Health

Pneumonia Updates

Afternoon Comrades.

Writing is deeply rooted in discipline and repetition, it is something you have to do daily and make it part of your routine to really become an effective tool to, on the one hand, exorcise the demons in the writers head and we all have them and on on the other hand become a medium that at the very least aims to encapsulates complex thoughts into truths.

The reason you haven’t heard from me over these last two weeks is because I caught pneumonia on my way back from Italy. I didn’t wear a mask on my flight back, and that is entirely on me, and I caught what can only be described as one of the nastiest bacterial infections I have had, ever. As it stands, I still have pneumonia but the fevers are as good as broken and my energy levels are slowly returning, but make no mistake, what used to be a brisk 5 minute walk to my local market is now a half day excursion with several breaks to catch my breath.

Aside from the severe lack of oxygen going into this body, one other notable side effect is a massive brain cloud that is only slowly fading away. I’ve had a lot of time on my hand over the last two weeks but as soon as I tried engaging with the outside world, electronically or through books my brain just shut off, which, for someone with positively active ADHD is an experience that borders close to panic and ultimately resignation as another wave of painkillers races through the IV. For someone whose work outside of the kitchen is wholly intellectual this really has been fucking with me on a sub and conscious level in the sense that it scared me - the sheer inability to hold tow coherent thoughts in my head and make sense of the world is a coping mechanism of a kind, I am aware of that, but for the old machine up there to just not work has been off putting to say the least.

Especially, as Lenin put it: “There are decades where nothing happens; and there are weeks where decades happen.”, and it certainly feels like it. Israel’s war of attrition, destruction and ongoing genocide now extended into Lebanon has continued unabated, the geo-political realities due to this are changing so radically as to redefine our engagement with reality for the next decades to come, apparently the US is electing a new president in the next few weeks - a campaign year seemingly so irrelevant and not visible that it made me look back to when this was so the last time - it never was - and then there is the rest of the world. Europe, especially Germany mostly because I live here, scares my institutionally more then ever, and with each day that passes its actual cultural reality presents itself without fear and for those that read this and that live here, you know, for the rest, well, no concise words at this point, entire books yes, but to be sure, their inherent ideological belief in their own (white) superiority is singular in its violence and dedication. I’ve read about it in history books, I remember my nan telling me about it but yeah, it never went away. Whereas so much of Western European racism is rooted in managed and indoctrinated materialism, theirs is one of an ideological zealot. More on that, surely at some point.

With being away, both physically and mentally for so long it feels hard and even even pointless getting back to the routine of writing yet it plays a crucial role in the contemporary world as a means of reflecting, challenging, and transforming socio-economic structures. One of the central concepts in Marxist thought is ideology, which refers to the set of ideas and beliefs that shape how individuals perceive the world and their place in it. Ideology serves to obscure the reality of exploitation under capitalism by presenting the interests of the ruling class as universal truths. Writing, therefore, becomes a battleground where ideologies are both disseminated and contested.

In our modern world, the media, literature, and academic texts are often shaped by capitalist ideologies that promote consumerism, individualism, and meritocracy. These forms of writing reinforce the status quo, making the capitalist system appear natural and inevitable. I am hoping that these dispatches can challenge these neoliberal narratives, highlighting the exploitation inherent in labour practices, the growing inequality between rich and poor, and the commodification of human experiences.

But my mind is drifting. The point being: I am back, the healthier I am getting the more regular these dispatches will become. Thanks for sticking around, I realize that even this platform is attention based so, yeah, thanks for not abandoning ship while this dude was out cold in sick bay.

Yours, warmly,

V.