The Price of Forgetting: From Hiroshima to Heatwaves

August 5th is the day before Hiroshima.

What happens when history is erased, the past is politicized, and the present burns?


The world changed on August 6, 1945—and since that day, every August 5 has become a kind of psychic limbo. A reckoning. The last breath of innocence before the mushroom cloud.

That’s how I always feel on this date.
Like we’re holding our breath in a forgotten waiting room of history—blind to what came before, numb to what unfolds now.
The silence before the sirens.
The moment before the blast.

Today—August 5, 2025—we are back in that limbo.

But this time, the sky is not split by one bomb.

The destruction is slower, more dispersed, less cinematic—yet no less final.

This time, it’s heatwaves that break records.
Rivers that dry to dust, then overflow in torrential floods.
Forests that burn unchecked, fueled by massive rains that feed new vegetation—only for it to dry, then ignite, as heatwaves and droughts return like the ticking hands of a doomsday clock.

It is rights that vanish. Books that disappear. Truth that crumbles like ash.

This time, the bomb isn’t dropped.

It’s embedded.
Woven into the system.
And we are its architects.


IThe Myth of the Clean Bomb

The atomic bomb was sold to the American public as a necessary evil. A weapon that saved lives by ending the war. That version of reality still persists—scrubbed clean of children’s shadows burned into concrete, of survivors coughing up blackened blood, of generational trauma encoded in irradiated cells.

The lie of the clean bomb persists because it serves empire. It allows America to remain the hero of its own myth.

And that myth is still being weaponized.

Only now, it’s turned inward—against its own people.

Today’s warfare is economic, psychological, algorithmic. Yet the logic remains unchanged: justify atrocity with a false binary—us or them, freedom or chaos, purity or infection.

Today’s “them” are immigrants.

They are scapegoated for the damage inflicted by the billionaire class—that paltry 3% who not only own the means of production, but also control the distribution of goods, truth, and even hope. They’ve spent decades engineering a system where they get more—and everyone else gets less. Less pay. Less power. Less time. Less life.

And now, as the American Empire fractures under the weight of its own excess, the billionaires are panicking.

The moral calculus never changes. Only the delivery system. And the scapegoats who bear the cost of the sins committed by the ultra-rich—men who molest truth as easily as they molest children.

Protected by wealth. Worshipped by media. Shielded by spectacle.


II. The Climate as the New War Zone

While politicians posture and billionaires build bunkers, the planet keeps the receipts.

July 2025 was the hottest month in recorded history—for the third year in a row. Massive wildfires are displacing thousands across the Pacific Northwest and Mediterranean. Crops are failing in Africa and Latin America. Major cities are approaching wet-bulb conditions too dangerous for human survival.

But it’s not just weather. It’s the slow-motion collapse of the world we were promised. A world built on endless growth, fossil-fueled prosperity, and the illusion of safety for the “civilized.” That world is burning down, and too many still think we can shop our way out of the flames.

The climate crisis isn’t just about carbon. It’s about power. Extraction.

It is a system that treats the Earth like a warehouse and people like units of productivity.

It is war by another name—waged on the body of the planet and the psyche of the people.

It is something I write about in Sapience: The Moment Is Now.


III. Erasure as Strategy

As the temperature rises, so does the campaign to make us forget.

The Project 2025 blueprint isn’t just about rolling back regulations or gutting federal agencies. It’s about destroying institutional memory. Banning books is not just censorship—it’s conditioning and control. Erasing queer history, Black history, labor history, climate truth—it’s all part of the same project: obliterate the past so the present can be reprogrammed.

And it’s working.

What happens when a nation forgets not just Hiroshima, but Tulsa? Not just slavery, but Flint? Not just the Dust Bowl, but Paradise, California?

Such a nation becomes unmoored. Untethered. Easily manipulated. Easily distracted by pleasure, products and propaganda.

Memory is not nostalgia. Memory is resistance. When we forget, we become malleable. Controllable. Willing to call cruelty “order,” or fire “progress.”


IV. What Is Worth Remembering

Today, on August 5, I am remembering not just the blast—but the silence before it. The illusion that everything was fine.

That’s where we are now—algorithmically embedded and entombed in illusion. Trained in the art of forgetting. Forgetting that we are space-time beings of staggering magnificence—sentient sparks capable of perceiving, feeling, and dancing with the mystery of life. One of the rarest awakenings in the known universe. And yet… here we are: sedated by spectacle, indentured to the machine, clocking in for our slow extinction under corporate rule.

(A truth explored in depth in my book, Sapience: The Moment Is Now.)

It is a myth has never relied on fact. It relies on meaning. And meaning is forged in remembrance.

So let us remember:

  • That humans made the bomb—but we also made peace.
  • That fire can destroy—but it can also purify.
  • That forgetting is dangerous—but remembering is defiant.

Let us remember the land before it cracked. The sky before it choked. The soul before it was bought by billionaires and oligarchs.

