Love this piece Kelly. I first heard about polygenic screening on Maiden Mother Matriarch and it is so disturbing to me that this kind of technology is becoming normalised. I also went through a phase where I thought Ayn Rand was SO insightful…I cringe at my past self haha! I’m currently rereading Emma thanks to your previous piece and it’s exactly what I need. Mr Knightley might just be my new favourite Austen love interest.
So good; so true!! BNW is extremely depressing largely because it mirrors things so well:( Equally creepy and sad are the “movies” the people attend for entertainment.
Also, very fun hearing about 13yo Kelly. I love shares like that!
Thank you!! It’s so funny, this is when I met my life-long bff. She was a fellow big reader, but she was a much better student. I love looking back on this chapter of our lives!
Yes to all. Well said. I only recently read Brave New World, having previously read 1984, and I see much more BNW about me today, from normalizing horrors via IVF to the number of marijuana dispensaries popping up all over my city to so many of us (myself included) being compulsive smart phone users (my phone died yesterday and I was charging it in the car on a long drive in traffic and couldn't listen to my audiobook or a podcast and was annoyed at how small-souled I've become! I was so restless! I rummaged around for a physical CD in the car and found one sleeve of CDs from a dramatic reading of the KJV, so I got to listen to the start of the book of Acts while using a wet wipe to clean the parts of the car I could reach (the traffic was a parking lot for quite a long time!) Now that I've seen The Chosen, imagining Peter before the Sanhedrin was such a funny contrast! I could just see him saying, "Should I follow what God told me to do or what you tell me to do?" with his messy hair and simple tunic and giant fisherman's arm muscles, before these learned and well dressed and ceremonious leaders! God keeps choosing the most unexpected people to share His message!)
I'm currently rereading Little Women and it's making me newly grateful to have a husband and children and a home of my own. The little things that make up a life are the big things!
Yes! I have such a hard time sitting in silence now, which is a shame because as a kid that was always so refreshing for me, just to sit and think. I so agree about having simpler lives! I’m hoping we will start to reverse course at some point…
I almost feel compelled to put in a good word for Ayn Rand, everyone hates on her so. Everything bad anyone says about her writing is true and I don't deny that.
My husband read Atlas Shrugged before 2020 and said that her villains were so cartoonish and flat that it was a real flaw. I read Atlas Shrugged after 2020 and said, I've seen many people act exactly like this.
So, while there's plenty to say against her and her work, Rand saw a truth of human behavior and I haven't seen it expressed quite so precisely elsewhere. In 2020, every industry and area of life was already so overfilled with regulation and so many people "followed guidelines" and thought themselves noble and refused to think for themselves and would never accept the buck stopping with them. And it killed people and caused very great suffering to many people. And everyone will say "we didn't know" and go on blithely. But I will never again believe people who say they'd have acted differently if they lived in Nazi Germany. People were quick to call the authorities on their neighbors for the crime of seeing other human beings when there was a new made up rule against it. The churches were closed from government pressure and in my Diocese only one priest offered confessions through his screen front door with a kneeler on his porch and people drove an hour and stood in a long line around the block in the heat to receive the sacrament. *Only one priest* And people thought they were going to die from a plague and there were no other priests offering confession?! Where was our Christian witness of "do not worry about those that can destroy the body" but be concerned for your soul?! I try not to think about this too much because it makes me angry. Everyone can back away from Ayn Rand all they like, on some things she was accurate.
Yes, you make a great point! When I entered the Ayn Rand college essay contest years ago (I think I was a semi-finalist?) I argued that Ayn Rand understood that collectivism is deeply flawed in theory, not just in practice. A lot of people argue that Communism works in theory and I don’t think that’s really true and Rand illuminates why. I totally agree that she seemed to understand what drives people to ruthless behavior - she grew up during the worst years of Soviet oppression and had seen so much cruelty.
And what strikes me from Atlas Shrugged is less the ruthless behavior but the learned helplessness. All the people who knew sending that train into that tunnel would kill people, but if they didn't do it, they'd lose their jobs, so... What was there to be done? And they just shrugged and followed orders. And that blood is on their hands and they'll never acknowledge it, because the buck doesn't stop with them. I saw so much of this in 2020-2021.
Lockdowns showed me my own cowardice. It's so much harder to go against the strong cultural current than we imagine when reading a book or a biography and we think we'd act like the hero. The very small things that I chose to do during lockdowns -that were good and healthy and right and helpful to other people and against the rules of the time- took so much energy and anxiety and stress to do. After everyone who used judgement or took responsibility was publicly cancelled, we were all complicit in sending trains into the tunnel.
I was thinking during this essay that you would find Peco Gaskovski's book Exogenesis a fascinating read.... but then I got to the end about (rightly) needing stories that hum with life. haha
When I was 13, it was all Brezhnev, Mao, Nixon and 🎸🇬🇧 Led Zeppelin, perhaps that's why I lean towards Winston Smith and Julia 🐀 more than to the ΑΒΓΔ and SOMA.....💊 Grace and peace to you sister, thank you for this post!
Love this piece Kelly. I first heard about polygenic screening on Maiden Mother Matriarch and it is so disturbing to me that this kind of technology is becoming normalised. I also went through a phase where I thought Ayn Rand was SO insightful…I cringe at my past self haha! I’m currently rereading Emma thanks to your previous piece and it’s exactly what I need. Mr Knightley might just be my new favourite Austen love interest.
