Serfs Up?

Posted on February 18, 2016 by tessarnold2

So, I was watching a thing on income inequality today, and the strangest thought hit me:

Why are we so in love with Feudalism?

(Okay, if you don’t know what that term means, stop reading and go look it up right now. I’ll wait…

…All read up? Good. We can continue.)

At first blush, I think most people would disagree with the idea that we’re in love with feudalism at all, much less so in love with it. But, most people consider themselves reasonable and modern and rather cosmopolitan about the issue. “We have so obviously evolved beyond the concept, as a culture, frankly I don’t even think about it any more. Harrumph.”

Two things:

1) Yes, I realize you don’t think about it any more. Most people don’t.

2) You’re totally wrong about the evolving beyond it thing.

Allow me to illustrate.

The basic concept of feudalism is one, (or more), powerful person(s), under whom the vast majority of others are subordinated. That one person has the power, and the control. The rest of the people don’t. That one person is the authority, to whom everyone defers.

We like to think that, in our modern democratic republic, we are naturally beyond such institutions. Maybe, in the distant past, but that was hundreds of years ago, right?

Not really.

Look at the structures to which we defer in (for the purposes of this discussion), our culture:

Government: even though we possess the technology and the free time to have a direct democracy, we still operate under a representative democracy system. A system that, as the population increases, and becomes increasingly isolated, eventually begins to fail to actually represent the people it claims to be made of, by, and for. Too many citizens and not enough representatives. And if we had enough, it would quickly become unwieldy and choke in it’s own poisons. This is something you may have been noticing in recent years. There is certainly a cultural feeling that our government no longer adequately represents the citizenry.

Religion: All religions, the ones worth calling religions at least, have a hierarchy, and usually some leader, to whom the supplicants defer. Someone or some ones at the top, making the decisions and handing down edicts.

Business: We seem to think that it is best for a very unrepresentative few to control the majority of the wealth. (I say we seem to think that it is best because doing nothing about it, at the very least, is tacitly agreeing with it. Also, doing nothing about it suggests that we can’t think of a better way.)

In each of these, rather major cases, intelligent – at least partially educated – human adults defer and are generally subservient to people who have power. Some of them we give power to. Some maneuver into it, (by hook or by crook). And some are born into power.

Ask yourself this question: Are you more likely to welcome or follow advice if it is given to you by someone who is possessed of status, regardless of what that status is or how it was achieved?

The studies into human psychology and behavior seem to suggest we do.

It is possible, and I have no evidence for this, that it is a hold over from our primitive days as a species; perhaps from long before that. In small, social groups, often one person is deferred to in decisions that affect the whole group.

If that is the case, I’m wondering why we haven’t socially and culturally conditioned that annoying tendency towards deference out of ourselves yet?

Let’s return to the question: Why are we so in love with Feudalism?

Do we want to be protected? Do we want to abnegate responsibility? Are we, generally, just too stupid and inept to make these large decisions as a group of interrelated individuals? 

I’m not sure.

Some say we’re lazy. Some, stupid. Some will claim we’re frightened, and some will say that it’s in our genes and is a facet of the human experience that we can’t modify or escape.

(Okay, I know, no one – outside of a freshman essay – will actually say the last one there, but you get the gist.)

At this point, you may be asking how I got this particular burr stuck in my craw.

Fair point, well made.

I was thinking about income inequality, and the system that encourages it.

For the vast majority of human history, power and wealth have accumulated in the few. I don’t know why this is, only that it seems to be a fact that isn’t particularly in dispute. I think we now notice the difference, the imbalance, because of The New Deal.

Okay, for something like 30 years following the inception of The New Deal, the middle class in the country grew. Wages went up. Working conditions got better. The standard of living for a large portion of the citizens of the United States increased. And that, if you take a wide angle view of history, was an aberration. An anomaly.

(The closest example from history is the various mercantile classes, and since they became something of a new aristocracy in and of themselves, they don’t really map on to the idea of the middle class as it arose in the US post WW2.)

