An Authentic Reality Deserves an Authentic Writer

Are you living an authentic life? The Existential philosophy of the mid-20th Century asked questions like this one. A few thousand years earlier, Diogenes a Greek Cynic philosopher questioned the role of society and the validity of its psychological constructs.

Is your suspended belief interfering with you living the life you have always wanted to live?

The Ancient History Encyclopedia on Diogenes of Sinope reveals:

According to Diogenes society was an artificial contrivance set up by human beings which did not accord well with truth or virtue and could not in any way make someone a good and decent human being; and so follows the famous story of Diogenes holding the light up to the faces of passers-by in the market place looking for an honest man or a true human being. Everyone, he claimed, was trapped in this make-believe world which they believed was reality and, because of this, people were living in a kind of dream state. He was not the first philosopher to make this claim; Heraclitus, Xenophanes, and, most famously, Socrates all pointed out the need for human beings to wake from their dream state to full awareness of themselves and the world. Plato's famous Allegory of the Cave is devoted to this very theme. Diogenes, however, confronted the citizens of Athens daily with their lifelessness and shallow values, emulating his hero Socrates whom he never met but would have learned of from Antisthenes. Although it seems many people thought he was simply mentally ill, Diogenes would have claimed he was living a completely honest life and others should have the courage to do the same.

As we write, we search for truths in the people around us, the culture we live in, and within our own reality. If Diogenes as was the Existentialists on the road to somewhere, it was not the argument about being housebroken, but a deeper meaning of discerning our own reality as a fiction.

Humans live in a fictional world we have developed for our safety and security. The real world is the shadows we see on the wall in the back of our cave as Socrates described in his Allegory of the Cave. Writers need to separate what is reality and what is the social constructs we have devised for ourselves and our progeny.

Are you an honest person? Do you live honestly? Or, are you wrapped up in the social constructs of censorship, identity politics, and psychological terrorism? 

American society and culture have been created for the benefit of a few. Divide and conquer, problem-reaction-solution create trigger moments of psychological harm and devastation. Without the psychological terror repeated on the news, in entertainment, and parroted in individual lives, these tactics would be ignored. We have a social construct where we have been told to fear reality because the shadows outside the cave are terrorists just waiting to do us harm. 

Identity politics are the divisive analogies being taught to children as well as adults. You are in this box. You are in that box. You cannot identify in opposing boxes. Race, religion, and many others are the artificial construct. When we realize how damaging these politicized boxes of dishonesty have become, isn't it our duty as writers to expose the falsehood? 

Diogenes did take his philosophy too far to the edge, but today's Roman culture and society, our decadence has swung the pendulum of discourse in the opposite direction toward Nero's mayhem. We need a balance. We need to correct the psychological terrorism of identity politics. 

The only course is to eliminate the censorship that surrounds this social construct of public mythology. I recently debated some points from the Entertainment Industry. The online magazine, Variety, has posted some inventive and erroneous negative social constructs that undermine our society. In these rebuttals, I discovered how Penske Media Corporation's Variety will not debate a topic but rather triggers individuals into the Divide and Conquer scheme. I called them on this dishonesty. 

What I discovered while investigating this claim of censorship was that the accusation is not unfounded. I too was censored because my beliefs did not coincide with social dishonesty. After being censored twice in the comments section, I did a screen capture: 

As shown, my first reply was revised mid-sentence. The censor removed my article title and link. The second was calling Variety out on the deceptive practice, which then was removed in its entirety. 

The original post was also censored by the removal of a link. 

I have discovered that the censorship in our news media, entertainment, and online debates stem from the social constructs of identity politics and psychological terrorism in order to cocoon humans, in this case Americans, into Socrates' Cave. A false reality is a dishonest reality. Humans are not meant to live an inauthentic life. 

How do we reconstruct our reality? The course we are on now has damaged people's understanding and perception of what our culture and society does. Not for dishonesty's sake, but our individualistic social constructs have furthered the human species while still allowing for varying viewpoints. 

As a writer, I observe the world around me. I poke the bear. I slide open the envelope to see what awaits us on the other side of this life. Humans cannot go forward by going backward into this tyrannical world view of dystopic socialized conformity centered on the premise: inclusionary Social Darwinism. 

