First of all, an announcement from contributor Chimezie Ihekuna, who is seeking an investor/executive producer for the project, One Man’s Deep Words. It is set in the US.

Produced By Vincent Turner, Developed By Robert Sacchi, 115 pages. Phase: Pre-production/Development, Budget Estimation: $23,000-314,000. Pitch deck and budget list available, please email synchchaos@gmail.com if interested.

Charles Griffin, a philosophy professor, is challenged by Adam, one of his students, over his unruly behaviour while lecturing. Though Charles is unhappy lecturing by the books, Adam’s challenge becomes the inspiration behind his nascent philosophy.

The first issue of 2025 presents a Lazy Susan of Ideas. This phrase comes from Desiree Richter, author of The Presence of Absence, about the accidental death of her young son and her journey out of rigid religious fundamentalism, out recently from the University of New Orleans Press.

In a recent interview on the podcast I Was a Teenage Fundamentalist, Richter describes reading a wide variety of books in her time of grief and being exposed to a whole “lazy Susan of ideas.”

This month’s contributors present a whole turntable of thoughts as well. Some, like Richter’s, are in response to personal or larger griefs, while others are philosophical or introspective or academic or celebratory.

Jack Mellender travels on a lyrical romp through many decades of wild living in California. Shahnoza Ochildiyeva celebrates her educational and personal accomplishments. Ashraful Kabir conveys the journey of self-discovery with a metaphor of a boat ride as Abeera Mizra renders personal awakenings through determined verse and Nick Gunter laments that a person doesn’t recognize his capacity to change. Shukurilloyeva Lazzatoy Shamshodovna outlines some pathways towards building new and positive habits while Robiya Ismailjonova brings a spiritual perspective to her call for moral accountability and repentance.

Nathanael Johnson highlights the internal struggles of a boy as he figures out how to grow into a man. Jessica Hu illustrates the self-destructive urges that can come with moments of despair.

Linette Rabsatt’s poetry prepares us for comfort, then joggles our mind with clever contradictions. Marc Frazier’s introspective poetry probes childhood, memory, desire, mortality, and our search for meaning. Noah Berlatsky humorously explores the sometimes-vague boundaries between whimsy and reality. Mark Young’s postwoman pieces frame the world’s many random offerings as gifts to be opened and explored. Susie Gharib speaks to the stories we take from history, mythology, literature, and science. Peter Cherches’ humorous story highlights the wonder, curiosity, and humor that emerges as very different beings meet each other.

Eva Petropolou Lianou interviews Jeanette Eureka Tiburcio, president of a women’s intellectual organization, on how her new book is a fulfillment of a childhood dream and on her wishes for the world.

Yahia Lababidi’s book What Remains to Be Said shares aphorisms and blurbs of his wisdom. Gulsora Mulikboyeva reflects on the impact of a teacher who inspired her to better write in her native Uzbek language.

Farangiz Abduvahidova outlines the life and literary works of Uzbek poetess Mohlaroyim and her importance to Uzbekistan’s literary heritage. Maftuna Bozorova honors the cultural legacy of Uzbek poet Alexander Feinberg. Aziza Burkhonova discusses various pedagogical techniques for language learning. Olimova Shahina explores creative ways to teach English. Eva Lianou Petropolou outlines the accomplishments of Italian Naive panter Nino Camardo. Mamazoirova Rayhona regales us with poetry on the beauty of the colorful Uzbek flag. Federico Wardal interviews Dr. Ahmed Elsersawy on his renewed efforts towards cultural partnership between Egypt and the United States.

Rachida Belkacem’s bilingual poetry evokes a transcendent spiritual companionship. Gabriela Peinado Bertalmio elucidates the beauty of the love between a mother and child. Rahmiddinova Mushtariy pays tribute to her wise and caring father. Duane Vorhees explores sensual intimacy from a variety of angles and perspectives. Lan Qyqalla jumps ahead to Valentine’s Day and autumn in his metaphoric and mythical love poems. Graciela Noemi Villaverde, within intricate verse, compares her love to a sunset and to the dawn.

Kassandra Aguilera illuminates the exquisite agony of unrequited love. After losing love, Taylor Dibbert finds unexpected comfort in solitude.