For the vast majority of human history, those who could take power by force, or by guile, did. Once they had it, whether it be land or gold or weapons or soldiers, or crops, it became easier to accumulate more because, well, they must have been doing something right to get to where they got? Right?

(From this you can see a whole garden of dismal flowers spring: the divine right of kings, the great chain of being, social darwinism, the elect, et cetera…).

But, does income inequality equate to feudalism?

Yeah, I kind of think it does, at least to the degree we have been experiencing it.

Since the 1970s, wages for the majority of American workers have stagnated or gone down, and the richest among us have gotten richer, to an obscene degree. We have become more educated and more skilled, as a populace, and yet our share of the wealth has been steadily shrinking. We may have more now than previous generations (that’s debatable) but our total percentage oft he wealth has been steadily withering.

As an aside, do you know what we are told? How we are told to combat this trend? Yeah, thought you did. The answer is always the same: get more education, that way you can get better paying jobs.

The problem with education as a cure for income inequality is that it keeps the majority of the people struggling for position on the middle rungs of a ladder that is continuously losing rungs. It simply reinforces the system as it exists and de-proportions itself. If the trend in income inequality continues, those skilled, educated jobs will still pay less, and less, and less, until one day we will be told that we would have been fine if we had only had the good sense to be born rich.

(Blaming the poor and the middle class for their place in a rigged system is another aneurysm inducing anger management issue for me, but I’ll leave that for another post. This one’s getting long and my train of thought has derailed, like, three times already.)

Where was I? Oh Yeah.

Say we all get educated, and skilled, and get better jobs. What will that matter if our access to and control over wealth becomes vanishingly thin?

Also, at some point in time, we will reach the limit of what a human being can learn, keep track of , and be skilled in.

What do we do then?

It is not that I am against Capitalism. I think, properly tended, Capitalism produces the best effects in terms of skill, innovation, and advancement. I think it is just that we have left the vine of Capitalism to grow un-minded and now we are beginning feel the squeeze as it chokes out the rest of the garden.

(Also note, I’m not a proponent of Communism. Communism and socialism – different animals by the way – only really work on a scale of small – 150 people or less – tribes. Too much bigger and it loses its egalitarianism. Once that is lost, it grows out of control as badly, if not worse than Capitalism. Have I beaten this particular metaphor to death yet? Good.)

So, what does all of this have to do with Feudalism?

Think about your life. As time moves forward, your share – unless you are very lucky – of the pie gets smaller and smaller. As the population grows, your vote means less and less; if it means anything now.

As power, wealth, land, the media, the government is consolidated into fewer and fewer hands, where do you stand in all of it?

What power do you have?

What power can you get?

As your wealth/ income dwindle so too do your choices; what options are available to you. More and more you become a slave to corporations, to debt, to jobs you are afraid to give up, to religions you are afraid to rebuke, and to a government you’re afraid doesn’t represent you anymore.

A slave. A serf.

So, why are we so in love with feudalism?

Because if we didn’t think this was the best way we would do something to change it, right?

…

…

            …

                       Right?

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At a Bit of Loose Ends…

Posted on February 10, 2016 by tessarnold2

As the title of this post suggests, I am in a quandary.

At a bit of a crossroads.

Or am I?

(Certainly, I’m a bit confused, but that’s not a new state of affairs for me. I’m rather used to it at this point.)

Anyways, I have mentioned – in other posts – that I have not gone into self publishing yet because of all of the work that goes into making that a successful venture; you know, other than the actual writing.

In truth, for about the last six years I just didn’t have the time. Pursuing a college degree while trying to hold down a job, (at least three different jobs in the course of my studies), made time just a little too precious.

Hell, I barely carved out time to write.

But now, having graduated, I am suddenly in possession of more free time…

…And one less excuse.

So, here I am, wondering where I go next.

To answer the immediate question: No, I have not submitted my manuscript to every agent and publisher out there. But I’ve gathered quite a list of rejections. At this point I find myself wondering if the weeks and years of waiting for further rejections is worth it?

I wonder if the damn novel has missed its time and if trying to continue the traditional publishing route isn’t a waste of even more valuable moments.

