Hypochristy

I went to the No Kings rally without a sign. I'd had a few ideas, but couldn't settle on just one. In fact, one of my favorite ideas, which I may do for the next one, is: "re's too much wrong to fit on this s"

So I went downtown to walk through the protest shouting my support, leading some chants, and cheering for everybody else's signs. And there were some real good ones. Signs about protecting women's rights, the justice system, immigration, education, healthcare. Everyone seemed to have their own favorite cause to get behind. That's what I was missing: my one most-passionate cause. That was why I couldn't come up with a good sign, one that I was willing to carry. Then I saw a man with a sign that hit straight at what I see as one of the biggest problems of the modern age: white resistance to atoning for our history of global subjugation.

I know there are a lot of assumptions wrapped up in that statement. One, that white people have historically sought to subjugate the entire planet. This is so obvious it's stupid that there's any controversy whatsoever as to the factual accuracy. The fact that English, Spanish, and French are spoken in so many countries outside of England, Spain, and France is evidence enough. Have a look at which countries "own" the islands of Oceania if you want more.

It only takes a minute of reading the news to find any number of examples of white resistance to making amends. The other day I heard a report that the current administration is considering renaming naval ships that were already renamed during the Biden presidency, because they were named for DEI heroes like Harvey Milk. The reason they were renamed in the first place is that they originally bore the names of Confederate traitors. MAGA republicans have made it their mission to erase all traces of racial progress from our nation's official policies.

The man's sign said, "Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion are Core Christian and American Values." 

 It's like my dad always said: "It takes all kinds to make the world go around." 

 I had already texted Sara I would bring the van home and go back to the rally with her on bikes. On the drive home, I thought of my sign: "Christians for Trump are Oxymorons."

I arrive home, made my sign in about five minutes, and headed back to the protest on bikes with my incredible partner Sara. And my sign got a lot of positive reactions.

-Jon 

Next time on Hypochristy: Their misuse of the term Indoctrination.

Fresh Start

Going forward, I will be posting a lot of political rants as we weather the storm of the second MAGA Presidency. The Fourth of July 2025 is coming up any day now, and I've just about had it with this country. Everything I learn about history makes it worse to see how little progress we've made. Did you know that when Oregon became a state, the white male settlers took a vote and made it illegal for Black people to live here? Under penalty of lashing. Makes me sick.

 I went to the No Kings rally on June 14th, which was orchestrated to happen on the same day as Trump's military parade, which was a big dud, of course. Literally millions of people rallied against the MAGA republican agenda, all across the country, and Trump's parade was a rained out failure.

 Unfortunately my good conscience prevents me from experiencing the catharsis of a good schadenfreude.

Maybe ranting about it will help.

-Jon 

IT'S FINALLY HERE!

 Huge news today, folks-- the audiobook version of Programmed Cell Death is now on sale at all major retailers! And of course the fully updated paperback and ebook are also available. Buy one of each! Buy them for your friends! Buy them for your family! The power of seasonal consumerism compels you!

Click the link below to find the answer to all these questions and more:

-What should I read next?

-What should I listen to on my daily commute?

-What should I give my entire family and all my friends for Christmas?

HERE IT IS-- One Link to Rule Them All!

https://www.books2read.com/programmedcelldeath/

The above universal book link will show you every format and every store in every region. Thank you so much for reading-- I really hope you like it!

-Jon

BIG NEWS

 

Hello all you lovely readers out there--

Jon here comin at ya with huge news from the Pines: I'm about to launch the brand-spankin new Audiobook Edition of my novel Programmed Cell Death! This immense project has taken me pretty much exactly one year, start to finish. My incredibly brilliant and sexy partner Sara gave me an early Xmas present last year of a studio-quality microphone, and a friend lent me his "audio-interface device" (don't worry, I had never heard of it before either), and I spent four days per week in the recording studio from the months of November until the middle of February reading my own book aloud. Quite a freaky experience, I must say, considering how silent that studio was whenever I stopped to take a breath. And let me just say that when you're done in there for the day, you'd better remember to open the door to the outside world BEFORE shutting off the lights--unless you enjoy the feeling of not being able to see your own hand directly in front of your eyes. Anyhow, get ready to #### yourself, because this is a top quality audiobook, and I'm simultaneously re-releasing the ebook and paperback editions with brand new shiny professional cover art straight from James at GoOnWrite.com, who I'm pleased to say is a real stand-up guy with a great sense of humor--and a real talent with a digital paintbrush.

It's all coming together VERY SOON, literally ANY DAY NOW, so stay tuned to this page-- or better yet, sign up for my email newsletter!

Best regards,

Jon

Hope Springs Eternal!

“Inside every cynical person, there is a disappointed idealist.”