Don Edwards’ poetry deals with themes of love, loss, uncertainty, and the corrosive nature of domination and control on love. David Sapp’s poems critique the ease and sexiness all too many people have given to forms of violence and domination. Daniel De Culla lampoons dictators, and those with the ambition to become such, from around the world, including the U.S. Pat Doyne mourns the recent U.S. presidential election by parodying a famous poem about a loss in baseball.

Fayowole Benjamin’s poetry laments the toll of war on civilians and families. Mesfakus Salahin reflects on how some of the world is still reeling after the two world wars of the past century. Mykyta Ryzhykh evokes wartime and unanswered calls for love. Through his tale of violation and self-defense, Bill Tope highlights the ubiquitous problem of sexual violence. Christopher Bernard explicates and excoriates the violence inherent within neoliberalism manifested through healthcare systems, showing how organizations and procedures can be more destructive than thugs on the street.

Mirta Ramirez’ piece highlights how true romantic love can inspire artistic and intellectual creativity. Abigail George expresses her poetic hopes for peace in the Middle East as Lidia Popa highlights how artistic creation and the sharing of ideas can be noble pursuits bringing people together across cultures.

Z.I. Mahmud digs out the psychological and sociological and spiritual themes embedded within Samuel Beckett’s play Waiting for Godot, the tale of two “everymen” condemned, or blessed, with eternal anticipation. Arjun Razdan probes our obligations to each other in his short story “The Misanthrope” and questions what we owe each other and the best ways to do good.

Peter J. Dellolio’s novel The Confession elucidates the psyche of a condemned man who may or may not be guilty. J.J. Campbell’s poetry emanates from the lingering effects of childhood abuse, memories particularly acute around the holidays. Jake Triola’s poetry troubles itself with the state of the world and the speaker’s perceived personal failures, yet finds solace in walking outdoors.

Jumanazarov Zohidjon ponders the calming beauty of rain while Sayani Mukherjee celebrates a beautiful day on the green earth. O’tkir Mulikboyev pays homage to snow, trees in winter, romance, his home country, song, cheer, childhood, and the holidays. Brian Barbeito reflects on nature and his childhood on a still, snowy day. Jacques Fleury revels in a woodland dawn and the diversity and richness of the natural world. Corey Cook’s new haiku chapbook heads held low hallows a sacred moment when a cardinal bird sings in an empty church.

Isabel Gomez de Diego’s photography illuminates the glory of a city lit up at night for Christmas. Marc Frazier’s photography spotlights moments of intersection among nature, urbanity, and the human imagination. In Mahbub Alam’s piece, a couple watches a thunderstorm from indoors through a window, captivated by the effects of the wind. In contrast, Sodiqova Adolatxon’s poetic speaker gets tired of staying inside through a rainstorm and longs to go back outdoors.

Nurmurodova Gulsoda explores elements of trigonometry in her piece, reveling in the beauty of mathematics as one of the languages of nature. Jasur Mulikboyev celebrates the way a gifted chemistry teacher makes the material come alive for students. Ruxshona Toxirova presents some methods for better diagnostics and treatment for children with type 2 diabetes.

Maftuna Mehrojova outlines the need for and progress towards sustainable and green economic development in Uzbekistan. Alisher Muhtarjonov issues a strident call for people of the world to protect nature.

Eva Lianou Petropolou encourages us to choose care and respect for others in the face of life’s personal and global struggles. Zuhra Ruzmetova celebrates the New Year and the dawning of renewed hope. Lilian Dipasupil Kunimasa reflects on the meaning of the nativity scene and on starting afresh to choose kindness and a compassionate attitude in the New Year.

I love the rain

I love the rain, its gentle touch

A soothing balm, I love so much

It washes away my worries and pain

And fills my soul with peace again

The pitter-patter on the window pane

A symphony of nature’s refrain

The earth drinks in its sweet embrace

And all the world seems in its place

The air is cool, the scent is clean

A tranquil beauty, rarely seen

I love to dance in the falling drops

And feel the rhythm, my heart never stops

The rain brings life to every living thing

A gift from above, like a melody to sing

I love the rain, its calming sound

It brings me joy, wherever it’s found

Jumanazarov Zohidjon Eldor’s son was born on March 14, 2006 in Narpay district of the Republic of Uzbekistan, Samarkand region. Nation is Uzbek. Incomplete education. In 2012-2023 he studied at the 16th comprehensive school of Narpay district of Samarkand region. In 2023, the Uzbek State Institute of Arts and Culture was admitted to the “Culture and Arts Management” on the basis of a grant. He has achieved a lot of success during school and now. During the institute, the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Uzbekistan, and in December 2023, set a global ranking record for IQ (40 seconds).

