Hamas – Life on the Wicked Stage: Act 3

Time for another edition of Sunday Morning Reading. Today’s collection is a scattered selection of topics some of which might feel a bit dark. But it is a dark time scattering many of us into our corners or maybe to have an extra drink or two.

Readinginabar

For reasons, other than stupidity, we’re steal dealing with forces that want to ban books in America. This sadly isn’t a new thing, and Chris Klimek gives us A Brief History of Banned Books in America in this podcast transcript from the Smithsonian magazine podcast “There’s More To That.”

What’s happening and about to happen in the Middle East has the world on edge. Technology brings these moments to us in moments. Joanna Stern in the Wall St. Journal gives us a look in When Our Smartphones Became Windows to a War.

Continuing with that news of the moment Anne Applebaum in the Atlantic gives us There Are No Rules. As she describes it, our norms and values define how the world ought to work. We continually learn that’s not the reality.

Here’s a pallet cleanser with the first of a couple of tech topics. Jared Newman in Fast Company takes a look at the note-taking app Obsidian in The Cult of Obsidian: Why People Are Obssesed With The Note-Taking App.

If you’ve paid attention to my tech writings here you’ll know I’m having some challenges with Apple’s iCloud failings and flailings. I’m not the only one and my challenge isn’t the only iCloud issue. In TidBits Glenn Fleishman describes his in Cloudy With A Chance of Insanity: Unsticking iCloud Drive.

And back on the politics and follies of mankind beat, this piece by Michael Tomasky, I Never Thought I’d Live to See Democracy Die. But Now I Wonder is worth a look. He’s not alone in his wondering if Democracy is just a phase.

And after all of that, if you think you might need a drink, here’s a look at The Bad Law That Made Good Bars, from Peter Suderman on The Raines Law. Never heard of it? Pour yourself a beverage of choice and take a read.

If you’re interested in just what the heck Sunday Morning Reading is all about you can read more about the origins of Sunday Morning Reading here.

Unimaginable? I keep hearing and reading how unimaginable the horrors that Hamas visited on Israel are. They are horrors. Brutal. Disgusting. They are not unimaginable. They are very imaginable. They are far too easily imaginable. We just don’t want those thoughts in our imaginations, in our nations, or anywhere in our consciousness. But they are far too imaginable.

Humans are capable of all sorts of things we want to banish from our imaginations and thus make them unimaginable. But in reality that’s a fool’s errand and only leads us deeper into shock and grief when the “unimaginable” happens. If we stop imagining away the reality that horrible, brutal, hateful people will do harm to others and instead will see some sort of light we’d be better off in my opinion. Otherwise it’s willful or wishful blindness that allows ignorance to grow. And those who visit the “unimaginable” on the world love to prey on the ignorant.

There’s an interesting cultural disconnect in our imaginations, especially at this time of the year when horror films dominate popular culture featuring horrendous humans doing horrendous things to other humans. Most see both the real world horrors and the Hollywood horrors through the same screens. Is there really a difference? Obviously there’s an appetite for that kind of “unimaginable” entertainment. And yet, we claim to be surprised and shocked when it happens in the real world. Imagine that.

We are not going to imagine hate away. We are not going to imagine violence away. We are not going to imagine ourselves into a safer world. We can work for one. And yes, that requires some imagination. But the world is what the world is and humans do to humans what humans are capable of doing. Especially when there’s profit in it.

Yes, I’d like a calmer, saner, more peaceful world where we can all live together with respect, kindness, and love. If there’s something that’s unimaginable to me, it’s that place.