In the increasingly apocalyptic era of Trump and the apparent triumph of the political machinations of the weaponized post modern surrealism of Putin and Vladislav Surkov, it has been a struggle to work through a sort of creative paralysis in the face of a future which has never appeared more uncertain. As an individual who has long been drawn to the apparent storylines of history, both collective and personal, yet repeatedly witnessed the unmasking of the illusory nature of many of these narrative structures in the experience of myself and others, the postmodern idea of “incredulity toward metanarratives,” as expressed by Lyotard, is both fascinating and horrifying, liberating and disorienting. In the deliberate distortion of metanarratives currently operating in our politics, it appears to me that we are witnessing the potentially dangerous nature of malevolent misuse of the postmodern. It occurs to me now, that in an era when new and more productive metanarratives are likely required, postmodern methodologies might be productively employed to dig below our collectively mis-programmed ideations and expose some useful deeper and more natural truth. Going forward, this metatheory will guide, at least in part, my future labors on Phoenix And Phriends, and other EyeDiel Enterprises related projects. a For the last time, I shall apologize for the lengthy delay between posts. Once again it occurs to me that to embrace the official “Dada Diaries” title of the blog means that no published post ever needs to truly be “finished,” and that the stream of my ideas, whatever they may be worth, might simply be allowed to continue to flow, however incoherently, and hopefully in the end occasionally contribute something useful to the wider evolution of publicised discourse. It is in this spirit that I hereby resolve to post something to this blog on a daily basis, regardless of its apparent value. I have tried other resolutions, such as publishing weekly, bi-weekly, or some other variation, and these have simply enabled my tendency toward extreme procrastination. So anyhow, daily it is. 

The political environment here in 2017 has become so overwhelmingly bizarre that once I had taken a week or two off from Facebook after the election to attempt to regain some sense of balance and sanity, I felt so behind the curve on the daily torrent of outrages that it seemed impossible to regain a relevant voice. Well, no matter, relevance is after all, relative, and one feels as though something should be said. Given the current climate, the machinations of the Smoke Brothers seem positively quaint. Perhaps that is indeed one of the operative layers of the elaborate, multimodal game of bait and switch being played. Some have suggested, somewhat convincingly, that the entire topic of Russian meddling and Trumpian collusion is in fact another bait and switch, however, even acknowledging this possibility, the question continues to seem extraordinarily important. Regardless of whose tail is actually wagging which dog, I am increasingly convinced that one cannot begin to unravel the myriad webs of distortion in which we find ourselves ensnared without some study of the postmodern politics of Vladislav Surkov, and the concept of “Nonlinear War,” as described in his enigmatic short story “Without Sky.” For my more intrepid readers, the few of you left who I have not already urged to read this strangely relevant work, it’s only about a 10 minute read, and I’ve found it somewhat illuminating as to the strategies and tactics of some of the significant sociopolitical forces operating at this potentially pivotal point in human history. Admittedly, I have achieved no true clarity, but do intuitively believe that Surkov has become arguably the most influential political strategist of our time, and as such deserves careful study. Again, in the words of the Immortal Brian Kenney Fresno, “Moron this later.” In the meantime, whatever this may or may not mean to you, Happy Easter from Phoenix and Dada! May we all awaken, rise from our collective grave, embrace our inner bunny, and find the fertile eggs of humanity’s renewal. 

Byron H Diel
aka Subcommander Dada

Now a word from our sponsors (well, affiliates, to be more precise.) This is an extremely interesting book about postmodern Russia. I suspect Putin would have us believe it to be some sort of CIA propaganda, and really, who knows anymore? In any case, its a fascinating viewpoint, somewhat behind the scenes, from a son of Soviet ex-patriots, who became a British documentary filmmaker, who returned to Russia and worked in the state sponsored media system. EyeDiel Enterprises will get about 2% of the proceeds if you purchase through our link, and it doesn’t cost you any more.

Copyright 2017. Byron H Diel, DBA EyeDiel Enterprises