Let us remember that we are not separate from the story. We are the storytellers.

And right now, the story is breaking.

But so are we.

And maybe—just maybe—that’s where the fire of renewal begins… like the mythical firebird.

Call to Action:

🌍 This week, remember something real.
Tell someone a story about your ancestors. Read a banned book. Visit a site of historical pain and power.
Because remembrance is not passive. It is protection.
It is protest.
It is a portal.

Tags:

#HiroshimaDay #ClimateCrisis2025 #Project2025 #HistoricalAmnesia #CollectiveMemory #SapientSurvival #WisdomGuardians #ErasedHistories #AuthoritarianCreep #AmericanMythos #ClimateJustice #PoeticResistance

🌀 Supplement: Echoes of Empire — From Galactic Collapse to American Decline

In my book Sapience: The Moment Is Now, I trace how empires have risen and fallen across human history in patterns eerily familiar to those imagined by Isaac Asimov in his Foundation series. Asimov’s Galactic Empire, like Rome, like Britain, like America today, collapses not from a single blow—but from accumulated rot: arrogance, bureaucracy, inequality, and the silencing of truth.

What Asimov understood—and what history confirms—is that humans rarely respond to collapse with wisdom. We cling. We deny. We search for scapegoats. We double down on failing systems out of fear of the unknown.

Empires don’t just fall because they’re conquered.
They fall because they forget what they were for.
Because the story that once united them becomes hollow—and the people stop believing.

Sapience explores this moment as not just political, but mythological. The American Empire is in decline, and the question is not if—but how we respond. Do we fracture into chaos, or awaken into something wiser?

That, as Asimov might say, is the true test of a civilization’s soul.

Foundation — Official Trailer | Apple TV+

🌀 Supplement: The Now Scroll

My Now Scroll minis are myth-infused micro-essays or 3-minute soul jolts that confront the collapsing empire in real time. Each one distills a powerful truth at the intersection of myth, psyche, and political reality, using poetic insight and piercing clarity to expose the deep structures of control—whether it’s cultsfascism, or the subtle ways we co-create our own enslavement.

They aren’t just commentary—they’re living scrolls that remind the reader to stay awake, to question the spectacle, and to reclaim their inner authority in a world designed to numb and domesticate human consciousness. This one is relevant to today’s blog.

🌀 Supplement: Sapient Survival Guide

Part mythic handbook, part political manifesto, part psychological field guide—this 62-page survival document is a razor-sharp reckoning with the world as it is… and a rally cry for what it could be.

The Sapient Zombie Survival Guide is not your average prepper’s pamphlet. It’s a call to those who still feel, still think, still care—those not yet devoured by the hollow hunger of authoritarianism, consumerism, or despair. It charts the psychic terrain of a country in collapse, exposing how propaganda, greed, and mythic forces have turned millions into the walking dead.

But it doesn’t stop there.

This guide arms readers with 10 survival strategies rooted in ancient wisdom, archetypal truth, and modern resistance. It invites the reader to awaken—not just politically, but mythically—and to ride the dragon of consciousness through a world set ablaze.

With poetic fire, biting satire, and unflinching honesty, this publication lays the foundation for the volumes to come—The Houses of Wreckage and The Dragon Riders’ Guide—offering not just survival, but transformation.

Sapient Survival Guide
Part mythic handbook, part political manifesto, part psychological field guide—this 62-page survival document is a razor-sharp reckoning with the world as it is… and a rally cry for what it could be.

Check it out on Mixam.

🌀 Supplement: The Quip Collection’s Firebird Series

The Firebird is a powerful mythic symbol—radiant, untamed, and eternally rising. It evokes transformation, fierce beauty, and soulful renewal. These products capture this important symbol of soulful regeneration and transformation.

Feudal Fantasies: How Small Town Politics Pave the Road to Authoritarianism

Feudal Society

In a small Minnesota town where my parents eventually settled, I met a man who left a lasting impression. Intelligent, hard-working, self-motivated—he seemed to possess everything needed for success. Yet, in this town, none of that was enough. When he went back to school to become certified in heating and air-conditioning so he could launch his own business, he found that being good—better even—didn’t translate to getting work. Why? Because he hadn’t been born into the right family. Nor had he married into one. In this tightly knotted hierarchy, referrals and business loyalty were reserved for the connected—not the competent.

brown and grey concrete building
Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

Even though his work was superior and his prices more reasonable, the jobs went to less qualified contractors with the right last names. His story is not unique. I’ve seen it before.