Neither Diogenes nor Socrates would approve of furthering that type of dishonesty. 

So as a writer, who are you going to be? Diogenes looking for an honest man? Socrates searching beyond the Cave for reality? 

Or, are you going to write the socialized identity politics that further divides society into Nero's mayhem?
 

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Original Content, Articles, and Reviews related to this topic:

• The Entertainment Industry is So Woke that They've Become a Broke Joke
• The Entertainment Industry's Late Night Shows are Ignorant Dribble 

Articles and Essays Summer Selections

I have gone through my old articles and essays on the VDP Gazette to see if any of my journalistic writings had relevance a few years later. 

Boy do they! 

From Freedom of Speech and Expression to Law, History, Religion, Women's Issues, Culture and Society, I have many great written pieces. So I am revising some. I am reformatting others. The selection is varied so there is a publication for everyone.

I am updating Undawted's Nonfiction section to include these releases and more that are in the works!

Visit Sonoran Dawn Studios' Authors Spotlight in Articles and Essays to download your PDF copy.

Have a great and wonderful day! 

Religion is Like Owning a Haunted House is Available

This essay is a satirical and metaphoric look at religion in our society.

We all have them. The haunted house we inherited from our parents and their parents before them. To some people religion is the haunted house that keeps them from knowing or understanding the spiritual side of life. 

In this unique perspective, the author offers an explanation of why humanity owns these haunted houses... with a satirical twist. 

Is your religion haunting you? 

Download your copy from the Sonoran Dawn - Nonfiction store. It is a free download for a limited time, so if you do: please leave a great review! 

Have a great and wonderful day! 

Centrist : The Middle Child of Politics

Well, since I am writing historical and political research essays, I should probably explain my philosophy...

Centrist

The Middle Child of Politics

Before we get into the ins and out of history, politics, and society, we will take a look at the political views of the writer and lecturer.

What is a Centrist? What does that mean for people's rights?


What is your political leanings?

(This essay straddles two worlds; Hstorical Context and Social Constructs.) 

Added a New Book to Social Constructs

Society is a complex human creation. 

Sometimes society is positive. Sometimes it is negative. Most of the time society exists between these two dichotomies. 

In our new booklet: Marijuana Legalization, Rights of Others, and Solving Health Issues with Nutrition, we discuss the issues of rights, health, and nutrition.  

When it comes down to it, is marijuana a cure-all, or a symptom helper?  Does getting high mask nutritional deficiencies that could be corrected if the user would take responsibility instead of wasting time being intoxicated?

Should We Cite Creativity with Mental Illness Labels?

A friend posted an article on Facebook about Highly Creative people being ADHD.  

i am highly creative and could identify with the list of attributes creative people have: not finishing projects, procrastination as a tool,and so on. 

What irked me is that we have labeled a creative process as a Mental Illness.  ADHD has been used to place children on psychotropic drugs, dismiss people, and make creativity a problem instead of an asset. 

With my creative quirks, I have had to learn to plan and budget my time. What gets done, gets done. Play time has to wait until I am done with important chores. I am on and off blogging due to my health problems as well as daily life can sometimes interfere. 

My elderly cat has been ill so giving him medicine, probiotics, and hand feeding him has been the priority over almost everything else for the last two weeks. 

For those people on the high spectrum of the creative pendulum, if we are raised to be self aware and understand how to cope with spurts of creative energy, the lows, and daily life, then we can become a very intuitive, mature inventor of ideas, creations, and life. 

The only reason ADHD was defined was to control creative energy in the classroom and home instead of allowing that energy to positively transform life. Not everyone is created to sit and be still, watch TV, or play video games. 

Some of us are born to change the world, one idea, painting, poem, or story at a time.  

So the next time the authorities want to label something that is perfectly natural, just remember what they do NOT want labeled and call it safe. I rather know what is in my food so I can choose to avoid mad scientist tech corporation syndrome than to label a child or person simply because their process is different.

If we have become too rigid as a society to be effective unless highly creative people are medicated, then we are all in big, big trouble.

Danger, Will Robinson.

