The Writing Walls are Crumbling.

Tags

Biden, bipartisan, debate, discussion, left wing, moving forward, right wing, Trump, walls

I have had a very hard time blogging over the past four years. It wasn’t just Donny and his insane cabal but his many followers. I have unfriended many people during this reign, and I have blocked many of them. And I did try to listen. I tried to understand the divide, not just in America but in Canada and around the world . I have teased and ridiculed not only Donny but these followers. I knew converting the mindless was not possible, but they were never my target. I targeted the middle-of-the road centrists, the non-partisan voters who see truth above party politics. Unfortunately, these people tend to be more laissez-faire and vote less than the indoctrinated [on both sides]. Biden winning the vote feels like a victory but a tainted one. We are not in a good place.

Now that we have a change on the horizon, can I dump the farcical memes and get back to arguing with logic? I hope I can. I hope we all can. I would much rather see far-righters and far-lefties write out what they believe and openly discuss their arguments. I would hope we can all sit down quietly, read others’ stances on issues, and work to some consensus. It is this back and forth playing with ideas that moves us forward. It is how I move my writings forward. I don’t write knock-out stories in one go. It takes many tries of pushing that theme or pushing this character or pushing that conflict. All of my best writing has come from pushing into areas I never ended up in. The same is true, I believe, for moving forward in social and political discourse. Life is story, and those of us who write a lot of story can attest that what we think is best almost always is not.

I could not write much about life these past four years because so many have adopted views of life I do not agree with. And no, it is not just the righties. I am anti-government. When governments in my Canada want to implement new programs, I cringe, because I know my government’s debts will rise with no compensating benefit. Too many pay no service at all to our enormous debts.

What do I want to Write About?

The list is long, and I don’t claim to be qualified to write about much of it. But the following is a quick list.

• Socialism
  • what is it?
  • where should social policies fit in a capitalistic society?
  • what do Liberals really want?
  • what are Conservatives afraid of?
• Competition
  • I am for competition, when it makes sense
  • when does competition not make sense?
  • how do we manage non-competitive units so everyone is happy?
• Executive Accountability
  • this is currently a critical problem in not only America but in Canada and around the world
• Taxation
  • does the low-taxation-of-billionaires model make sense?
  • what is the logical management perspective on achieving good government?
  • of course, taxation of expatriates and management of tax fraud.
• Reading and Writing
  • I work at my writing every day. I have many ideas on making writing more interesting and relevant
  • reading is a forgotten skill. We have millions of experts who do not read anything more than Facebook posts or their favorite news headlines
  • how to correctly punctuate lists 😉
• Racial Injustice
  • unfortunately, the list is endless!
• My many other interests: books, fountain pens, inks, poetry, nutrition, diabetes, and more.

There is so much to write about and such little time to do it. I’ve been sitting on my hands for so long, I don’t really know if I can do this. Is Humpty Trumpty falling off the wall enough to get me back into this? But of course I have to write. The only way we’re going to move forward as a civilization is through discourse and debate. I remember when the Berlin Wall started to come down. It was the day my firstborn entered the world. I was so hopeful. The world really did seem to offer a brighter future. But of course we’ve erected replacement walls, and unfortunately we always will. I think the purpose of my writing and many other blogs has to be the dismantling of walls. These ideological walls need to crumble.

This story bothers me, and I’m typing these words in exploration of my own feelings on the situation. In a nutshell”

– Buddy is upset at his treatment of a gay friend

– Decides to pose as a gay person for a year to live in their shoes

– Learns and experiences both what the gay community lives like, to a point

– Experiences what his evangelical community’s response is

– Writes a book and presumably sells a lot of copies

When you get right down to it, he lied. He lied to the gay community, to his lesbian friend whom he was sorry he hurt, to his family, and to his evangelical community.

