pandemics – Stepping Stones

Weapons (2025): A-Political Analysism | Film Analysis

Weapons (2025) is an antisemitic critique of the Jews, particularly in the context of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and much more along similar lines. Let me explain…

Preface: Lest Triggered

As stated in the excerpt, the premise of this article is that the widely acclaimed 2025 horror movie Weapons is, primarily, an ‘antisemitic’* representation of the Jewish people and a political allegory about Israel’s influence on Palestine and the US. However, it is not a claim that Zack Cregger or anyone associated with the movie Weapons is antisemitic, nor am I interested in their actual views about the Jews or the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. This article is not purposed to criticise or defend groups or particular people but to excavate the most significant symbolism I’ve seen in Weapons that has been part missed and part wilfully ignored by mainstream and social media (at least as far as I’ve seen). Suffice it to say here that entertainment media – as with society and the world – is designed and directed from an orchestrating source above and behind the individuals who are accredited with creating it. Zack Cregger’s comments about the meanings of Weapons (some of which I quote in this article) happen to exemplify this principle: that artists are not the true authors of their works (which, like Cregger, they often hint having ‘channelled’) and aren’t even required to know the deepest meanings and functions of them.

“Future Shock” and the Arrival of ‘Future Work’ in the Post-2020 World | Old Drafts

An old draft of a commercial article written for someone’s ‘remote work’-related business blog. Based on Alvin Toffler’s 1970 book, this abandoned piece was to be slightly rewritten (to smoothen the language) and accompanied by images.

In recent decades, the forms and conduct of work have been changing with increasing rapidity. The ceaseless march of technological development has largely been the catalyst for this transformation, primarily by a revolution in telecommunications but also due to the huge advancements and commercialization of computing technologies. Thus with the innovations of the internet and email, followed by Wi-Fi and smartphones, Progress has been changing not only the way in which work is conducted but also the type of work needed to be done.
Technological progress can therefore be considered as the overarching context of the changing world of work, both from an historical and futurist perspective. Recently, however, this overarching context has been abruptly augmented as a result of the global pandemic that emerged in early 2020, in that the developments and repercussions of it were immediately instated as an ongoingly exigent context of life (evidenced by its domination of both social and industry news—and indeed, News in general). In particular, pandemic control measures have affected all normal life in the most radical of ways, forcing culture and society at large to adapt from the habitual conventions of 21^st century modernity to newly designed forms and means of social and occupational activity.
A profound effect of this process – most salient to those aware of the overarching context pre-existent to it – is the catalyzation of the techno-generated transformation of work; for effectively, the pandemic has fast-tracked the very trends that Progress had established in recent decades, whilst also prompting novel developments which, nevertheless, seem to be in keeping with the cultural ideologies that advocate and facilitate Progress.

Russia-Ukraine for ‘Years and Years’ – Part IV: Concentration Camps (Neo-Fascism)

Part IV of an article series examining themes from the British dystopian series Years and Years that have become pertinent following the Russia-Ukraine War.

From beginning to end Years and Years – through the character Vivienne Rook and her Four Star Party – illustrates the process by which pantomime politics produces perilous populism—and how Britain becomes a mirror image of its historical Nazi nemesis.

Parts I, II, and III of this article series examined the various societal and international themes derived from the prophetic fiction series Years and Years, specifically those that have become ever more pertinent due to the Russia-Ukraine War and its emergent consequences. Respectively, the themes discussed were Refugee & Housing Crises, Nuclear Attack & World War, and Financial & Employment Crises. Furthermore, this particular succession of socio-international themes was shown to comprise a logical chain reaction of crises that can be traced through the series’ narrative, implicitly when not explicitly.
Part IV presents the culmination of this chain reaction of developments in what can be thought of as their sociopolitical ‘endgame’ and the ‘comeuppance’ of accumulated follies: neo-fascism*.

*To avoid ambiguity in using this term, the Wikipedia definition will suffice here: “Neo-fascism is a post-World War II ideology that includes significant elements of fascism. Neo-fascism usually includes ultranationalism, racial supremacy, populism, authoritarianism, nativism, xenophobia and anti-immigration sentiment as well as opposition to liberal democracy, parliamentarianism, liberalism, Marxism, capitalism, communism, and socialism.”

The Russia-Ukraine War and the Prophetic Fiction ‘Years and Years’

The Russia-Ukraine War (2022) as highlighting the significance of the prophetic BBC-HBO mini-series Years and Years (2019).

*Years and Years (2019): The Lyons family of this avant-garde prophetic dystopia, as they typically follow the (typically shocking) news.*

In mid-late February, reports of Russian intentions to invade Ukraine began to occupy the news media—upon which one thought immediately came to my mind: Years and Years.

