I have recently been reading an old, semi-autobiographical novel by Margaret Landon (1903-1993), which has the title ‘Never Dies the Dream’. Landon was most well known for having written ‘Anna and the King of Siam’, which was eventually made into the musical ‘The King and I’. Apart from that, the only other novel-length work she is known to have published in her lifetime is the aforementioned, semi-autobiographical work.

Perhaps I’m being a tad unfair, but reading Landon’s work once again reminds me of many of the reasons why I’ve had a serious lifelong distaste for religious missionaries, whom I firmly believe cause more harm than good over the long run. Same thing with so-called ‘foreign aid’, which has been described more than once as: “The practice of taking money from poor people in rich countries, and giving it to rich people in poor countries.”

Even the book’s title rankles me, because it comes from some very old (and, in my opinion, downright dangerous) pop psychology, such as can be found in Psalm 37:4 (KJV): Delight thyself also in the Lord: and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.

There you have it. The base foundation of all prosperity gospel, and all motivational speech hucksters throughout all of recorded history. Dream big, pray hard enough, and it’s all yours! Gotta have a dream so big and powerful that it will never die… It will outlive the dreamer. Some of my earliest and most profound existential crises were in the realisation of just how big of a crock of shit that really is. At the same time, however, it taught me to open my eyes a lot wider. I may not be a wise man by any stretch, but I think, over time, I’ve come to know a few things…

There are a number of other references and influences as well, but I think I've probably muddied the waters enough already.