I did not grow up in that Minnesotan town, but I did live for a time in a small South Dakota town where my father was the pastor. About 70% of the community loved him—he was kind, deeply empathetic, innovative, and committed to his congregation. But a smaller group, perhaps 30%, made his life increasingly difficult. Why? Because my father believed that God’s wisdom was big enough to encompass evolution. He believed creation could unfold over billions of years, not just the 6,000 years described in a literal reading of Genesis. This flexibility, imagination, and openness terrified the fundamentalists.

person hand and crescent moon
Photo by Kaique Rocha on Pexels.com

That same small group eventually drove my father out. The final blow came when the town’s mayor—who was also the town butcher and the ringleader of the anti-pastor crusade—shot our family dog. Let that sink in: a community leader, a butcher no less, responded to theological disagreement with the casual violence of a bullet through a pet.

black dog sitting and looking aside
Photo by Heather White on Pexels.com

That act mirrors the level of cruelty and irrational devotion we see today. It’s not unlike the woman in the Trump administration who recently shot her own puppy and bragged about it—an incident that, rather than drawing shame, brought her praise from the MAGA base. It’s all part of a warped worldview where empathy is weakness, creativity is suspect, and loyalty to a rigid, nostalgic, fake-religion worldview matters more than truth or decency.

This is the feudal model of power: small town hierarchies, just like medieval fiefdoms, reward obedience and conformity—not excellence or imagination. And these structures didn’t stay in small towns. They scaled. Over the years, this mindset climbed the ladder from local governments to statehouses to Washington D.C., setting the stage for Trump and his MAGA cult to seize power.

knight armor
Photo by Maria Pop on Pexels.com

Just like that 30% drove my father away, MAGA’s minority—less than one-third of Americans—has managed to dominate the political landscape through gerrymandering, voter suppression, media manipulation, and sheer will to power. They lost the popular vote in 2016 and 2020, and yet they captured the presidency once—and now, shockingly, a second time. How? Because the feudal framework still rules.

Carl Jung once wrote that modern man is “eye-deep in the medieval psyche.” We dress like modern people, use modern tech, and live in modern cities, but psychologically? We’re still trapped in feudalism. We still defer to kings and lords. We still fear heretics. We still sacrifice the wise and the compassionate to appease the powerful few who wear the right colors and say the right words.

In my book, Sapience: The Moment Is Now, I explore how our collective psyche—warped by centuries of myth, fear, and manipulation—has been weaponized to keep people disempowered. These aren’t just psychological phenomena. They’re political tools used to fracture our shared reality, destroy our ability to agree on basic facts, and manufacture divisions so deep they seem impossible to heal.

Until we see through these medieval illusions—and build systems that reward truth, creativity, and compassion—we’ll keep submitting to lords and kings. And they will keep shooting our dogs, real and metaphorical.

The fault lines in our society aren’t random. They’ve been carved by centuries of deliberate design.

It’s time we saw the architecture clearly—and started tearing it down.


Be Curious — Remain Open to Learn New Ideas & Grow

Here are people I have been watching and following closely as the whole world moves through an incredibly dangerous time.

How Religion Helped Pave the Way for MAGA’s Desire to Destroy Everything & Punish Everyone

woman sitting and reading latest news in burning daily paper
Photo by Matheus Bertelli on Pexels.com

On Lies and the People Who Believe Them

@tiredunclesean

Replying to @isthisforreal25 the only invasion is the agitprop invading brains #trump #usa #maga #education #news #politics #immigration

♬ original sound – TiredUncleSean

What’s going on in the minds of Trump supporters

an illustration of a person s mind
Photo by Tara Winstead on Pexels.com & Watch: Why TRUMP Supporters Really Believe In Him? A Psychiatrist’s Insight
Why People Follow Authoritarian Leaders | A Psychiatrist Explains Power Psychology (Channel Trailer)

Time to Look In the Mirror for sure!

Why America is Not a Moral Country

Tired Uncle SeanLike Father Like Son

This vid resonated so much with me that I commented on it: You are soooo right!!! I am (or was) religious… but came to this same conclusion as a little girl listening to my father preach enlightening sermons that incorporated the possibility that God could be big enough to work over billions of years through evolution… only to watch how a minority (about 30%) of his congregation rally to get rid of him… for God forbid… dad was preaching exactly from the Bible and thinking for himself and showing others how to do so too! This cumulated with the ring leader of this minority group (who was also the mayor and butcher of this small SD town) shooting our dog. It worked we left and I lost my faith in this kind of cruel, stupid god.

Decline of the American Empire — Talking Economic Sense

Economics plays a huge role in the macro forces driving individuals, political parties, and nation states. To know how to navigate these times, one need to pay attention to these macro drivers and these two economists make economics easy and explain plainly what is happening now.

The US Has A $36 TRILLION Problem” – Richard Wolff’s LAST Warning
Most People Have No Idea What’s Coming” | Richard Wolff’s Last WARNING
“Trump Just DESTROYED The US Economy!” – Richard Wolff’s Terrifying Message
Jeffrey Sachs: This is Why USA is LOSING to China
Richard Wolff: This Mistake Will DESTROY Us For Decades!
LIVE | UNFILTERED! Jeffrey Sachs’ Most Brutal Trump Attack Streamed LIVE! | US News UPDATES

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