For those who have seen this 2019 mini-series, its relevance to what is now the Russia-Ukraine War should already be apparent, particularly to residents of the UK, since the show is primarily oriented towards developments in Britain. In this article, I first offer a summary of why Years and Years is generally significant, before revealing the specific details that directly relate to the currently developing Russia-Ukraine War and its wider ramifications.

Annihilation

What’s the meaning of this? Who’s to say? (Certainly not me…)

I don’t know what this is.
Maybe it’s an inane mixture of things. Or something novel and deep. Guess it depends on who (or what) is reading it.
Maybe it’s nothing but with something in it. Or something but with nothing in it.
It’s not for me to say, even though I’m the author. Actually, because I’m the author.
Just technically ‘the author’. See I wrote this here thing, I did, but who’s to say I am the authority of its meaning? (That question may or may not be rhetorical, according to preference.)
As a matter of fact (technically just an expression, BTW), it’s each reader that decides the meaning of what(ever) he/she/it is reading, as determined by the law of Intertextuality (and quite authoritatively at that, FYI). See, this fantastic law ‘deconstructed’ (as it likes to say [not that I really know what it means]) the myth of ‘authorship’ by revealing that the actual producer of meaning is [drumrole]… the reader! Ergo (just using this word ‘coz I like how The Architect said it in Matrix 2), each ‘meaning’ is equally valid (praise the law of Equality!)—and, ergo, implicitly untrue.
Case in point: commenter says this “post” is “garbage”. Therefore, he/she/it (‘they/them’ from now on) is actually right on both counts—provided only that they meant what they said. Then again…
…what they said might be totally untrue—who knows? (Rhetorical?—who knows?)

Pandemics in Perspective: Plagues and Peoples, by William H. McNeill (1976) – Book Notes & Themes

A compilation of my notes from the book: Plagues and Peoples, by William H. McNeill (1976); complimented by my summarizing sub-headings.

Plagues and Peoples: a **historical** ***interpretation*** *by an **epidemiologically-learned** historian.**

**i.e. Pandemics **in perspective—**par excellence!*

As quoted by the Lancet behind the front cover of this book,

Professor McNeill is an American historian with a sound grasp of epidemiological principles.

As McNeill points out himself in this book (which can be seen immediately in the notes to follow), historians systematically gloss-over the significance of epidemic disease.

In choosing to read Plagues and Peoples third in my sequence of pandemic-themed books, I identified it as the one most complimentary to Daniel Defoe’s A Journal of the Plague Year: for while the latter is “the prototype of all accounts of great cities in times of epidemic”, the former has to be one of, if not the most substantial attempts at a historical interpretation of epidemics (—which is quite distinct from an epidemiological interpretation of history, I would add).

Pandemics in Perspective: Viruses and Man, by F. M. Burnet (1953) – Book Notes & Subtopics

An arranged compilation of my notes from the book: Viruses and Man, by F. M. Burnet (1953).

As I said in introductions to the first and second posts of this article series, Defoe’s A Journal of the Plague Year was probably the best book to begin this study, as it seems to cover the whole spectrum of situations and incidents that can arise in a pandemic, whilst presenting them in an accessibly narrative form. Following Defoe’s most insightful story, I decided to select one of the academic books in my collection to read next—that being, Viruses and Man, by F. M. Burnet (1953).

Pandemics in Perspective: Themes of Defoe’s A Journal of the Plague Year

A thematic breakdown of the book A Journal of the Plague Year, by Daniel Defoe (1722)

Detail of the Penguin Classics Edition of Daniel Defoe’s *A Journal of the Plague Year (1722)*

Following my notes (presented in the previous post) on the book A Journal of the Plague Year, which were quite extensive; the following is a categorization of the most significant themes I have discerned from those notes, which are quite concise.

The main categories of the themes are Societal Dynamics, Conduct of Authorities, and Psychological Effects—the first two being the most substantial and thus each being divided into subheadings.

Having completed this list of themes, I find that Defoe’s A Journal of the Plague Year* clearly reveals its striking relevance to 21^st century occurrence of plague; and its breadth of insight – within its accessible, narrative form – testifies to its likely being the best book one can start with towards gaining a perspective on pandemics.

Pandemics in Perspective: A Journal of the Plague Year

An arranged compilation of my notes from the book: A Journal of the Plague Year, by Daniel Defoe (1722).

Following the establishment of a global pandemic a few weeks ago, I went through my personal library of books to select those which have direct relevance to the nature and effects of pandemics: as since these things have suddenly become of utmost significance to all, I think it now appropriate to gain some perspective on the subject.

Of the books I selected for this study of pandemics, Daniel Defoe’s A Journal of the Plague Year* stood out as the best one to begin with, for it thoroughly depicts The Great Plague of London that occurred 1665-1666.

*The full text is in the public domain, and can be accessed for free at Gutenberg.org)