I have a line on an editor. I’d like to find an artist. Those are the big money sinks that I would need to prepare for. And I would have to learn something about marketing. I am thankful for every reader who lays eyes on this blog, and for the even fewer that follow me on twitter, but I don’t think that number will quite be enough to make the book a success. So, some research will be warranted.

So, this is me, trying to decide.

I’ll let you know, well…

…When I know.

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It Came from Beyond the Weekend…

Posted on February 9, 2016 by tessarnold2

So, I got another rejection email today…

…You’d think after a consistent 10 years or so of rejections I would have gotten used to it by now.

Nope.

I wonder if it is because, every time mind you, I get my hopes up?

I am told, by other writers – I also read it in numerous interviews, articles, and books on writing – that a writer needs to develop a thick skin.

Okay. I’m sold. Now, how?

One of the nagging problems with rejection, as some of you who experience it in any field of art will know, is that mostly there is no feedback for why something you’ve created has been rejected.

(I’ve had some positive and personalized rejections in the last two years. Nice as they were, they were still rejections.)

Mostly what I, and just about every other writer, get is form rejections.

Which are the bane of my existence.

Nothing like trying to get better at your craft – good enough to be published and start making money from it – and not having even the vaguest idea of what or why, in this case a short story, was rejected.

(Just so you know, I realize that – given the nature of publishing – it would be impossible for any editor to send feedback with every rejection. I’ve come to grips with that. Nature of the beast, as it were.)

I’ve taken classes in fiction writing; mainly to have an excuse to write something other than academic essays throughout my college career. I didn’t think I would learn much from them. Turns out, I did. Bonus.

So, as for content and characterization, and stakes, and internal consistency and verisimilitude, and a host of other aspects of writing – plotting, suspense, ad nauseam ad infinitum – I have a grasp of the mechanics and how to hide the working parts.

(That was a long way of saying, even though I’m not getting paid, I’m really not a green-horn amateur at this thing. Writing is my passion and my craft. I work, continuously, to get better at it.)

Maybe it is my most recent bout of depression that makes this rejection hard. Maybe it’s that I’ve run out of places to send this story, and this last rejection feels too final for something that still feels so very alive to me. Maybe it’s just that Mondays are terrible days to receive rejection letters.

Anyways, it’s put me in a deeper hole.

I’m not here looking for sympathy. But I haven’t posted in a while, and this was the only thing I could think coherently about today.

Rejection doesn’t make me want to stop. I doubt anything could. But it makes it that much harder to move forward today.

When I was a regularly performing poet, I met a good number of my fellow poets who believed their creativity sprang from their depression.

Not me. Depression just gets in my fucking way.

So, maybe I won’t write any new fiction today. Maybe I’ll just read a book and watch some TV and try to forget that Mondays are a terrible day to receive rejection letters.

And I’ll go to sleep.

And get up tomorrow.

And tomorrow will be Tuesday.

And Monday can go fuck itself. 

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A Discussion on Virtue

Posted on January 23, 2016 by tessarnold2

I had an interesting discussion today, which was rare.

Not that interesting discussions are rare – merely uncommon as of late – but that the discussion happened on social media is the rare-making aspect of it.

Background: There has been a meme, floating around the web, of a picture of the late Princess Diana. The meme suggests that women choose her as a role model rather than a reality TV star whose initials are K. K. (by way of disclaimer, I support this idea, but we’ll get back to that in a moment). Anyway, a new version of the meme has popped up suggesting that people should not judge women and how they choose to be. I.E. they can be however they damn well like. (also, by way of disclaimer, I support a person’s right to be sovereign in their decisions about how they are the who that they are.). The discussion proceeded from there.

Here’s the thing, while I support any person’s right to decide how and who they want to be, I can’t agree with the new version of the meme.

To my way of thinking, it is a good thing to have positive role models to look up to; someone to aspire to be like. Regardless of the tabloid stories, I think Princess Diana’s actions prove her to be one of those role models. She was, so near as I have been able to tell, compassionate, classy, and dignified.