Green


A slowly cacophonous morning
Screaming of faultless surprises
I call back at the ruinous evening
The way the sea chanters will sing
And mourn the last evening
The soil of earth soaked happiness
The numbness, the choice of green fragility
The bemoaning madness of survival of green moist
Is this a new horizon of tumultuous ocean? 
I sign and beck a call of happiness
The night knows thousand epiphanies
A fireglow at the tale end 
Till I lose my breathe for the sky line wine. 

Photo is of a young Central Asian woman with dark hair, brown eyes, and a gray pant suit over a white collared top speaking at a podium.

Abduvahidova Farangiz

2nd stage student of Samarkand State University named after Sharof Rashidov. 

Abduxalilboyev Alisher 3rd stage student of the Tashkent University of Information Technologies named after Muhammad Al-Khorazmi​​​​. Uzbekistan. 

Artistic arts found in Nadirabegim’s life path and ghazals.

Abstract: In the article, we have mentioned the life path and literary heritage of our poetess Mohlaroyim, who made a great contribution to the development of Uzbek poetry. Also, we will get acquainted with the explanation of the artistic tools used in her ghazals and the sentences that are the basis for the creation of this art.

Key words: Nadira, Maknuna, Komila, metaphor, tazad, ghazal, muhammas, literary environment.

Our talented poet Mohlaroyim, who wrote ghazals in Persian and Turkish under the pseudonyms “Komila”, “Maknuna” and “Nadira”, was born in 1792 in the family of Andijan governor Rahmonqulbi. He was not only a teacher, but also an enlightener and a statesman. In 1807, Nadira was married to Omar Khan, governor of Margilan. Nadira plays a major role in shaping the literary atmosphere in the palace. The reason is that her husband Omar Khan also created under the pseudonym Amiri. Nadira meets Uvaisi and invites him to the palace as a teacher. In 1810, Amir Olim Khan dies and Umar Khan comes to the throne. From this year, Nadira will continue her work in Kokon. Due to the tragic death of Amir Umar Khan in 1822, his son Madali Khan took over the throne. During Madali Khan’s rule, many madrasahs, mosques, caravanserais were built and served to improve the creative environment. Nadirabegim and his family were executed by Amir Nasrullah, the ruler of Bukhara Emirate in 1842.

 Although the poetess did not live long, her works of about 10,000 verses were inherited. In addition to ghazals, he also penned mukhammas, rubai, and fard genres. In his ghazals, separation and grief are sincerely described and he continued the traditions of famous poets such as Navoi, Bedil, and Fuzuli. There are 19 (328 verses) ghazals under the pseudonym “Komila”, and one divan with 333 ghazals under the pseudonym “Maknuna”. Under the pseudonym “Nadira” 180 poems are collected, 136 of them are in the Uzbek language, 44 in the Tajik language. Among them, there are 11 muhammas, 2 musaddas, 1 muhammas, 1 translation, 1 table of contents and 1 statement.  

Nadira’s radiative ghazals “Vasl uyin obod mem…”, “Marhabo”, “Dahrni examinet ke te”, “Sogindim” are very popular. A number of artistic arts were also used to make the ghazals more subtle.

I improved the house, but it was destroyed by the emigration

Unfortunately, this building was destroyed.

In this verse, the art of tazad was created by means of the words prosperity and destruction. Tazad is an art created by imitating things. Seli ghamdin is used in the meaning of a flood of sorrow and was the basis for the creation of the art of Mubolaga. Exaggeration is the art of exaggerating beyond belief.

He did it until the piraham stain revealed my tongue,

I don’t have any more love hidden in my heart.

The words love, heart, and soul created the art of harmony, and the words open and hidden created contrast. Contrast is an art created by contrasting things. Proportion – Many art forms rely on the spiritual association of words in poetry. It is the poet’s use of words that are logically related to each other and require each other.

