It has been a while, to say the least. My last post was in March of 2019 and to say a lot has changed would be a gross understatement. Between a pandemic, a new American president, and some very drastic changes in my personal life, this blog has remained a time capsule from a bygone era. I started Red Sun in the Sky as a senior in high school. It was only a small passion project where I posted essays I wrote for school and the occasional discourse on whatever piqued my interest. This philosophy extended into my two years in college and slowly petered out as my studies, job, and practical political work took center stage. I would occasionally come back and read some of my old posts or email discussions with readers and reminisce but it never became much more than nostalgia. It is fascinating reading what I thought the world needed to hear and how much my opinions have changed and developed as the winds of life made their impression. It was on my most recent trip down memory lane that I truly began to wonder why I stopped writing in the first place. I have always enjoyed it and this blog received a decent response from both friends and strangers. I have boiled it down to the fact that, after a while, I became afraid to write anything again. It had been so long and I just kept putting it off or writing something and just giving up. Overcoming this hang-up has taken quite a while and even as I write this I keep oscillating in my head as to whether or not it is worth it to keep writing. This all being said, this post is to inform you that Red Sun in the Sky will be posting again soon!

The rest of this post will really just be outlining the philosophy of the blog going forward. If that does not interest you then by all means stop here. I welcome you back to Red Sun in the Sky and I hope you are looking forward to the future as much as I am.

Moving Forward

When thinking about coming back to RSIS, I did not really consider any major change to the general scope of the blog. I fully intend to still publish various essays on Marxism and other adjacent topics as they interest me. The major change comes in way of outlook. Many of my previous posts were written from the perspective of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism. I have since disavowed this view of Marxism for reasons that will certainly be the topic of an upcoming post. As of late, I have grown tired of the various ideological labels that people thrust upon themselves and others. I am a communist and that is the perspective I hold. Because I am a communist, I follow a Marxist-Leninist outlook but, I find it pointless to spout off a million different labels. The topic of my next post will cover this issue more in-depth and should bring some clarity to this position. Even with that change in perspective, I am going to keep my older posts available. I see no point in removing them as they are not wholly terrible and a lot can be gleaned from them. In general, older posts and such will remain unchanged. I may do some retrospective/self-crit at some point but that is all in the future.

My general life perspective has changed a lot as well. Last you heard from me I was a broke college student with two jobs and a decent class load. Now, I am a union plumber still taking classes but I have traded Plato for the plunger. I have found construction work to be a very enlightening experience and it has truly played a large role in my political development. My work also poses the issue of the frequency of posts. I generally work 8-10 hours a day. This leaves little time to develop, research, and write long projects like I have in the past. This means that my posts will mostly consist of short-form discourses and some medium-sized pieces on larger ideological topics. I would like to do some larger historical projects like my previous one on the history of Irish Republicanism but, I cannot see that being feasible in the immediate future. I also have some plans to expand the media scope of RSIS to include perhaps a podcast or other form of non-text media. All of this is in the works so, I will announce them as the opportunities arise.

The final note on this for the moment is that I have made several partnerships with organizations and publications and I may crosspost (or even exclusively post) some articles. These include the Virginia Communist Party’s blog, Mount Tai Press, People’s World, and other such publications as the opportunities become available. I intend on keeping everything I write mirrored here regardless of where it ends up posted but, it can be tricky sometimes.

Closing Thoughts

Thank you if you have read this far. I know this was not terribly interesting to read but, I find posts like these important when you are starting (or restarting) a project like this. It is just as important to me as it is to all of you that you are aware of the scope and goals of this site. It lets all of you know what to expect and keeps me accountable and motivated to achieve the goals I set out for myself. I am very excited to continue this and get my thoughts back out there again. Thank you all again for reading and I hope this post finds you well.

Until next time,

JP

“Let a hundred flowers bloom; let a hundred schools of thought contend.“