Flying Through the Smokescreen of
Impossibility
by Mike Larsen / Author,
Author Coach
“A fondness for power
is implanted, in most men, and it is natural to abuse, when acquired.”
– Alexander Hamilton
“Morality is a luxury
of peace and prosperity.” – Robert Hennion, Professor, C.C.N.Y.
”Chaos is the new
normal.” – Fahrad Manjoo, New York Times
Now’s the
best time ever to be a writer. Writers have more subjects to write about, more
ways to write about them, and more ways to share their work with more people in
more places faster and more easily than ever for free. Thanks to technology,
writers have more power than ever, not just to make a living, but to make a
difference. And as Philip Roth said: “Nothing bad can happen to a writer.
Everything is material.”
But a sense of dread, uncertainty,
and unpredictability is spreading because of:
·
Accelerating change we can’t understand, predict
or control
·
The impacts of climate change: global warming, pollution,
mass migration, fossil fuels adding carbon dioxide to the atmosphere, desertification,
rising sea levels, natural disasters, the affects of beef and pork production, ocean
dead zones killing fish, and the great man-made extinction
·
The best governments money can buy, regardless
of who’s in office
·
Corruption from the growing concentration of
political, military, economic, and technological power
·
Systems of law, health care, criminal justice,
education, finance, agriculture, and manufacturing that have become part of the
problem they were created to solve
·
The inability of individuals, government,
business, and institutions to understand, agree, or act on what needs to be
done
·
Capitalism without conscience--business and
government putting profit instead of people and the planet
·
Profits earned without adding value to society
·
The inability to give individuals and
institutions enough power to be effective but not enough to be corrupted
·
Extreme political and religious belief that polarize
attitudes and the media resulting in the inability to communicate or compromise
which leads to hatred, violence, discrimination, migration and war
·
The substitutions of means for ends
·
Economic inequality
·
The inability to understand how to limit
technology
·
The victimization of women and the loss of the
balance they can bring to domestic, social, political, cultural and spiritual
life
·
The loss of work and identity, and
marginalization of millions of victims of automation magnified by the the lack
of help for them
·
The lack of necessities, including food,
lodging, jobs, free training and college education, everyone is entitled to
that causes anger, despair, and unjustified suffering for people of all ages
·
The consumption of salt, sugar, fat, alcohol, nicotine,
red meat, and recreational marijuana—all legal and marketed relentlessly—that kill,
sicken, and incapacitate tens of millions of people, creating a culture of
sickness instead of health
·
Wasteful and harmful consumption
·
The lack of inspiring leaders
·
The inability to see that the desire for power
should be grounds for disqualification for running for office
·
Modern culture that undermines our humanity by replacing
people with machines and the representational with the abstract; and by sacrificing
the innate need for color, ornament, human scale, natural materials, and
lyricism
·
A catastrophic mix of military conflicts that
kill more civilians than combatants, tribalism, individual and organized crime,
injustice, prejudice, pornography and other forms of sexual exploitation, manmade
disasters, organized gambling, ageing infrastructure
These problems are out of control,
but they can be paralyzing or galvanizing. The challenges of balancing work,
home, and family in an age of distraction can make you feel time-starved and
overwhelmed by problems that seem unsolvable. But doing nothing is collaborating
on what you don’t want to happen.
Because
change isn’t coming from the top down, it’s rising from the bottom up. Individuals, organizations, communities, and states
are leading the way. The Kentucky Coal Mine Museum has switched to solar power.
Georgetown, a conservative town in Texas, runs on 100% renewable energy. What
unites us is rational; what divides us is irrational. As William James wrote: “We are like islands in the sea,
separate on the surface but connected in the deep.”
Humanity’s Ascending
Spiral
The world-changing power of words empowers
you to be an agent of change. You can use your unique ability to express and
share your love, vision, wisdom, gratitude, knowledge, inspiration, and
guidance in seconds with the three billion people on the Web.
Napoleon said: “Humanity is only
limited by its imagination.” If we can conceive it, we will achieve it. The
Wright brothers “flew through the smokescreen of impossibility” and flight
instantly went from being impossible to being inevitable. Global brains--collaborations
online and off--will generate unimaginable breakthroughs that will transform
people’s lives and heal the Earth.
·
The invisibility cloak is in the works.
·
A machine is making water out of air.
·
You will be able to draw a picture on a computer
just by imagining it
·
Quantum computers will be 100,000 times more
powerful than today’s computers.
·
Mammoths will live again.
·
Immortality in peak condition is coming.
Humanity’s ascending spiral from
fauna to flora, hate to love, the physical to the spiritual, possessions to experience,
division to unity, emotion to reason, fear to serenity is also inevitable. Your
contributions to this glorious adventure will help you achieve your potential
as a human being.
But nobody knows how much time we
have before a mistake by a person or computer, or Gaia succumbing to the
stresses we’re inflicting on her to will bring us to a tipping point that
precludes solving our problems before humanity becomes a victim of them. P=our
problems and our potential arfe running necj and neck. Writers will help
determine which wins.
People of all ages need prose and poetry,
fiction and nonfiction, music and images that give them help and hope. May the
amazing power at your fingertips inspire you to bring into the world what only
you can and what will be forever lost without you.
Pick the problem that most
energizes and inspires you, and devote your talent to helping the human family
understand and, if possible, solve it. Make it your gift and legacy to those
you love, the human family and the Earth. As Mother Teresa said: “We belong to
each other.”
About:
Mike Larsen / Author, Author Coach
www.michaellarsenauthorcoaching.com
/ larsenpoma@aol.com
Co-director, San Francisco Writers Conference: A Celebration of
Craft, Commerce & Community
San Francisco Writing for Change Conference: Writing to Make a Difference
1029 Jones Street / San Francisco, 94109 / 415-673-0939
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Brian Feinblum’s insightful views, provocative opinions, and interesting ideas
expressed in this terrific blog are his alone and not that of his employer or
anyone else. You can – and should -- follow him on Twitter @theprexpert and
email him at brianfeinblum@gmail.com. He feels much more important when
discussed in the third-person. This is copyrighted by BookMarketingBuzzBlog ©
2018. Born and raised in Brooklyn, he now resides in Westchester. His
writings are often featured in The Writer and IBPA’s Independent.
This was named one of the best book marketing blogs by Book Baby http://blog.bookbaby.com/2013/09/the-best-book-marketing-blogs and
recognized by Feedspot in 2018 as one of the top book marketing blogs.
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