Slope of Hope Blog Posts

Slope initially began as a blog, so this is where most of the website’s content resides. Here we have tens of thousands of posts dating back over a decade. These are listed in reverse chronological order. Click on any category icon below to see posts tagged with that particular subject, or click on a word in the category cloud on the right side of the screen for more specific choices.

End Times Fascism

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Not long ago, I listened to an interview with Naomi Klein and Astra Taylor about a book that was being published that very day called End Times Fascism. I bought it immediately, and since it’s a dense read, I’m only about 60% of the way through it.

I’m disenchanted recently with doing long posts, since most of you seem content just to share recipes for zesty banana pudding, but the most succinct way to summarize this book mathematically is that if you took the reciprocal of Claws AI, this book would appear. It’s a tremendous read (and stoking my own contempt for the Peter Thiels of the world, as if I needed it), so for those who are so inclined, please check it out.

On This XXV Remembrance

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Before the year 2001, the date September 11th meant nothing. It was nowhere near a holiday or any other important date that triggers an association (like April 15, June 6, or December 7). After 2001, however, September 11th is one of the most evocative days on the calendar.

On this 25th anniversary of the attacks against the U.S., I decided to crack open my well-read copy of The Fourth Turning and share some morsels. Keep in mind this book was written in 1997, almost a quarter century ago, so obviously it had no inkling of what was coming. I emphasize this because some “predictive” books are held up as being prescient, but the logic and comparisons are so tortured as to make it pointless. In sharp contrast, The Fourth Turning seems terrifyingly accurate.

Let’s start early in the book, on page 3:

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The Overwhelm

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When I was a teenager, my favorite place to go was the now-defunct tower records. I had four reasons to go there. First was to be anywhere with my girlfriend (now wife). Second was the look at the records/CDs that were playing on MTV. Third was to check out the VHS movies. And fourth, enterprising lad that I was in those days, was to check out the latest computer books to see what others were writing about and, from time to time, to pull one of my own books off the shelf and show it off to the aforementioned girlfriend. Those were happy times.

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The End of America

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Just a few days ago, I bought and immediately read cover-to-cover a book that just came out recently: 2029 The End of America. You can read about it via the link above, but I will simply say that I absolutely devoured the book, and considering the underlying beliefs that most Slopers have, I strongly suspect you would enjoy it too. (Note: I know this is a very perfunctory review, but I reached out to Porter to tell him how much I liked the book, and he didn’t bother replying, so……...feh!)