Reflections

Good Afternoon Comrades!

It is nice to be back here! Thank you all for indulging me in my two weeks off - obviously as everyone can relate, they were needed! As some of you may have guessed from the holiday dispatches over on that burning pile of advertising called IG, I was extremely fortunate to spend said two weeks in Albania. I managed to read some books, see, talk and learn a lot about the communist history in Albania and at the same time wind down, re-charge, get some sun and witness some amazing food. On that note, if anyone has any questions about visiting the place drop me a line. I’d be happy to help if and how I can.

As it stands right now, things are a little chaotic here - I have managed to unpack and do the laundry but lots of new changes on a personal / professional level are happening, predominately if not entirely positive and as far as you dear readers are concerned, you are going to be hearing from me more frequently. I am not sure if I will implement a new publishing schedule that my silly brain will then at all costs adhere to but hey, that damn brain has been on overdrive of late, again, something entirely positive if you ask me.

I read a few good books, and one not so / disappointing book whilst off and we will be dissecting some of the themes over the next few weeks. Specifically, Hunter S. Thompson, always great to ground your ass and put so much of realities into context as we are experiencing the end of the Western Empire - as well as a book by Marcello Tari, called “There is No Unhappy Revolution - The Communism of Destitution” - that started off strong but then went off the deep end and I ended up putting it down - but there were some good points on there that I will get through this week I reckon.

One of the biggest recurring thoughts I had over the last two weeks are very specific to Albanian History, specifically the period of their partisan liberation from fascism in the 1940s to the reign of Enver Hoxha and their Communist journey. It’s a deep history and I would implore anyone interested to try to get into - try only because it’s so multi-faceted and wrought with ideological narratives that it is hard to really get any clear sense out of it - and admittedly, my own limited idea of it has changed since being there. I do think though that the history from liberation to dictatorship in Albania serves as a hugely important study in regards to power and purpose - something we have dealt with here for the last 4 years and will have to deal with intently as our futures are increasingly insecure and determined by radical capitalists and their fascist goons. Specifically, the questions of what to do when you actually gain power, how to organize it and how to never lose focus on the intention of gaining / having power. If I am certain of one truth so far, is that despite all the correct intentions of Hoxha and the entire anti-fascist partisan movement, ultimately they lost focus entirely as to why they stood up against oppression in the first place, for which an entire country paid a horrific price. So that is going to be topic for the next few days to be sure, in addition to that, the subject of power projection becomes important, specifically, the superficial soft power projected by capitalism in the West. This was particularly interesting to witness / experience anew these past two weeks. Having grown up as a teenager in the ex Warsaw Pact countries like Poland immediately after the fall of the Soviet Union I witnessed the immediate reality but ultimately I was too young to understand what I was seeing - different reality now.

Lastly, well, lastly my ass Vogel, the subject of truth and reality has been on my mind heavily of late, in part sparked by the above linked book that I cannot really recommend entirely but also by the fact that our concepts of truth and reality have become so utterly distorted as to defy reason and demand reproach.

Ha, while I am on that note, my 16 year old twitter account got nuked after I insulted rich people and their boot lickers a little too often, and I have linked my new account in the above screenshot, if anyone is still on there - and its bad, the site has become even worse than IG and is making FB look good, another genius achievement of small man with a dangerous ego and too much money. I am also playing around with BlueSky if anyone is on there but I am still not sure about it all.

There are a few more ideas / thoughts I am playing around with but for the time being I just wanted to say hello again and get everyone back into the groove for this here little space on the internet.

Also, I am in the process of making lunch and since I am planning on writing a new cook book, here is what is on the menu for later: A Chicken & Chorizo White Bean Tomato Stew. Recipe & Feedback to follow probably tomorrow.

As for the rest, stay tuned. Thanks for sticking around.

We serve the revolution.

Yours,

V.