Zahida, forgive the people of love,

What happened to Sheikh San’an in Yor Bay?

This verse describes the art of talmeh. Sheikh San’an used this art by mentioning his name. Ishq, love, asceticism are the basis of the art of relationship. The art of proportion is formed from cognate words and synonyms in linguistics. Talmeh is one of the widely used art forms in classical poetry. In this, the poet summarizes his thoughts by referring to a famous story, event or work, person. 

Although there was a special order of the giants,

After all, Suleiman died in a bad way.

Mor is the art of dev tazad, Sulayman is the art of talmeh.

Because the jewel of my heart is blood instead of love,

 Tears dripped from my eyesThis verse uses the art of tashbeh, the gem of love – the gem of love. Allegory is one of the most productive poetic arts widely used in literature. It can be said to make it into Uzbek. In metaphor, things, signs, and actions are described by analogy and comparison. In addition, another art was involved in this very verse. It emphasizes the tears through the word necklace. This art is called metaphor. Istiora is an Arabic word that means “borrowing”. One thing is called by another name.

My figon, the collar of my son,

I am very sad, my heart, you are not aware of it.

In this verse, the word “heart” is used as an exhortation. From the fine arts, it was the basis for the art of exclamation. Nido is distinguished from other poetic arts by its ability to openly and powerfully describe the feelings and emotions of the human heart. In this case, the thought is focused on a person or an object.

If you want to repair the Kaaba,

Turn the broken heart into a prosperous one.

In this verse, the word Ka’ba is contrasted with the words talmeh and abad – ruin. In our linguistics, the words that form the art of contrast are called antonyms – words with opposite meanings.

The work of the poetess is a great heritage for us. Despite being the wife of the king, Nadirabegim did not stop her creativity. He worked to make people and people intelligent and enlightened people. He managed to unite the intellectuals of that time around him. Life at that time was a little easier. The work of the poet began to be studied during her lifetime and works dedicated to her were created. For example, “Tuhvatut-tawarikh” by Avazmuhammad Attar, “Muntahabut-tavarikh” by Hakim Khan Tora, “History of Fargana” by Ishaq Khan Tora, “Haft Gulshan” by Nadir-uzlat. We saw the poetic arts in the analysis of the poet’s ghazals and analyzed them. We will continue the analysis in our next work.

List of used literature.

1) 10th grade literature part 1. “National Encyclopedia of Uzbekistan” state scientific publication.: Tashkent – 2017

2) 6th grade literature part 2. “Spirituality”.: Tashkent – 2017.

3) Uz.m.wikipedia.org

4) knowledge.uz

5) n.ziyouz.com

Mass Murder Capitalism and the Infinity Trap

Author’s Note: I wrote this essay originally in the fall of 2020 and publish it here with a few cosmetic changes and updates. It seems even more relevant today, after the assassination of Brian Thompson, CEO of United Healthcare—a figure who was an example of a vicious healthcare system where it has finally been proven that when healthcare is driven by whatever “the market will bear” and the desire to increase “shareholder value” at whatever cost, the purveyors of that system will, at some point, irresistibly, ask the following question of their customers:

“How much is your health, your spouse’s health, or your children’s health, worth to you”?

And who will be surprised to hear the answer: “My health? My spouse’s health? My children’s health? Why, they are worth everything to me.”

And few will be shocked by the response from the boardrooms of the healthcare “industry”:

“Oh it is, is it? It’s worth everything to you? Really? Well then, good people—in that case, we’ll take everything from you! And thank you very, very much!”

It does not take long for the logic of this statement to become fully apparent when it leads to the next equally candid exchange, heard in the confines of many a winterized boardroom:

“We who are in the healthcare industry are in the business of making money—are we not?”

“Indeed we are.”

“And our job is to make even more money in every quarter than we did in the quarter before it, is it not?”

“Our shareholders will certainly let us know it if we do not!”

“And we have two ways, and only two ways, of making more money—we sell more of our product, or we decrease our expenses. Is this not so?”

“Never a truer word was spoken!”

“We can decrease our expenses by, for example, laying off workers.”

“And a good thing too!”

“Now, protecting the health of our customers costs money.”

“Indeed it does!”