George Carlin

“…a sanguine temper, though forever expecting more good than occurs, does not always pay for its hopes by any proportionate depression. It soon flies over the present failure, and begins to hope again.”

from Emma, by Jane Austen, 1815

* sanguine: optimistic, cheerful

For the better part of ten years I have lived by the philosophy of never getting my hopes up for anything, on the premise that I would never suffer a great disappointment. This notion served me well—or so I thought, until one recent morning, when I was reading Jane Austen’s novel Emma. (Which, I have to admit, I probably would not have picked up if it weren’t for the fact that Jane Austen is one of my wonderful wife Sara’s favorite authors, and that reading each other’s favorite books—even though it means reading outside of our usual genres—is part of our love language.)

When I came across the above passage, which stopped me in my tracks, I flung the book down, smacked myself in the forehead, and cried: “AHA! What a fool I’ve been, for all these years! How could I have been so blind, for so long?”

You see, while it may be true that no instances of heavy suffering from great disappointments come readily to mind, it is absolutely true that I have been told, on more than a few occasions, by dear friends, family, and even at times by those happy acquaintances that influence our lives no less for whatever circumstances of distance or disposition that may prevent the deepening of ties—that I was turning into a short-tempered cynic.

And upon further reflection, it is also true that I have at times been able to feel almost literally the idealism of my youth slipping away, draining out of me. You see, I never used to read the news. Throughout my high school years and most of my time at university, I could be found stating quite proudly that I wasn’t interested in politics, and that I couldn’t care less about current events. My rationale was that I had no power over anything that happened in the world at large, so I might as well ignore all of it and just continue living out my hedonistic existence. And before any of you point out that it sounds like I was already a cynic—especially considering that my own conduct was “motivated wholly by self-interest,” let me explain the difference: it would have been impossible for me to be cynical with regard to the world or humanity at large back then, precisely because I lacked any sort of real-world knowledge or experience that could have led me to feel jaded.

UPDATE: Three months later— My positive outlook has stuck with me ever since reading that passage in Jane Austen’s Emma, and there’s no turning back! Woohoo!

-Jon

Confession Time...

A Note about My Attitude about Love Stories

I’ve been going through a change within myself regarding my attitude toward love stories in fiction. This relates to my opinions about a lot of things that have been going through my head recently, and it all came out more or less intact when I was talking to a friend after seeing the movie Tenet last year. For context, there’s a part in the movie where the main character (whose name I forgot but they make it pretty clear that he is the protagonist of the story) puts his own life at risk to save a woman he just met and barely knows, despite the fact that he is responsible for saving the entire human race. When I saw this, when he jumped into the machine, I thought at the time, “What a load of garbage. This is just another example of Nolan shoe-horning a crappy love story into an awesome intellectual sci-fi action thriller, just like he did in Interstellar, where love itself was the solution to the unsolvable equation, the answer that allowed time travel through black holes.” What absolute bullshit, I thought. But during that conversation with my friend after watching Tenet, I realized I was wrong. I have been getting it all backwards for years.

Literally for years I’ve been thinking and saying that I’m so tired of stupid trite love stories in fiction. In a textbook I studied for my screenwriting course a long time ago, it was stated that audiences need a love story, a real human connection at the center of every story, no matter the genre—and if I don’t like that idea, then I had damn well get my head around it and start putting love stories in everything I write. In fact my unresolved cognitive dissonance on the matter was so powerful that I started to believe I was defective, that I was the only one who didn’t care about showing real human connections. I honestly believed that a clever premise and a twisting yet airtight plot (with healthy doses of action and intrigue) were the only ingredients necessary to cooking up an amazing story. And since I seemed to be the only person on Earth who felt this way, I decided that I was somehow abnormal, an emotionless robot—and I convinced myself that I had better learn (despite my objections) to write believable human love stories—or at least to fake them in the subplots. In retrospect, what a shitty attitude I was developing, right?

My friend helped me understand something important: that scene in Tenet, where he jumps into the machine to save the woman he just met? That doesn’t really have anything to do with a love story. The protagonist makes it clear at many earlier points that he puts everyone else’s life above his own. I won’t get into spoilers here, but there are many instances of the hero taking steps to prevent the loss of life. In fact this is what makes him a hero. So when he springs to action to save the woman, it’s not even supposed to be a love story moment—he jumps in because it’s his fault that she’s in danger, and he refuses to be responsible for her death if there’s anything he can do to stop it. It’s about his mission to protect human life at any cost.

And what about the movie Interstellar? Again, the protagonist does what he does in order to save the entire human race. And besides, the relationship in question is between a father and his daughter. It’s not about romantic love in the slightest—and so in the end I was completely wrong about both films. Hmm… it’s almost as if I had made up my mind beforehand, and then went looking for any scrap of evidence that would help to confirm my previously-held notions—even where no such evidence existed. I think maybe they have a name for that…

[To be continued]

Oh man oh man oh man

 Is it time for something new, or what? Big changes coming soon, I tell you.

(Felt confident, might delete later)

-Jon