So the moral to the story is let kids be kids, within the realm of common sense. Label your food, not your children.

Isn't it our lives anyway? 

Have a great and wonderful day! 

Recovery, It's Not Just for Addicts

I am trying to recover from biotoxin illness. 

My immune system collapse due to employer negligence with industrial chemicals including the misuse and overuse of pesticides.

As I was getting back on my feet, my family allowed a leaky sink to cause my second collapse with toxic black mold.

...but my real medical, clinical symptoms and skeletal condition were just in my head. That is what I was told repeatedly.

Now that my family disowned me, I am recovering inch by inch with miles to go. Every inch is sweet. Of course, every set back is frustrating too. 

When you have a chronic and debilitating illness and people like your family make fun of you, it is really difficult to want to have camaraderie again. I have noticed that when someone is at a distance, I feel better. Our relationship is good.

But when someone is in touching distance of me, well, I am uncomfortable. I guess when someone is abused as I have been that being shy of close connection is not unusual. It's a survival mechanism. 

And, I am a survivor. 

If you do not understand the illness, then support the person the best you can. Be positive but not harassing. Believe me, the ill person will be grateful you care, but do not be disappointed that the ill person remains ill. 

My family thought that I should be able to run around and do chores for them. Or, do all my chores. So when I did not get better from their constant hounding and negativity, my family told others I was an addict and psychotic, which no one with an M.D. or Ph.D. could ever prove even with blood tests. Many terrible things were done to me as a result.  

But recovery from a prolonged illness has many of the hallmarks of recovering from an addiction. First, all your friends are not your friends anymore. Most, if not all, your family ignores you. Your requests for help and support go largely unanswered except for people who are paid to help and support you.

The only difference between being ill and being an addict is understanding from society. Addicts get support groups and therapists. I don't. Addicts receive adequate medical care. I don't. Addicts get legal services and protection under the law. I don't. Addicts have people who they can turn to... well, you get the picture. 

I am not ill by choice. Others chose this path for me. I hope one day people with invisible disabilities like chronic, lifelong illnesses will receive the same societal understanding and respect as others do already. 

It's not a crime to be ill, but it sure does feel like it. I had to go through a Disability Review recently, which I passed because I am truly ill, but the treatment I received placed my health and life in jeopardy. The situation was not fun and I nearly died. 

I am not okay with what happened to me especially since my family tortured and imprisoned me. 

Like Kermit the Frog said: It's not easy being green."

So, what will you do to help your elderly or sick neighbor? They could really use your helping hand at least once a month. If your whole neighborhood assisted others who cannot help themselves, America would be a much brighter place.

Thank you!

A Good Day

Today was hectic. 

Manageable in some parts, unmanageable in others, this day was a cornucopia of ups and downs. When I settle in for the evening, I usually chat someone up on Facebook. Well, someone told me I was the good part of their day. 

That is a wonderful feeling. 

I don't know if anyone has ever conveyed that to me before. People do not say things like that in today's society. You're are just supposed to guess.

Do you like me? Or am I annoying you? I guess I will stick around until you throw something at me...

What a way to live.

 And, here you thought I wasn't going to be buttoned down since I rearranged Undawnted... yeah, no. I cannot help but to be me. Cats, and all. 

Have a great and wonderful day!

 

Life Would Be More Fun, If We All Had BoxesTo Play In

I received my online order today, a few days earlier which I am grateful for, and the cats are just loving it! The box, not the content. I'm sure if they could use DVDs and dehydrated mashed potatoes, they would love those too!

I went and did my grocery stopping today. I rather buy organic red potatoes but it's just too much money for me. Plus I have to eat them NOW! or they go to waste after a week. So I found these packets of potatoes at my health food store... so worth it! I wish they were organic and red potatoes but beggars cannot be choosers sometimes.

I need to back up my files on my system. I broke down and spent some money on DVD media. Now I can get organized, well, digitally anyway. 

When I returned from the store I could not find one of my eight month old kittens... I even called a friend for advice because I tried everything: calling her, handing out treats, banging the food can... nothing! I waited two hours for her to show her furry buttsky! 