Not bad, those three things. And not bad standards to reach for either.

The discussion followed from my comment to that effect. A friend of mine, educated and intelligent, suggested – by way of rebuttal – that the world would be better if people loved more and bashed less. (I hope she will forgive me for the shoddy paraphrase).

This is also a sentiment I agree with.

(Although it does trigger my growing discomfort with the casual and almost all encompassing way in which people use the word ‘love’ nowadays. But that, alas, is the subject of another post.)

Now, blissfully, the discussion did not turn acrimonious. But it did get me thinking about something that’s been floating around in the noodle-soup that passes for my brainpan as of late: the subject of standards.

I have a whole thing brewing in my soup bowl about standards, especially standards of public behavior, but again, that’s a broader subject than I wish to tackle here. In this case I speak of standards in the sense of things we strive for, to be like, to live up to.

(Semantically, this strikes me as different enough to warrant the mention.)

I don’t think advocating for class and dignity is, in any way ‘bashing’ the reality TV star who made her bones by boning. (yeah, I couldn’t resist. Sorry.)

As an aside, if that is the way you would like to comport yourself, I wish you all the best. Please be cognizant of the fact that without her connections, the afore referenced sex tape would not have lead to the fame K.K. currently enjoys.

If all you are interested in is fame, and making money, and you have the connections and business acumen to do so, I wish you all the best.

But I am not going to hold you up as an example to strive for.

And that, is in no way bashing. It is simply a recognition that, perhaps, there are finer and more noble pursuits in the human experience; that maybe, just maybe, class, and dignity, and compassion are better than base acquisitiveness.  I think, in this world of comparisons, maybe we shouldn’t venerate the ideal of, “Whatever, so long as I get mine.”

I’m not saying one would be bad, or should be ashamed of that motivation. But I am saying that we should aspire to something better.

And we should damn well be vocal about it.

Let me couch this in an analogy:

There is nothing shameful about being overweight or fat. I think, and the science backs me up, that it is terribly unhealthy, for both body and mind – because the two are not separate. And so, it would be wrong to shame someone for being fat. But, it would not be wrong, in fact a believe it would be praiseworthy, to encourage that person to lose the fat and get to a healthier weight. I think, also, that it would be wrong to hold up fatness as a virtue to be striven for.

(I hope that gets my point across. It’s been a rather long week and it’s late.)

And maybe that word Virtue is the crux of the matter.

It is not that we lack virtue in the modern world. It is just that we have held things up as virtues that aren’t very conducive to human or social flourishing. Avarice. Indifference. Unchecked Consumerism. Yelling at each other on TV news programs rather than intelligent and reasoned debate about the issues. The wanton denial of demonstrable facts so that we may continue to flog our favorite dead horse, whatever its color.

These things, and more, we have allowed to take hold of our personal and public lives – as a culture. We now value money over wealth, and obedience over inquiry.

I’m not saying the world is going to hell in a hand basket. I don’t think it is. But I think we have encouraged the worse angels of our natures for much too long, and now they have the loudest trumpets and the most influence.

Primitive, monkey impulses that we should be steadily growing out of.

To be perfectly clear: I do not think that we are backsliding because of permissiveness. You have heard my feelings about this: as long as it doesn’t infringe on the rights or safety of another, it should be allowed.

This isn’t, to my mind, a question of what is allowed.

It is a question of what is encouraged.

It is what we have prized and rewarded. And because we have rewarded it, it has flourished in us and in the examples we set for the generations to come.

We have done it to ourselves.

But this is good news, because once we realize that fact, then we can do something else. I’m not sure it can be undone, per se, but we can move in a different, and perhaps better direction. The question now becomes…

…Do we want to?

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Perception is Nine Tenths of the…

Posted on January 21, 2016 by tessarnold2

So, you might have noticed that the subheading of this blog is: “Cultural Commentary for the Perpetually Groggy”. Other than having a nice ring to it, it does serve a purpose. Generally, I think that the vast majority of us – I’m including myself here – don’t perceive accurately.

