Richard V. Rupp

April 6, 2022

Good Wednesday morning! I'm novelist Richard V. Rupp, writing from Burbank, California. Welcome to RUPP'S NOTES/FBI SPECIAL AGENT HARTMANN SERIES posts.

 

Looking at my stock portfolio and listening to a CNBC report about the economy this morning is not a great way to start the day. According to CNBC, 81% of Americans believe the U.S. economy will experience a recession in 2022. Current events in this world of ours, ranging from rising oil prices to noticeable inflation in everyday products, is the reason given. Additionally, there is the general sense of global instability that so many feel right now, thanks to a multi-year pandemic and an unfolding economic and humanitarian crisis in Ukraine.

 

Then there is the fact that rent prices are soaring nationally, and housing shortages are compounding the crisis.

 

These types of events are an example of why in the novel I'm working on, SKYWARD, the Bowman Twins and their clique are willing to sacrifice their wealth and possibly their lives to find a New Earth and start a new society from scratch.

 

In SKYWARD, the Bowman Twins and their clique considered trying to fix things here on Earth through scientific-oriented investigation and rational thought. They concluded, "It ain't gonna change! Why not make a fresh start on things. After all, a new frontier is just begging to be explored. We can see it plainly every night as we look at the stars. It's begging for us to come."

 

I'm enjoying the Benjamin Franklin documentary series on PBS. I love this quote of his that could have been said by one of my characters in SKYWARD - "I would rather have it said, 'He lived usefully' than, 'He died rich,'" he wrote his mother.

 

Old tribal memories and desires and new tribal progressive ideas will continue to conflict with each other. There is no question that many old guys and a few young ones of various skin tones want to take things backward based on their tribal beliefs, greed, or just plain stupidity. Then there are the young people with new ideas in a narrow perspective that don't fit in with reality. Their intentions are good, but their rationale is often flawed.

 

Here is a quote about our nation from Ben Franklin that seems to have fallen to the wayside in today's society – "By the collision of different sentiments sparks of truth are struck and political light is obtained." 

 

Someone has stolen all the flashlights, or the batteries (a word coined by Franklin) have been overused as respect shining a light on different sentiments. The sparks of truth are not sparking.

 

Talking about a collision of different sentiments, have you noticed the Twitter war? One side wants Twitter to do more policing, others less. The world's wealthiest person, Elon Musk, is joining Twitter's board of directors after buying a 9% interest in the company to contribute his two cents.

 

After the January 6th insurrection, Elon wrote, "people won't like 'West Coast high tech' acting as its 'de facto arbiter.'" He recently tweeted, "Given that Twitter serves as the de facto public town square, failing to adhere to free speech principles fundamentally undermines democracy. Being wealthy and educated has its benefits.

 

My millennial Bowman Twins are somewhat patterned after Musk. FORBES says of him, "Although Musk falls out of the millennial generation by a decade or so, his belief in a common good makes him a perfect thought leader for this demographic. He may not be a millennial by age, but he definitely fits the mold in regards to his approach to business and the betterment of humanity."

 

The more I think about it, my Twins are a combo of Musk and Ben Franklin. Both loved reading, are/were highly ambitious, and are/were avid writers. One historian on the Franklin PBS series indicated that Ben was a writer and 'writers invent.' I love that thought.

 

I haven't done a lot of writing this week. Instead, I've been going back through my stacks of clippings and notes and doing some reading. Here's an example of a note I made to myself on an article that indicates the conflict I'm talking about – Poverty and carbon emissions are at odds with each other. Both India (3rd largest carbon emission producer) and Mexico are increasing their use of fossil fuels to fuel their growing economies and lift millions of their citizens out of poverty. There is no way they could afford to eliminate poverty with solar and wind power. After all, fossil fuel is what build the American and Chinese economies. It is cheap and easy to use.

 

Another note says – There is a psychology professor at the University of Virginia that concludes, "the impact of growing up poor can overwhelm a child's natural intellectual gifts."

 

Then there is a clipping about doomed humanity. It indicates that some scientists and environmentalists fear that humans will exceed the planet's carrying capacity and, in doing so, destroy themselves. On the other side, a billionaire implies that we need to increase those in educated societies for the Earth to survive. Here is a paragraph from that L.A. Times clipping – "In addition to the climate crisis, we live in a time of war, inequality, white supremacist violence, the backlash against women's rights, technological upheaval, and fraying social networks. None of these dire conditions is a biological or ecological inevitability. Nor is human extinction. To assert otherwise is to disavow responsibility for the policies and power structures that cause habitat degradation, income inequality, and widespread injustice – conditions that already threaten the lives of countless people and other beings on this planet."

 

There is an old saying – "Look at the Big Picture" – For some reason, today, people are stuck focusing on small details in which they are vested. They don't recognize how those small details impact each other when combined with others. They miss the complete or overarching story or idea. They should consider the future or other parallel factors and stop focusing on the small details.

 

I will leave you with two H.G. Wells quotes –

 

"Human history becomes more and more a race between education and catastrophe."

 

"Modern war, modern international hostility is, I believe, possible only through the stupid illiteracy of the mass of men and the conceit and intellectual indolence of rulers and those who feed the public mind."

 

I'm convinced the more uneducated people we bring into the world, the more chaotic it will become, for they cannot see the Big Picture.

 

You know I love college basketball, particularly March Madness. But, at the half, North Carolina was ahead by 16 points and looking unbeatable, so I considered turning the game off. Thank goodness I didn't. It turned out to be a great comeback game, with Kansas overcoming the biggest deficit of any NCAA tournament final game.

 

Looking forward to seeing how Tiger Woods does this weekend at the Masters.

 

Cheers,

 

Richard V. Rupp, Author

Website – www.richardvrupp.com

Email – rupprisk@gmail.com

Copyright©2022 by Richard V. Rupp