“So—what, gentlemen, if we did not? After all, we can’t save everybody all the time even with every procedure under the sun, from aspirin to brain surgery. And we never pretended we could do so. Just read over our contracts!”

“You’re right there! And we’d save a lot of money!”

“We’d make a lot of money, you mean. But to ask the question is to answer it. Is it our problem if our customers, those innocent boobies, forgot to read the fine print in the policies they bought from us—the fine print that tells them we do not guarantee payment for all or indeed for any medical procedure we do not, in our infallible judgment, thoroughly and completely approve of? No! So, if we deny covering any given medical procedure, and they suffer, is it our fault?”

“Of course not!”

“If we deny covering any given medical procedure, and they go bankrupt, is it our fault?”

 “Never!”

“If we deny covering any given medical procedure, and they die, is it our fault!”

“What a perfectly ridiculous idea! (And anybody who claims otherwise we’ll sue to the ground for endangering our good name, our reputation, and, above all, our profits!)!”

“Exactly! They should have read their contract—and if they didn’t like it, they were FREE to go elsewhere—even though every healthcare insurance contract contains, by an extraordinary coincidence, exactly the same stipulations as ours does!”

(The board roars with laughter.)

One sentence below begins as follows: “We surveyed the death toll over the last half-dozen decades and more: from the tobacco industry to the opioid crisis, the fossil-fuel to the gun industry, arms manufacturers to social media….” I would now make a substantive change: “We surveyed the death toll over the last half-dozen decades and more: from the tobacco industry to the opioid crisis, the fossil-fuel to the gun industry, arms manufacturers, to social media, to our crippled, and crippling, healthcare system….”

*

A friend and I took a walk across downtown San Francisco that autumn day. We were wearing masks and keeping (at least most of the time) a medically correct six feet apart. After weeks of unbreathable air, stultifying heat, and an eerie day of pink burnt-orange skies, we could, finally, breathe cool, deep lungfuls of a briny marine breeze off the Pacific under a clear, almost tangibly blue sky.

The city was cautiously reopening: cafes and restaurants were allowed to serve at sidewalk tables or cheerful pavilions built on the streets and fenced about like little biergartens, stores could let in customers, masked and a handful at a time, and in a few weeks, museums would be allowed to reopen with safety precautions greenlighted by the city.

We had been spared the fates of many of our fellow Californians and others living in the Pacific northwest: the millions of acres of wildland burning, the conflagrations reducing towns to ashes, the thousand fleeing for their lives. It was only far south of us that the bodies of dead birds trying to migrate south for the winter were falling from the skies, littering the land by the hundreds, even thousands. The birds here, though sometimes confused by the long darkness of smoke-clogged skies and dawns that only end at sunset, were still flying, the crows that had begun to dominate neighborhoods like North Beach and Hayes Valley strutted cockily down the sidewalks.

Yet it was difficult to maintain one’s calm, even on a good day like this, when the world, even nature itself, seemed in the midst of a murderous rampage—despite the fact many of us saw it coming for decades, since humanity was its primary cause. So my friend and I both knew that our lovely walk through the perfect afternoon was only a pause in the terrifying year of 2020.

We talked about it—because what else was there to talk about? Disasters around us and a looming electoral catastrophe before us: Trump and the Republican Party had given ominous signals they were prepared to burn American democracy to the ground if they couldn’t claim victory in November. The climate crisis had been staring us in the face after two generations of denial by the powerful and their deluded followers. The economy was in a coma while billionaires became even more absurdly, obscenely, wealthy, and shareholders aspired to their condition of insouciant arrogance. There was a seemingly unstoppable run of racist police killings and, in response, increasingly violent eruptions of righteous fury. Social media were completely out of control, causing a tempest of despair in the young: loneliness, depression, bullying, suicides, at least one of these, goaded by some monster, live streamed to a shocked audience.

We surveyed the death toll over the last half-dozen decades and more: from the tobacco industry to the opioid crisis, the fossil-fuel to the gun industry, arms manufacturers to social media, and one of us suddenly came up with a truly horrifying thought: an entire layer of society is making money, deliberately, knowingly, purposely doing serious injury to people. Worse than that: they are making money from killing people . . .