The last I heard, Lying was considered a sin. He has hurt the gay community, he has hurt his family, and he has hurt his evangelical community.
Yes, there are swaths of prejudice against gays that need dismantling. He was wrong, his family was wrong, and his church as a whole was wrong. But you can’t fix wrongs with wrongs. Two wrongs don’t make a right is not a simple literary cliché. It is truth. In no way do I respect Buddy for lying to everybody.

For his next experiment, I suggest sitting alone on top of a mountain for fifty years.

Computer Gaming and Fiction: Civilization IV vs Skyrim vs Writing

Tags

addiction, civ, civilization IV, computer games, games, goals, skyrim, time, wast

I installed Civilization IV on Thursday night. I uninstalled it last night, Friday, just before midnight. I played two games about ten hours each.

The game is addictive.

Why is the game addictive? I suppose I could rant about its evils, but I sort of enjoyed this day away from life. We find books and stories addictive; they enable us to escape from reality. Writing can be even more addictive than reading. I good video game is not very different from a good book.

The problem with Civ.

Civ is a large game. You control the evolution of your civilization from the initial settler building a hut and his band of thugs with clubs to advanced modern structures with advanced modern weaponry. You start out at 4000 BC and finish, hopefully, in the 22nd century, literally *grin*

It is a large game with one goal: win. Winning can be one of many sets of victory conditions. Build a space shuttle and you will win. Wie out the other countries, you will win. Be the top country at the end of the game, you will win.

Big games with finite goals consume a lot of energy and time. You do not want to get up. You do not want to restart these games. You want to see it through from start to finish. They can also lose their appeal. Every game can feel much the same, and the fix for that is to get deeper into it. Spend even more time figuring out all the nuances and even competing with others.

My other game right now is Skyrim. It is a much, much bigger game than Civ. It’s an alternate reality where you run around with your weapon and armor, you rescue people, kill more, and find lots of treasures. I carry around over three million gold pieces. Figure that one out. I can’t. I also carry about 4,000 arrows, three swords, a mace, two sets of armor, a gazillion rings and necklaces, and I can’t even keep track of all my spells and powers. At level 74 I can practically beat a small dragon with my bare hands. Bandits die when they see me coming.

The difference in Skyrim is it is filled with many small objectives. At any one time I might have a dozen or more quests to fill, and if I run out, I just stop at the local bar or palace and ask for more. Or I just wander around looking for repopulated dungeons. I can even search out the undying Imperial Captains and kill them over and over with my magic and build up some experience.

I can shut it off within sometimes ten minutes of starting and not lose my day. It’s a nice break. And if I want to indulge for a day, it’s there. But it gets tiring very quickly, so I don’t. Unlike Civ which is the same thing each game, pretty much, has a single goal, and totally consumes.

I was thinking of buying Endless Space. I must be crazy.

The bottom line for me: none of these gaming experiences come close to my experiences creating characters in my stories. My current protagonist talks in the first person for almost 110,000 words. This alternate reality beats any computer game I’ve ever played. This person has brought me closer to reality, not further away from it. I carry this person around with me 24/7 — which may not be a good thing — and I don’t need a computer and fancy graphics to create the alternate reality. It’s there when I work; it’s there when I sleep; it’s there in the shower and bed. It’s not there in my computer games. Tears came to my eyes as I wrote this week. Seriously, they did. That has never happened in computer games.

Hello world!

I enjoy cafés, coffee shops, small restaurants — places people can mingle with food and ideas without pressure or stress, a place where creativity can flow unimpeded, where all views are welcomed and discussed. Such places are not easy to find. Too many people go to my local coffee shops and sit in the corner afraid to speak, afraid to meet new friends, afraid of exposing themselves to the world. While I tend to express loud opinions, I do hope this is a light and easy place, a friendly place. No name calling here but challenge all you want. I’m all about freedom but I’m also about responsibility. I take expression of idea seriously. It’s what makes us human and I cherish that idea. I do not cherish humans that express themselves like animals. Find some other place to grunt.