Hello Drew
First off, I would like to thank you for interest in my work. I have noticed your highlights and comments over the past couple of years.
There's a lot to unpack in your response. I'll just meander a bit. Maybe turn this response into a better Medium article later.
Doug Giles had an article about how successful comedians punch up, not down or at. That is how they gain a big following. George Carlin is always blaming the THEY. George lets his audience off the hook for the problems the world is facing. About two months ago, I had an article on Unpopular Opinions about how George did not move the world forward. It was my best read article in 2024 (so far), but very few claps.
Umair Haque is popular on Medium. I think is trying to point out the flaws inside us, but his words allow his audience off the hook for their responsibility for the mess we are in. It's too easy to use Umair's logic to blame the THEY. And so, his audience really does nothing.
After five years of occasionally reading Umair articles, I'm not seeing the world move forward.
My recent observations on Mastodon have me believing that the Republicans have a workable plan in place for after the November elections. In other words, we are in a worse place today than we were in 2016 and 2020. The Canadian conservatives have moved in a Trump-like direction. I think they will just take their direction from the Republicans if the full takeover does happen.
So how is more clever writing--like George and Umair--going to help?
I recently finished a popular SF book from the 1970s and my review will be published soon. One of "moral" arcs of this story is how society has shaped our values--for better or worse. Most of us believe our values come from inside us, not because of any forces from the outside. So our values are right, different values are wrong.
In a like manner, we have been conditioned in how to participate in democracy. We can complain (and blame). We can protest. We can vote. We can support small changes to the system that are unlikely to happen. We can join movements that are popular.
But to suggest that the system itself needs a BIG overhaul, if not outright replacement, well that is something we have not been conditioned for. Hence the paralysis in our collective thinking. For example, have you read my TDG book and three TDG novels?
And because we are so paralyzed, the Republicans are going to change the system for us.
For sure, people don't like to hear that we have been conditioned and our thinking has been paralyzed. But if I leave out these points, then my writing is more like George and Umair. Not really getting to the root of the problem.
BTW, I did provide a solution for Gaza. It was not implemented back in 2011.