Here I don’t mean perception as mere sensory input. I mean perception in that sense which conveys investigation and understanding. Perception that is the action of intelligence.

If you, dear reader, are like most people – again, myself included – you will probably look at the above, rather blanket, statement and scoff.

(Actually, does anyone scoff anymore? How about pishaw? What I wouldn’t give for a good balderdash, but I digress.)

Scoff though you may, please hear me out.

Let’s look at it through the lens of something I’ve been hearing about constantly for about the last year:

Cultural Appropriation

That seems to be the buzzword of this past year. From professor’s emails about Halloween costumes to protests about sports team logos, to bitchy critiques of red-carpet hairstyles, I seem to – at least once every other week – be hearing something in the media, including the internet, concerning the dreaded Cultural Appropriation.

I wonder at this trend of being offended. Where does it come from? What’s the point?

I’ve looked into it. I try to get my information from multiple sources, and when it comes to experience, I try to find first hand accounts. Still, something in it nags at me…

Oh yeah, this is America.

(BTW, this discussion isn’t about free speech.)

Cultural Appropriation is America’s raison d’être. It is, in short, what we fucking do.

It’s also why we’re as robust as a country, and as successful as we are. Some culture does something we think is nifty, we steal it.

We steal it, and modify it, and make it our own.

(Sometimes we even make it better in the process. Allow me to direct your attention to Pizza, by way of example.)

We have always done this. If we are not wiped out by an asteroid or our own stupidity, we will probably continue to always do this. It has made this country strong, and innovative, and the most interesting place in this small world.

In short, Cultural Appropriation is as American as apple pie.

By the way, when’s the last time you stopped to think about apple pie? Let’s do it now.

Take a second to imagine what apple pie looks like. Got it in your head? Good.

Because there’s a high probability that the dessert you just imagined is properly called Dutch Apple Pie. Why? Because it was invented by the Pennsylvania Dutch. Who, oddly enough, were German immigrants.

Do you get that? One of our main national symbols is culturally appropriated.

So, that’s why I can’t understand people getting up in arms about cultural appropriation. (I’m speaking here of actual appropriation, not some hateful bastard taking the piss.) That’s how things become mainstream; they are appropriated. I’ve been a geek my entire life. Quite a long time before it was hip. (Back then, we just got made fun of). But when one of my favorite things gets wider notice and acclaim, it is a good thing, because I always wanted to share the things I loved with other people.

I don’t begrudge other people for loving the thing I love. That’s called ‘being a dick’, and should be saved for special occasions.

So, it seems to me that rather than America stealing any one culture’s style, food, music, et cetera, cultural appropriation simply shows that aspects of the culture are being absorbed into this constantly growing and mutating thing  we call America. That, to me, is a sign of acceptance into the mainstream. I have difficulty seeing how that could be a bad thing, unless – of course – you derive your sense of self worth from the uniqueness of your culture. But maybe, something so accidental as that shouldn’t be a basis for one’s sense of self worth?

So, maybe, if we perceived accurately – that is to say investigated somewhat more deeply than we do now – maybe we wouldn’t have some of the strife we generate on a daily basis. Maybe we could spend our energy to actually, deeply improve our situations, instead of swapping one superficial aspect for another.

Just a thought.

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A Little Sunday Morning Rage for You…

Posted on January 17, 2016 by tessarnold2

You know how some people claim to be addicted to the internet? (I’m sure some people are actually, according to the DSM addicted, they’re not who I’m talking about). I think, in most cases, people just don’t know what their reasonable limits are.

I come from a long line of addictive personalities, so, I pay attention: try to know where my limits are. And I found my limit for social media, well, Facebook at least…

…I get off of Facebook when I hate myself, the world, and everyone in it. I find that works fairly well as a useful limiter.

(as an aside, let me say that I generally think social media is a good thing. I’m not one of those, “I’m getting off of x because y, but what I’m really doing is posting this pronouncement on social media to get some kind of attention,” types. I rather like the connective possibilities of social media. It’s allowed me to reconnect and stay connected with people I thought lost to the ravages of time and memory – for all intents and purposes. So, I’m not quitting any time soon. But that’s not going to stop me from ranting about it occasionally either.)

