CANCEL CULTURE

     Recently came across this term and truly makes me nervous to think about what it means. The even worse thing about it all is that so many people today feel this way and that does not make for a true and strong democracy. Danger ahead!
     The principle behind this term, if we can even call it a principle, is to shut down all speakers and others in the public forum who are proponents of whatever irks someone else. Correct. Anyone else and on any topic, any viewpoint. Carried to the ends of what this would mean in  practical life is to see the shutdown of all else other than the official and approved governmental decisions and propositions. Should the government change its position on anything, well, that becomes the new officially approved viewpoint and anything else is subject to cancel culture.
     Think about it. This is all the books of the dystopian future in a ongoing movement that has strong supporters, including many in the government right now. It is the fearsome driving force on the right, in the Trumpian world, and an impetus on the left as well. It appears that we are headed for an official outlook beyond which or differing with to any degree means treason or rebellion and in come the 'cancel culture' police!
     Now I agree that hate speech that encourages violence, physical representations of hatred , should be banned. If not, that leads to new versions of stormtroopers and even more violence. But anything else, like it or not, should be allowed, as nauseating as it might be. That is a democracy and we need to educate our people , teach them to know how to distinguish between trash and truth, how to avoid the lies of the extremes and how to turn this whole cancel culture movement on its head!
     The whole nasty odor of this movement contrasts vividly with the hope represented and put forth in Hoffman's The World We Knew. I know I wrote of this book before, the other day in fact, but I finished it yesterday and it is a powerful book. In the midst of one of world's most awful and civilizational threats, there arose hope. There arose a knowing, a secure knowledge, that we do not give up. All those who were slaughtered, all those who died, all those who loved us, who were the recipients of our love, well, they never die in a finality, because their love remains with us and in us they continue to live. It matters not whether they are blood relatives or not, love being the clear condition and qualifying point and this love can even defeat the Angel of Death. 
     In the world presented within the covers of this book, there is a very deep blurring of the lines between life and death. There is an acknowledgement of the presence of things we do not truly know or ever knew about, a stronger connection to the World to Come than we might have been led to believe. In these worlds the power of love, true love, not necessarily romantic love, of a willingness to sacrifice one's all for the other, is the most powerful force ever. And in the midst of all the hatred and murder, good people were found, motivated for their own reasons, but if one delved deeper into them, one could see the original seed of love for others, be they alive or dead, at peace, or wandering the world inbetween because they have not yet found peace.
     Death has to have a meaning here. It can be immediate or become clear as time goes on. Life allows for connections beyond those we ever thought possible and has the power to transform the half alive to full humanity, to the powers of love, emotions and a heart and soul.
     This is a book which should be required reading for all. It is deep, requiring a slower reading with time to pause and try to assimilate and internalize all that one has read. It requires one to be open to an acceptance of things we might have scoffed at before. And  it opens a door to hope for a future for humanity, a truly necessary door that we need right now. Read the book. Think about what it says to you and others. I find myself at a loss of words powerful enough to explain this book and its effects on me. Read it and understand.
      It gives us all that we need in life. Hatred will always exist, in sometimes truly evil and devilish presentations. Life might seem to be hopeless, horendous, but wait, there is that spark. There is that seed that allows hope to grow, that allows beauty to develop and flourish from the teeth and bones of the slaughtered. We just need to open ourselves to these thoughts and possibilities. I cannot speak higher than this in writing of this book. Read it for yourselves. Please. Keep an open mind. Remember that dramatic license is allowed and done for a purpose. Would that we might find what is found here by the characters of the novel - and I warn you, it is not all the traditional happy endings you might expect. And yet, there are happy endings too. Read it.