17199--Can You Handle the Truth?

It's a simple enough question and the answer can be character-revealing.  Better still, it can also be character-developing.

A useful aspect of writing is editorial feedback.  To most people, this is also known as constructive criticism.  Some of it can be more constructive than others.  The importance of it, though, is that it can tell a writer how his work is being perceived by readers.  The writer may, or at least should, know what he intended to convey.  The best feedback will let him know how near he came to the intended target and provide a guide for closing the gap to it.  Critiques and reviews aren't just about blowing sunshine up a writer's ass, delightful as that may be.  They've become public signposts telling other readers whether or not to read a work based on what someone else got from it or failed to get from it.

Whatever you take from someone else's review, you're a third party in a two-party conversation that should be happening with the goal of helping a creator hone his skills.

I've had teachers who were very dedicated to this process, one who was bad at it and another who I'm pretty sure was ready to retire and seemed to have given up on it altogether.  That last one was back in an English class.  She had taken to insisting that we read books of our choosing, writing reports on them, then turning them in only to never see them again.  When we asked about getting the reports back, she would say something to stall and go on with class.  One of my classmates decided to join her in her game.  He told me that he was certain she wasn't doing anything with the papers we turned in and was merely making up grades.  What we wanted and needed, though, was honest feedback.

To test the point, when next she asked for him to turn in his reports, he claimed he already had.  She debated his claim because she had no mark in her grade book to record that he'd turned in his reports.  He countered by insisting that he had placed the reports on her desk.  Her desk was very messy.

She looked upon it with an expression of hopelessness.  It was very, very messy.

"Well, alright," she said, making a mark in her ledger.

Class moved onward and he never heard any more from her about it.  None of us did.  We received no feedback on our work and our potential opportunity for growth was thus squandered.  I can't prove any connection and I suppose it'd be a statistical anomaly were there a connection to be made, but the guy I didn't name above went on to shoot his immediate family a few years later, murdering his mother in the process.  Sure, odds are it's unrelated, but why take the chance?  If you have the opportunity to help someone grow and improve, make that difference.

The truth may sting, but it can also help.

16757--And I Approve This Message

Unless you have made an effort to avoid their input, you have probably heard more than a few politicians spewing forth more mind-clouding rhetoric.  They're going to say whatever they think they need to at any given time to get what they want out of you.  That means you may hear them profess opposite beliefs on a subject at any time, take credit for things Congress does and shift blame away for things they've said and done.  This is what they're paid to do, often by the same people (bankers) or people related to each other (more bankers).  The ones who do it best are paid the best.  Politicians like to be given money and the best ones stay bought.

That's as close as you'll get to them being honest.  Yes, this is the front desk with your wake up call.

The War on Drugs has cost you a lot of money while drugs have continued to proliferate and more people have ended up in prisons (which continue to be built faster than schools).  The War on Drugs was not a failure. It's been putting money and drugs right where it was planned to with a social engineering cherry on top.

Unemployment sucks.  It isn't a bold statement at all.  It's a great rally point for politicians because they know that you will agree with it.  All they have to do is convince you that they will fix it.  People who are able to work should be able to earn enough to provide a comfortable living for themselves and their families in a successful economy.  You know it.  We all know it.  Presidential candidates like to give the impression that they can create jobs.  Unless those politicians are using their personal wealth to start hiring people (certainly, many of them could afford to, but don't), they can't create jobs.  That's not a president's job.  We don't live in a totalitarian state, so they aren't given that particular power.

You know who was able to bring full employment to his country?  Hitler.  Did it increase his popularity?  Among a lot of people, yes.  Of course, from the Careful-what-you-wish-for Department, that also meant a lot of housewives were forced to go out to work at a time when that was not the norm and a lot of kids ended up in the hands of state daycare.  Can I get a "mu-wa-hahahaha" and some ominous music?  Austria was so impressed by the economic turnaround in Germany that they voted Hitler into power there, too.  Leading two countries?  That's right, with votes and not tanks.  The Austrians also received a harsh lesson on "full employment".  Was unemployment an important issue to them?  Yes.  Did fixing it make Chancellor Hitler a great guy?  Time magazine's man of the year.

I feel like I need a shower now.

Wallowing in political muck will do that.  It's like that thing about wrestling with a pig: you end up muddy and the pig enjoys it.  Why does that make me think of Bill Clinton?  I can't recall another public figure I've seen dodge so many allegations in such ridiculous ways and still remain popular.  Well, maybe George Bush.  The first one.  They remind me of the master con artist and the upstart con man characters from "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels", only dangerous and nothing to laugh about.

How does this go on?  How can you be the head of the Senate Ethics Committee without having any?

‎"Different" political parties only exist to manage differing ideas. They put on the show of a struggle, letting people feel they're being heard and represented. Then, bankers win, political pawns get paid off and the people are the ones who've done the work to finance their own defeat.

Try not to let yourself get swept away in all the rhetoric.  They're trying to stir you up with emotional issues.  They're trying to cloud facts.  They're lying to you as surely as a crocodile offering you a ride across a river.  Do your own research.  You may not like what you find and the bad guys aren't always going to get the end they deserve, but it is worth looking even if only to ensure that truth continues to see light.  Then, when your kids or their kids come to you and ask what happened, you'll have some good stories for them.

16262--Fire is Hot

Society is a lie.  More accurately, society is a collection of lies.  Whether it's manifest through business, politics or the multitude of other social functions.  Many of the things you read about in history are lies.  Advertising is full of lies.  Politicians lie.  Scientists lie.  Not all babies are cute.  Certainly, not all children are special.  We are not all equal, despite everyone generally looking alike.  I'm not going to accept a lot of inane arguing on this.  The differences that exist from person-to-person range from molecular to inches.  Get a little altitude, not a lot, look down on the crowd below and try to pick out Waldo.  Nope, they all look alike.  Go high enough and they all look like ants.  Genetic material is quite finite, so you're only going to get so much variety.

Nature is honest, that's why.  Fire is hot.  Water is wet.  Go ahead and check.  Natural selection works hand-in-hand with survival of the fittest.  They've worked to thin herds for eons.  Society is the new kid on the block that breeds in weakness and feeds on the stupid.

Trust me.  I write fiction.  Of course, I also don't drink, smoke or mistreat women.  I suppose that's not so much a lie as going against some of the traditional characteristics society has come to promote for writers.  Going against type, swimming against the stream of society's conventional consciousness, therefore, serves as a path to the truth.

So, strip away the clutter and trappings of a thing to find its essence, its nature.  For good or ill, find that truth and embrace it for what it is and live with that.

Phoenix