So, what’s got my bile up this particular, dreary, cold, January morning?

Well, what it usually is: stupidity.

So, I came upon – because someone who is a friend was tagged in the post – another in a long line of shit-stupid memes bagging on the President. (You’ve seen a metric shit-load yourself, I imagine). Typically I get a little annoyed and have done with it. Maybe some perfunctory cussing, for ceremonial purposes, and then done and moving on.

Maybe today was just the proverbial one straw too many.

The meme was trying to make humorous hay out of the the joy it would cause the nation if the President were killed.

(It’s a joke about throwing things out of an airplane to make people happy. You’ve probably seen it. If you haven’t I don’t imagine it’s hard to find. No, I won’t link it here, because, believe it or not, I do have some standards of public decency and discourse.)

Anyway, before I get too off the rails in this screed, let me illuminate the point I’m trying to get at: perspective.

I am not trying to say that this person should, in any way, be punished for or not allowed to speak the way he or she did. I am also not saying that humor should not be used as a method to skewer those in power – if anyone should think they need bringing down a peg or two. What I am saying is:

Think about shit before you toss it into the public arena! Lest you unnecessarily besmear the playing field.

Here’s the thing, my problem with this type of bullshit humor is this:

If that had been a foreign national suggesting that killing our president would be a lark then these same fools would be up in arms, probably calling for air-strikes. Even if they hated the president. It would be a matter a patriotism. Of us versus them.

(BTW: As Americans, can we finally fess up to the fact that “Us vs. Them” is our favorite guilty pleasure?)

What I’m talking about here is perspective and the awareness of our own actions. When did, “I wouldn’t want someone to do that to me,” stop being a perfectly reasonable way to decide not to do something?

Or is it that we have just stopped asking ourselves that question: would I be okay with it if someone did this to me?

Because that’s the heart of the issue here: the same people who post these kinds of memes – who put this stuff out into the atmosphere – would be enraged if someone else, (read as: not them or their in-group), were to publicize the same thing.

Some double standards are useful. This one isn’t. This one degrades us as a people and as a species. It fosters the idea that callousness, that thoughtlessness is no more than fodder for humor.

(Also, it wasn’t funny. Not even a little. No surprise turn in the joke. No outrageous exaggeration. Nothing to show it as anything more than petty hate trying to masquerade as a joke. I am one with George Carlin in believing that you can take the piss out of pretty much anything, as long as it’s done well. And this meme just fucking wasn’t.)

Here’s another piece of the perspective puzzle for you: We actually have instances in our nation’s past where a president was killed while in office. Anyone want to take a cursory look at history and tell me how happy it made the people of this nation?

No, go ahead and look it up. I’ll wait…

…

…

…Oh, right, Fucking none of them. That’s how many.

Before I get too far into my own rage-nado of verbiage here, let me get back to something:

This isn’t about the good or bad of the joke.

This isn’t about propriety, what ever that is in this day and age.

This is about tasking stock of one’s thoughts and reactions and assessing whether or not they are appropriate for the public sphere, or –perhaps more importantly – if they are appropriate to one’s own sense of morality, patriotism, what have you.

We all have petty thoughts, small hatreds and grudges. We’re human. I’d say it’s a fault, but it seems to be a feature of hominids.

The point is, take some time to think about what thoughts you give to the world. Take some time to consider what you want to make real.

Because, really, some thoughts are better left unsaid.

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Happy 2016!

Posted on January 10, 2016 by tessarnold2

And how is your New Year shaping up?

One of the things I like best about the changing of the calendar is all of the yearly wrap-ups, countdowns, and look backs. I kind of like conglomerated information. Saves me from having to go searching for it. …

…Now that I think about it, other than the occasional party, the retrospective collections are about all I like about this time of year.

I mean, I don’t like the weather. I don’t like the decreased amount of daily sunlight. And I really despise this widely held expectation that people should, for some arbitrary reason – like our planet making another turn around the sun – take stock of and analyze their lives.