I nearly had a nervous breakdown. These are inside cats. They are not hunters. 

Don't get me wrong, they do hunt in the house: bugs, the bath tub stopper, my drinking straws, my activated charcoal mask, and my plastic stirring sticks. They do a lot of hunting while I am asleep. 

But it's not food. 

I on the other hand am a successful hunter. I hunt my food where it is: the grocery store. And, I am good at it!

I did all right at the store with my mask on. A cute little boy whispered to his grandmother why was I wearing the mask. So cute. I took the mask off and showed it to him. I told him it was all right to ask. I explained that my lungs cannot be around smoke or perfume or cologne so the mask keeps me from having asthma attacks. He looked to be around 5 to 7 years old. I hope he was okay with that. 

Then I got into a cab that the driver just ate a peanut granola bar. The smell about suffocated me. My asthma kicked into high gear and my throat started closing in. Not a fun experience trying to get home.  i toughed it out and drank my vitamin c packets on the way home but it was a close one. 

If you work in the public, don't eat peanut butter when you are going to be in direct contact afterward, it would save at least ten percent of the population from anaphylaxis.

Actually, I believe one of my old friends will not come to see me because she lives on peanut butter. That's fine and all but there's a fungus in peanuts that attacks the liver. I know it's cheap but is it worth your health in the long run? Almond butter is so much better for you. 

Plus it doesn't set my immune system off. 

I think the B Complex 50 is helping in that arena. I didn't totally have a panic attack in the cab. I had a partial one and my reaction was more subdued than usual. That is a good thing.

I was never allergic to peanut butter before I got sick. I told my mother never to bring into the house especially after the black mold exposure because of the fungus in peanuts issue. I would wonder why my face and neck would swell up inside, my breathing would become dangerously tight, and my body would just collapse in on itself... until one day I caught my mother eating peanut butter in the house. I told her no more. So she did it again and again, and again. Now, my body equates the fungus in peanut butter with black mold exposure. Thanks! 

 I have to be so careful now. I cannot eat out in restaurants even in an emergency. I have to stay away from any place that uses peanut oil. It's just a mess. 

What a wonderful way to support your daughter and thank her for buying a house and keeping you off the streets. Such a gem. 

Okay enough drudging up the past for today. I have my mashed potatoes, my kitties, and my television show coming up here in a moment. I may have black memories of the past that still affect me today, but I can chose to talk about them and then move on. I rather be grateful I have all my babies safe here with me than spend anymore energy on that peanut situtation.

Well at least for today. 

Because you know I'll have to go out in a cab and meet the public soon enough and brave the dangers of a society that does not see what it is doing to itself or others. 

What a bummer.

I think I too need a box of my own to play in. 

Roller Coaster Rides of Depression and Healing

Up and down. High and low. Welcome to the wonderful world of the detox process. 

I began a new vitamin, mineral, and amino acid powder a while back. I went on a high where I felt alive and well. Now I'm in the detox stage. 

Energy has given way to lethargy. Happiness has faded into depression. And bad dreams and thoughts have worsened.

I am hoping I get over the tough road soon. 

I did get some B complex vitamins ordered. I only hope they help with my energy level. If I have to be fatigued, then let it be most of the day, not all of it. I have stuff to do and I would like to have my chores done instead of thinking about doing them. 

Depression and chronic fatigue together are a mighty assault on my will. 

I do have a formidable will too. After the repeated abuse and poisonings, I wouldn't be hear if there wasn't a reason. If I wasn't so damn onry. If I didn't have a will.

Nothing in life has ever come easy to me. I have worked very hard to get everything I have. Sometimes I wish I could have a respite from the madness of the world, but that just leads to complacency. 

If I am anything, it surely is not complacent.

I am always searching, researching what life is all about. What the universe really is. Why I am here?

Everyone has these questions, but most others are satisfied with religious systems that are there to confine their souls to man made dogma, not to inspire imagination or creativity. 

I want to be inspired. I want to be free. I want to soar!

Isn't there something you want to do?

Maybe it's time to break the chains of society,find what inspires you, and ride a roller coaster of your own making with your destiny in mind.  Trying is not failing, failing to try is. 

Have a great ride!