Book Review of Yellow Blue Tibia

For readers out there: I'm thoroughly enjoying a book by Adam Roberts titled Yellow Blue Tibia. It's an engaging and entertaining story of a science fiction author. It begins with our protagonist and some contemporaries being summoned by Josef Stalin to a dacha near Kiev not long after The Great Patriotic War (WW2). Stalin tells them that while communism is perfect we as humans aren't yet and so our implementation is flawed. So, for a while anyway, communism needs some opposition to keep it strong. Since Stalin expects the United States to fall and join the Revolution within 5 or 10 years at the most, they need an enemy. He orders this group of sci-fi authors to craft an enemy from outer space, since it's safe nothing's out there and we can milk this opposition till human communism can stand without it. He also orders them to craft a scenario of how these aliens would begin and progress their invasion/antagonism of Earth and how the Great Soviet Union will triumph over them and bring the whole world into the loving, perfect embrace of communism. A few months of exceedingly prolific work after this meeting with Stalin, the political officer assigned to oversee the project tells them the project is scrapped and they are to forget everything. Including even being "invited." If they ever tell anyone about it or any part of the imagined scenario ever finds it's way into their future work, then the penalty will be their life.

Fast forward 40 years. Two of the group are still alive. Our protagonist works as a translator and couldn't care less about the past or the future. His contemporary, is agitated because he sees their scenario coming true and seeks him out. Shenanigans follow and include a pair of scientologists from the United States and a taxi driver with Asperger's Syndrome. Roberts' writing style is unique, stimulating, and entertaining. I highly recommend this book for teens and up. As always for this type of thing, parents read it first.

Do More Than Nothing

There is much evil done in the world that is simply ignored or allowed. I may not be able to do a great deal about it, but I can do what I can. Part of what I can do is shout from the rooftops when I'm made aware of evil so that others may be made aware.

It's easy to stay silent. To simply shake your head at the evil in the world and move on. Letting evil go unchecked is evil itself. I know because I've been on all sides of this. The sentiment, "All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing," may not actually have been said or written by Edmund Burke but it's true nonetheless. Something he did write is even more illustrative of the world we inhabit. "When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle."

Evil in the world doesn't go away simply because we ignore it. Just as the evil in our own hearts isn't purged simply because we deny it or wish it gone. The evil we fight cannot be denied. We can try to deny it or ignore it, but it doesn't go away. It doesn't even remain as it was when last we looked at it. It grows and festers. It invades our lives and steals those things that we cherish most. It destroys trust and breaks hearts. It corrupts valued and loving associations simply because IT IS IGNORED!

This post was originally a commentary on the progress of the situation described in the article linked below. But as I wrote, I realized that this story shows just one facet of the evil in this world. And the evil in my own soul. My fellow humans, doing nothing in our own personal battles against evil is handing that evil a victory. It will grow and grow and grow, consuming all that is good in your life. Till one day you wake up and find something horrible in your life/heart and not know how it got there. An example of this is in the news this weekend. The man who did so much killing of innocents in Connecticut, didn't go to bed the night before pure and wholesome and then wake up with murder and destruction on his mind. He and some of those in his life let it grow inside of him and them. They neglected to nurture the good in their lives. They allowed the evil to grow by ignoring it because it was ugly and awkward. They allowed the evil to grow by simply letting it. They let little bits of evil into their lives. Tiny little bits that seemed almost innocent. And they ignored the lack of development of the good in their lives.

There is an elephant in the room. It's big and ugly and stinky and taking up space in our lives. We all have one or three or eighteen that we've ignored. We go about our lives and walk around it and pretend it's not there, because it's awkward and uncomfortable to talk about. I'm sorry folks, but that just doesn't cut it. "When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle." If we don't nurture the good in our lives, we will succumb to evil. It's really that simple. A garden uncultivated will be overrun with weeds. It's unavoidable.

I think one of the reasons people don't battle evil is because they think it's a big, difficult task. Well, sometimes it is. Sometimes you have to wade through filth and do hard battle with that elephant. But most of the time it really isn't difficult at all. Even if you've neglected it for too long. All that is necessary for evil to triumph, is for good people to do nothing. Burke didn't say we have to do a herculean task every day or every week or every month or even every year. The truth is that small and simple acts of good nurture the good in us and in the world. A few minutes with a hoe in the garden each day keeps the weeds at bay, and isn't difficult at all. A little volunteering for a few hours a week or month, doesn't take up much time. Reading a book that uplifts us instead of titillating us doesn't take up any extra time at all. Sharing a story with a child shines a light of good into both your lives and draws you closer together. Being patient with and having consideration for our fellow beings eases the burdens of all involved.

Doing nothing allows evil to triumph. Doing the small and simple things that nurture good allows evil no purchase in our lives nor the lives of others. Go through your life unafraid to say that there's an elephant in the room and it's ugly and stinky. And then act on what you've said. Pick up a broom and do the little things to nurture good in yourself and others. Soon the elephant with wane from the lack of nourishment ignoring it provided. As we fill the little times in our lives with little good things, the elephant will continue it's diminution and eventually scamper out the door. You see, doing more than nothing isn't difficult at all.

There will always be good to choose. Also, evil will always be there. Always it has been and always it shall be. So take heart from history. Good people have been doing more than nothing for years, decades, centuries, millennia, and more. Look around a see the good that is in the world because of their small and simple contributions. Then go add to the total. Just a little.

T.E.H.

http://act.watchdog.net/petitions/930?ls=CRYiNIcRCDg