Crashing into 2025: The Newsletter

Introduction

Welcome to The Cameron Journal Newsletter.

Each week I send out the latest headlines, the latest videos from The Cameron Journal and commentary about the week’s events. If you’re new here, my name is Cameron Lee Cowan, and I’m the Creative Director here at The Cameron Journal. You can learn more about me on the about page. I do research and commentary on politics, culture, and the world around us. Remember, The World is Hard, This is Not.

Updates

We are T-minus 11 days until Christmas! My Christmas shopping is mostly sorted. I don’t have a long list, but I’m glad it’s done. Why are Mom’s so challenging to shop for? Anyway, it has been quite a week in the news (we’ll get to that shortly) and somehow quite a week for me as well. There are so many exciting changes happening and new opportunities developing. But for the next couple of weeks I am focusing on rest. Tomorrow’s Newshour will be the last for 2024, and I will do a special Christmas newsletter next Saturday for everyone and that will be the last for 2024. It has been a long year for me and I usually take the end of the year to rest up and relax a bit, but this year it is essential. Between lawsuits, failed TEDx talks, and more, I am exhausted. It was a busy year!

On the bright side, The Cameron Journal has grown in so many ways this year, and I’m grateful for each one of you who choose to read my work. This year, I developmental edited 2 books and helped a client start another. I finished books this year as well. I’ve been expanding and marketing The Cameron Journal all year, and I’m proud to say that we had the best year ever. The Cameron Journal is more popular today than at any time in its 10-year history. I will be honest. When I finished my MFA, I wasn’t planning on continuing doing The Cameron Journal full-time. I was planning on pursuing a career in academia as a writer and leveraging my experience and my library for that purpose. Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately) none of those opportunities were made available to me, and I’ve since turned back to The Cameron Journal. Life has a funny way of doing that at times.

In a recent newsletter I wrote for my book publisher, I remarked that the holiday season is a great time for reading and writing because it can be our refuge from the hustle and bustle of the season. One of the things I’m looking forward to doing is to rediscovering my writing, not just as my job, but as an important part of my life over my little end-of-year vacation. I’m not sure how that will manifest right now, but it feels right for the season.

Don’t forget Winter starts on the 20th! The days will start (ever so slowly) to get progressively longer after the shortest day! The light returns! I think most folks forget that Christmas is loosely based on Yule and Saturnalia celebrations that called the light back and provided hope in the dark and hungry winter months of the Northern Hemisphere.

Write your book in 2025!

If you’re looking for a Christmas present that can really do something unique for someone, consider giving the gift of writing! My new writing courses are out now, and you can sign up for Fiction, Non-Fiction or both! To learn more, please visit The Cameron Journal Academy and check out my course: The Power of Story.

The Latest

This week, headlines were dominated by the situation with Luigi Mangione the man who shot UnitedHealth CEO Brian Thompson. We’ve learned everything about him from his education, the fact he wasn’t a UnitedHealth subscriber, and any picture he has posted online includes private pictures which have circulated. What is most interesting is that his crime has galvanized a sort of class consciousness that is remarkable. Although public polling shows that only a small percentage (11%) of Americans look favorably on his crime, the fact that he has taken social media by storm, women wish to throw themselves at him and his picture has become the Edward Snowden or Che Guevara of our time is significant. He has become a symbol of the regular person fighting against the out of touch elite. This dovetails perfectly with what we saw in the election. It is a time of anti-establishment-ism and there is no other way to put it.

It should not be surprising. Regular folks have been screwed over for so long by major corporations, government regulation and structural poverty that violence was bound to erupt at some point. Will this be an isolated case? For the sake of life, I hope so, but somehow I doubt it. As I said last week, I think we are heading into a troublesome time. I wonder how far it might go and who will get hurt. It would be too easy to give into cries to “eat the rich.” Those are valid, but I would rather tax the rich fairly and use that wealth to help people. The less violence the better. Violence can lead a break down in societal values and safety. The cries of a collapsing American society grow ever louder. Our society is far from collapsing but the ideas and dreams we once had for it are certainly falling apart. Violence could lead to the type of collapse that is much ballyhooed.

This week I watched a video about how the American Dream is alive and well it’s just that the average person can’t afford it. The video remarked that people are moving overseas to look for their slice of the American dream. I will admit that I’ve had the same thought. I’ve thought about moving to Columbia because both Medellín and Bogotá are hotspots for expats and digital nomads. I do love the Northeast and I do like being near New York, but perhaps the US simple too expensive. These are the thoughts I think late at night as I plot my next moves.

This movement abroad mirrors some movements of British people in the 19th century. A young man, without land or title could do very well in India, South Africa, Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) and elsewhere in the empire. Many did make their fortunes (like Elon Musk’s family) and as the empire fell apart they moved back to the homeland to find it in a state of disrepair and collapse. Does the same future await Americans?

One thing is clear: people are not happy with the society that has been built, and they are so eager for change they are willing to forgive murder in broad daylight. This is a wake-up call for elites and the 1%, but will they answer it or try to hide behind security guards?

From The Cameron Journal

Mariah Dawn’s Memoir of a Violent Marriage:

The Cameron Journal Newshour:

Give the Gift of Reading

If you’re looking for Christmas presents for your loved ones, please consider my fiction this holiday season. Order soon for on-time delivery!