientific expertise’ and she almost lost her balance as she sank into a chair.
On one hand, she was supposed to make mankind ‘healthier’ by diligently working to produce equal human outcomes, but her wind flow studies clearly indicated that unequal forces were the basis for the wind which maintained nearly all of the Earth’s health.
Shelly felt numb but continued to examine that paradox. Was the DEI movement a cloaked, contradictory, cause with hidden motives? Why hadn’t she noticed that?!
Shelly paced while talking to herself. “Diversity and equity can’t even occupy the same space much less the same cause! Either the mission is to embrace ‘differences’, or it’s seeking to produce ‘sameness’, it can’t possibly do both. Sameness is a ‘death sentence’ in Nature. I’m not sure human ‘sameness’ would automatically be good for the World.”
When she brought her confusion to the also well-funded DEI unit assigned to her program, she was told to never, ever, express her questions and concerns to anyone. The reason they bluntly PRIVATELY offered was, “We will most certainly lose our funding and YOU will lose your job!”
Shelly knew it would be “criminal to lose time in her pursuit of ‘saving the world’ ” but it now was crystal clear that that egotistical super-human activity shouldn’t have ever been her focus.
Feeling foolish and embarrassed, she handed in her job resignation the next day and decided to run for public office where she could have a better chance of saving her own community (perhaps her country) from being bamboozled into wasting valuable monetary resources on ‘pie in the sky’ goals. An arrogant human element was more immediately endangering everyone than Climate Change, and its name was GREED.
November 28, 2022, prompt: In 99 words (no more, no less), write a story using the saying, “not my monkeys, not my circus”. What is the situation that would spawn that aphorism? Have fun with setting and characters! Go where the prompt leads!
“Son, there are two dynamics going on. Individual behaviors vs behaviors of those who make the ‘rules’. Media presents the former 24/7 in order to distract us. The only individual whose action you control is you. “Not my monkeys, not my circus” applies to the rest. But, in order to ensure a bright future, you must discriminate “anecdotes” from policies. Never dismiss governmental actions even if they don’t seem to apply directly to you. When sensational items are dwelled upon, look beyond them. It’s not your job to save the world from itself. Guard yourself against the world.”
Since so many other online writers have blogs dedicated to their writings, I’ve decided to jump onto the bandwagon. All posts published here will be either fiction or poetry, some new, and some previously published on various places on the Internet. Some of my works are conventional, and some are quirky. All fiction posted here, except for fan fiction, will include the letters "rose" somewhere, as a tribute to my Baba.
Sillyfrog's Blog 