“Yay! It’s cold, dark, and vaguely depressing! Let’s examine our failings for the past solar cycle!”

(Yes, I know many people look back on what they’ve accomplished. But just as many people try to look back on what they accomplished and find out that, in any real and meaningful way, it didn’t amount to much; certainly not what they had hoped for).

Wow, this post is just a bit more depressing than I had intended it to be. I blame the weather.

So, let’s shuffle past the seasonal affect disorder musings and do my own little run through of the past year.

(For those of you that have read and remember my last attempt to do this – in 2014 – I assure you, this post will be different).

So, my last year has been , like most of life, a weird mix of events.

I got married in October.

(We’d only been dating for 4 years. I thought we were rushing it, but the wife was sure it was time. I’ve learned to trust her judgment in such things.)

It was a lovely, if slightly damp ceremony, of which I remember about half – all of the important bits, I assure you.

The wife and I have been living together for most of our courtship. So, the transition to married life wasn’t that difficult.

(Oh, not to seem cagey, but until I have the wife’s express permission to put her name into the public sphere in this way, I will refer to her as “The Wife”. It’s got a Sherlock Holmes/ Irene Adler feel to it which strikes me as strangely appropriate. And, it’s just polite).

I graduated university with a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy. Suma Cum Laude, if you care.

(I’m still trying to adjust to just having the one job, which I get paid for, to work).

Note: I’ll post an entirely different blog about my thoughts on my college experience, sometime when I can have coherent thoughts about it. Probably be a bit on that…

I started the long and continuing process of getting healthier. Read as: losing weight. There’s a whole series of posts to come about that. Don’t get nervous. I’m not going to include any pictures.

I’m still trying to build a writing career. Now that I’m not in school, I can actually devote some significant time to that endeavor. That means more writing, more submitting, and probably more rejections. After the novel received a loving rejection from Angry Robot Books, I submitted it to Apex books. They, as well, had a snafu with their submission process and I had to re-submit to them as well. Got a less than loving rejection from them. (Not that it was acrimonious in any way, only that it lacked, completely, any personal reference or discussion of the book. It was something like four sentences in an email, two of which were apologizing for the submission snafu. So it goes).

Not sure where I’m sending the novel next, or if I’m going to resume the agent search. All possibilities I’m considering. My short story, “The Gray Lady” is currently submitted to Orson Scott Card’s Intergalactic Medicine Show (yes, that is a long name for a magazine). I am waiting, for perhaps as long as three months, to hear if they want it or not. I’ll keep everyone posted about that, but it may be a while.

Let’s see. What else?

I still deal with mental health issues. In my continuing attempt to lessen the stigma of mental health in this country, I will probably post – from time to time – about those issues.

In reading over this post, it struck me that this is not a particularly long list. I wonder if I am forgetting something, but I don’t have the brain power to process it right now. Still, short though the list may be, it does contain some rather big ticket items. It’s probably enough for one year.

My plan for the coming year is to post here quite a bit more than I have in the past. This will be post #53. I’d like to get that at least double before too long. I’ve no loss of opinion in  my increasing age, so that probably won’t be a problem.

I will mention that, of you’d like more exposure to the weirdness that lives in my head, I’m also on Twitter. @tessrants if you want to check me out, it’s usually different material than I post here.

That about wraps it up.

Until next time…

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Just Checking In…

Posted on October 29, 2015 by tessarnold2

…Well, it’s been a while, and oh how I have been busy.

Losing my mind, busy.

I got married back on the 10th. Couple of weeks in, it’s going pretty well.

I have about a month left of my last semester before I graduate with my Bachelor’s degree. Just the timing on that is stressful, but pile on the work on top of it, and at least one professor that thinks we shouldn’t be wasting time with silly things like sleeping or eating in order to meet her expectations, and you’ll start to get the picture of what the sheer volume of hectic my life has been lately.

I promise, here in a month or so, once I’m done with the commencement thing, I’ll get back to posting regularly.

and oh, do I have a wealth of things to run my mouth about.

