Here we are, Happy Friday. I had a pretty good week working on my projects, reading my books and doing what I do. I can see the end of my siding project coming so I can turn around and look at what is next. There are several more outside things that need to get done, but summer is winding down fast.

This chapter felt a lot like filler. I know that it was character development giving Dabny and Frank D’Aconia’s back story. I think that it was largely free and a bit indulgent. But then again, I haven’t read the whole book so maybe it will be more significant down the line. However, there was something that came up on the back end.

“Now the planners are asking their people not to blame the government, but to blame the depravity of the rich”.

“The money will go into channels which will carry it, not to the most productive, but the most corrupt”.

What Frank is referring to in the two quotes above are the seizure of assets such as rails and mines in Mexico. When they seized the mines, they found out that they were not productive and they are trying to blame the industrialist (Frank). He further talks about the graft and shoddy practices that occurred in the startup of the mines. It is implied that this entire scenario is poetic justice for all of those that are motivated by greed and power.

What’s new here? Well nothing really but it is worth noting the story line and message are falling in line with what I was hoping the book would be. I also think that there is something else more subtle in these statements. There are always people that can see and know what is going on. It is a matter whether they actually have a platform or the resources to get the message out.

I was scanning through the AM dial last weekend. It’s been a long time since I had actually done that. One of the big stories over the weekend was that President Biden had Covid. Of course, that drudged up all kinds of opinions about the situation including the vaccine. One of the pieces was talking about the studies on the vaccine and the integrity of the data. Doctor after doctor on the show was talking about what a mess it was.

With that little detour, you can have the vision and the platform, but people still have to listen and believe. If red was black or two quarters of negative financial growth is not a recession and no longer believed to be true then the current definition of truth doesn’t even matter. Truth has to be a universally recognized.

End Your Programming Routine: It is a fine line between not revealing the plot and trying to explain the situation, especially when I haven’t read the book before so I am not sure where things are going. If you noticed that I started a little slow but I think that I have latched onto a formula. Assuming that there are concepts that worthy of me noting, I want to relate those concepts to current events or context. I think that is the way to make the abstract (or me reading a book) convey the things I have learned reading to writing. Hopefully, that translates.