There is a descriptive phrase for this that may seem on the surface sensationalist and hyperbolic. The phrase is “mass murder capitalism.” The Romans of the empire entertained the populace through, among other things, cheering on gladiators as they killed each other in the arena and applauding as Christians and other misfits were torched and crucified en masse. The modern world has learned how to kill people, when necessary to increase profits and drive up their share price. And people are killing themselves so that titans of social media can increase their stock price by a few points.

It is not altogether intentional (though one can make the argument that, in some cases, it is; how else describe the worst offenses of health insurance; of the fossil-fuel industry, which has been aware of the dangers of carbon-induced climate change since as long ago as the 1950s; or the tobacco industry, which has been murdering people for profit since the ’60s? If this is not “Auschwitz for profit,” what else might such a horrendous beast “look like”?

Yet the people who run the capitalist Juggernaut are hardly Nazis deliberately planning on murdering most of the human race so they alone can rule the earth. This catastrophic eventuality is merely part of a nefarious effect, an “unintended consequence,” of extractive capitalism. There is in fact a legal term one might use to describe it: manslaughter.

Voluntary manslaughter involves the intentional killing of another person in the heat of passion and response to provocation, whereas involuntary manslaughter is the negligent causing of the death of another person. Perhaps one might call the passionate pursuit of profits an instance of “heat of passion,” and the “provocation” leading to this crime passionel being the irritating habit of ordinary people not to get out of the way quite fast enough of the pursuit of the highest return on investment.  

Then there is involuntary manslaughter: killing people without realizing it, though one might, and indeed should, have known what you were doing could very well have such lethal effect.

But what do you call it when an “unintended consequence” has been revealed for all to see; when the fact that you are murdering people for the sake of ever-increasing returns is blatant, is even flaunted—and you keep on doing it anyway?

You would then be called a murderer. A first-degree murderer. And in America we have an array of specific punishments for that, from life in prison to the death penalty.

It may have been the tobacco industry that taught modern American capitalism that, as long as what an industry manufactures makes someone a great deal of money, it can get away with harming, even killing, in the long run, many, and even most, of its customers. The fossil-fuel industry was not far behind. Big pharma has been doing it more discreetly for years, to say nothing about what is sometimes suspected of for-profit hospitals. The arms industry has always done it for a living. The gun industry, with its front organization the NRA, is almost embarrassing in a hypocrisy that even its supporters don’t pretend to believe.

My friend and I dug around a little more. We were playing a mind experiment—what had we to lose? We might even develop one or two insights worth sharing with others more qualified and knowledgeable than ourselves, who might use them to have deeper, keener, and more valuable perceptions, genuine discoveries – something the rest of us can act on, even fight for.

There seemed to be something driving both the obsession with accumulating ever greater piles of cash that has no other purpose than acquiring more cash (money is useless for anything else, being inedible, ugly, and a hopelessly poor building material)—something called “hoarding” in other circumstances, and considered a medical condition requiring discreet but firm intervention, not celebration, social power, or political control by the syndrome’s victim—and, for example, the same thing that was driving some young girls to harm themselves, even kill themselves, as a result of the amoralism and cruelty found in social media.

They all share something we decided to call “the infinity complex” or infinity trap, depending on whether the internal compulsion or the outer effect is being emphasized – in either case, it is shorthand for a perverse fact about human psychology.

It is a well-known fact that we human beings feel less pleasure acquiring something we want than pain at losing something we have. There is also an addictive pattern to acquisition: the more we get, the less pleasure we often get from each equivalent addition, though this does not keep us from obsessively seeking the old thrill we remember from the good old days of our possessing minority.

Applied to the accumulation of money, cash, or “capital,” this translates into the wealthy becoming addicted to acquiring money without ever being able to attain satisfaction: they never have “enough”; they are always trying to add one more zero to the end of their financial balances, and to feel that little thrill that still comes with it. And avoid the pain of the loss of one, no matter how many zeros there already are in that quagmire of a financial account. And it is always possible, no matter how many zeros are already there, to add one more zero. Desire for money is infinite because the number series is infinite; thus, the infinity complex. And a wealthy man can never have enough once he is caught in the infinity trap.