Thank you so much Becca!! I need to give a listen, that sounds so interesting! I’m so glad you’re enjoying Emma too!!
It was an episode a while back…can’t remember the name of the guy Louise was interviewing but they discussed polygenic screening at some length!
So good; so true!! BNW is extremely depressing largely because it mirrors things so well:( Equally creepy and sad are the “movies” the people attend for entertainment.
Also, very fun hearing about 13yo Kelly. I love shares like that!
Thank you!! It’s so funny, this is when I met my life-long bff. She was a fellow big reader, but she was a much better student. I love looking back on this chapter of our lives!
Yes to all. Well said. I only recently read Brave New World, having previously read 1984, and I see much more BNW about me today, from normalizing horrors via IVF to the number of marijuana dispensaries popping up all over my city to so many of us (myself included) being compulsive smart phone users (my phone died yesterday and I was charging it in the car on a long drive in traffic and couldn't listen to my audiobook or a podcast and was annoyed at how small-souled I've become! I was so restless! I rummaged around for a physical CD in the car and found one sleeve of CDs from a dramatic reading of the KJV, so I got to listen to the start of the book of Acts while using a wet wipe to clean the parts of the car I could reach (the traffic was a parking lot for quite a long time!) Now that I've seen The Chosen, imagining Peter before the Sanhedrin was such a funny contrast! I could just see him saying, "Should I follow what God told me to do or what you tell me to do?" with his messy hair and simple tunic and giant fisherman's arm muscles, before these learned and well dressed and ceremonious leaders! God keeps choosing the most unexpected people to share His message!)
I'm currently rereading Little Women and it's making me newly grateful to have a husband and children and a home of my own. The little things that make up a life are the big things!
Yes! I have such a hard time sitting in silence now, which is a shame because as a kid that was always so refreshing for me, just to sit and think. I so agree about having simpler lives! I’m hoping we will start to reverse course at some point…
I almost feel compelled to put in a good word for Ayn Rand, everyone hates on her so. Everything bad anyone says about her writing is true and I don't deny that.
My husband read Atlas Shrugged before 2020 and said that her villains were so cartoonish and flat that it was a real flaw. I read Atlas Shrugged after 2020 and said, I've seen many people act exactly like this.
So, while there's plenty to say against her and her work, Rand saw a truth of human behavior and I haven't seen it expressed quite so precisely elsewhere. In 2020, every industry and area of life was already so overfilled with regulation and so many people "followed guidelines" and thought themselves noble and refused to think for themselves and would never accept the buck stopping with them. And it killed people and caused very great suffering to many people. And everyone will say "we didn't know" and go on blithely. But I will never again believe people who say they'd have acted differently if they lived in Nazi Germany. People were quick to call the authorities on their neighbors for the crime of seeing other human beings when there was a new made up rule against it. The churches were closed from government pressure and in my Diocese only one priest offered confessions through his screen front door with a kneeler on his porch and people drove an hour and stood in a long line around the block in the heat to receive the sacrament. *Only one priest* And people thought they were going to die from a plague and there were no other priests offering confession?! Where was our Christian witness of "do not worry about those that can destroy the body" but be concerned for your soul?! I try not to think about this too much because it makes me angry. Everyone can back away from Ayn Rand all they like, on some things she was accurate.
Yes, you make a great point! When I entered the Ayn Rand college essay contest years ago (I think I was a semi-finalist?) I argued that Ayn Rand understood that collectivism is deeply flawed in theory, not just in practice. A lot of people argue that Communism works in theory and I don’t think that’s really true and Rand illuminates why. I totally agree that she seemed to understand what drives people to ruthless behavior - she grew up during the worst years of Soviet oppression and had seen so much cruelty.
And what strikes me from Atlas Shrugged is less the ruthless behavior but the learned helplessness. All the people who knew sending that train into that tunnel would kill people, but if they didn't do it, they'd lose their jobs, so... What was there to be done? And they just shrugged and followed orders. And that blood is on their hands and they'll never acknowledge it, because the buck doesn't stop with them. I saw so much of this in 2020-2021.
Lockdowns showed me my own cowardice. It's so much harder to go against the strong cultural current than we imagine when reading a book or a biography and we think we'd act like the hero. The very small things that I chose to do during lockdowns -that were good and healthy and right and helpful to other people and against the rules of the time- took so much energy and anxiety and stress to do. After everyone who used judgement or took responsibility was publicly cancelled, we were all complicit in sending trains into the tunnel.
Well you know I loved this!
I was thinking during this essay that you would find Peco Gaskovski's book Exogenesis a fascinating read.... but then I got to the end about (rightly) needing stories that hum with life. haha
Yes I need to read it for sure!! I know I would like it. Thank you so much for reading!
°^°^°^°^°^
When I was 13, it was all Brezhnev, Mao, Nixon and 🎸🇬🇧 Led Zeppelin, perhaps that's why I lean towards Winston Smith and Julia 🐀 more than to the ΑΒΓΔ and SOMA.....💊 Grace and peace to you sister, thank you for this post!
Christ is RISEN! ☦️ 🪨 ✨🕊️
"A=A" 💪🏼📚✍🏼💲 but Ayn Rand is the LEAST MATERNAL female I have ever come across..😏
....goin' large as a thirteen yr old sister! 🔔⚖️
Huxley and Orwell are a diptych. 🌐💫⚖️👁️📲