Social media addictions have the same psychological source: a young girl (for example), who is naturally insecure and needs reinforcement from her peers to be reassured of her own value, gets a “like” on Facebook. All well and good. She gets more likes. Even better. She really likes getting likes, soon she becomes practically addicted to them—so much so that, at a certain point, when one of her posts, for some reason or for no reason, doesn’t get any likes at all, or even gets fewer than before, she feels a moment of panic . . .

Yet, no matter how many likes she gets, she becomes increasingly frightened she will not get as many of them next time. And what if she reaches the point of getting no likes at all? (Believe me, I know this can happen; more and more of my Facebook posts these days get no likes, and even I feel vaguely hurt and unsettled by this.)

Since most of this young girl’s social interactions happen online and not face to face, as a result her feelings about her own worth, which are insecure at best during these years, hang on the very thing that is making her miserable. She may easily spiral into feelings of despair, which she tries to cure by getting more likes on all her social media. But this makes her even more desperate. The addictive cycle has been secured; she too has fallen into the infinity trap.

For evidence of this, we learned that suicide rates of older teenage girls have doubled, and for younger teenage girls have tripled, since the first successful social media platform, Facebook, was introduced.

We have created an economy, a culture, and a society that exploit this weakness in human psychology to the hilt, all because it makes a small number of people a vast amount of money. It has reached the point where it is wreaking havoc on the young; it is destroying impoverished communities across the U.S. through opioid addiction; it has affected the health of several generations of people across the globe through tobacco addiction, and now is having a similar effect through vaping; it is ruining political and cultural discourse through a perpetual tsunami of misinformation inundating the internet—and most criminally and ultimately catastrophically, it is destroying the planetary ecosystem through global heating, destruction of natural habitats, and ripping to shreds the ecological network that makes human life on earth possible.

It is painful to admit this, and many will deny it or accuse me of exaggeration, but I believe the evidence has become too clear to remain silent. The core of world capitalism, which includes the fossil-fuel industry and all other industries connected to it, many internet companies, and big pharma, has become a global criminal syndicate, a Murder Inc. beyond the most violent and brutal dreams of any organized criminal network. And we have become addicted to an entire array of triggers that feed an insatiable human capacity: the drive never to be satisfied.

We must begin by ending the neoliberal project of global capitalism now. Not tomorrow. Not next year. Not in the next decade.

Or many more will die like the flocks of birds falling from the sky in their thousands over the southwestern states, like our fellow human beings, most of them innocent of creating this catastrophe, who are perishing from the heatwaves blanketing the world every summer and crushed beneath new forms of authoritarianism driven by a toxic blend of neoliberal ideology and information technology we have lost control of, to a conclusion in social psychosis and suicidal destruction.

____

Christopher Bernard is a novelist, poet, critic, and essayist. His book The Socialist’s Garden of Verses won a PEN Oakland Josephine Miles Award in 2021.

I thank you              

                Father!

(My father is devoted to Rahmiddin!)

Father, your words are bright and kind, 

Your words of wisdom are mysterious and magical,

Your teacher is different-minded,

Thank you, father!

We learned love from you,

We learned knowledge and enlightenment from you.

We learned manners and consequences from you.

Thank you, Father!

He watched us walk the streets,

He corrected our mistake without delay,

The reason is that he gave his gifts,

Thank you, Father!

Rahmiddinova Mushtariy Ravshan’s daughter was born on March 1, 2011 in Gulistan district of Syrdarya region. Now she is a student of the 8th grade. Mushtariy is interested in reading poetry, reading books, drawing. She appeared on television in kindergarten at the age of three and is still appearing on television. Participated in the Bilimdon competition. She took the 2nd place in English in the 2nd grade. Participates in many contests and projects. In the future, she will become a dentist. She is preparing for admission. Her dream is to make everyone proud of Mushtariy. She also participated in many anthologies and webinars.

Fake to Real

There is a situation

Where I will be eaten by aardvarks

unless you kiss me amidst the lamentation

of the aardvarks.

It seems unlikely and contrived.

But the truth is a contrivance

raised on folded metal legs

like a praying mantis

that reaches down to kiss you.

The android praying mantis

is a real swooning android.

The moon is a true contrivance

of aardvarks and lamentations.

No narrative is eaten.

The fiction does not tell lies.

The moon sails out of the poem

to the room where you are reading,

about the moon and a kiss

and becoming what you dream,

a round mask on the face of the sky.