By way of preview: I have a novel I’ve been trying to sell, a novel I’m trying to finish, (75k words and counting, might need some pruning when all is said and done), a novel I’ve started working on notes and character sketches for, a series of connected short stories that I need to edit into an entertaining collection, and that is just the writing stuff.

I also have been on a ‘getting in shape’ adventure since last February, and there’s stuff I want to share about that.

Also, apparently we’re having another one of those nifty presidential elections again. I know I’ll have some things to say about that, and the people involved.

I’ll probably have a thing or two to say about my college experience, as an older American, as well.

So, not at a loss for material, or opinions, just stressed and busy and when not busy, being married and sleeping.

I’ll see you soon.

In the meantime, read good stuff, enjoy the changing of the seasons, and sleep in an extra hour or two, for me…

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Weed, Guns, Porn, Cigarettes, and America

Posted on August 9, 2015 by tessarnold2

There’s this question that’s been nagging me lately:

Why do we spend so much time, in this country, explaining ourselves?

I know human beings are social creatures, and that needing some degree of social approval and acceptance is hardwired into our species, but have we taken it too far?

Okay, let’s narrow down the picture to see a little more detail about what I’m getting at.

Generally, I’m talking about those things that we, as a culture, have conditioned a social stigma into. Four come readily to mind:

Weed, cigarettes, guns, and porn.

(I’m sure you could name a few others, but these will work for the purposes of demonstrating my point, and illustrating my question.)

For each of these things/ social contrivances, we find ourselves – any of us who enjoy any of the things on that list – trying to justify our enjoyment of those things; whichever we happen to enjoy.

(It could be bad pop music or smooth Jazz, the specific thing isn’t relevant. Those are just the easiest four I could think of without having to do research. This is a blog, not a term paper or a job).

Now, I’ve said this here before – I don’t care what you enjoy in your life as long as it meets at least one basic criterion:

That it does not infringe on the rights or safety of another

That sounds like a low bar, but try driving the posted speed limit during rush hour and you’ll see just how unreachable a standard it can feel like sometimes.

Now, I make no special claims to patriotism, but I always thought that the above sentiment was about as close to what we generally believe, as Americans, as anything in the Constitution or the Declaration of Independence.

I could be wrong, but I think it is a uniquely American thought to have, “As long as I’m not hurting anyone or taking away someone’s rights, leave me alone.”

I like to think that’s one of the reasons – perhaps not the main one but one nonetheless – that we kicked the Brits out and made a go of this grand experiment.

So I find that, lately, more and more I end up asking, “Who does it hurt? Why is this an issue? Why do you care what the fuck I do if it doesn’t actually affect you?”

Let’s return to my examples for a moment.

Weed. It’s not dangerous. The studies show it’s not a ‘gateway drug’. And if you are a burn out on weed, you’d be a burn out on anything else, sex, TV, booze, fitness, take your pick. Addiction isn’t about the substance, it’s about the isolation of the addict.

Even still, I have to ask, “Why does matter what I do as long as I’m not hurting someone or depriving someone of their rights?”

For a little more than a decade now, marijuana legalization activists have been pointing study after study about the lack of harm of this once common plant. And we’ve seen studies about its medical benefits, and the benefits of its non-psychoactive cousin: Hemp. It can be used for a hundred different things, is carbon sequestering, soil remediating, and sustainable. And all that is great.

But why isn’t it simply good enough – in America – to just want to get high? If you’re not hurting anyone, why does anyone else get to tell you what you do with/ put in your body?

(Disclaimer, I’m not a drug user presently for many reasons, most of them related to employment and school, and who has time really? I’m fucking busy.)

The same goes for owning guns.

I’m not going to get into the general debate about guns right now, but it occurs to me that the best and only argument necessary for owning a, or many guns is, “I like guns.”

Again, as long as you’re not hurting anyone or infringing on someone’s rights, I don’t see the problem.

Same for porn. Not hurting anyone, why do we have to justify it in our culture?

(A caveat here – this assumes that the industry is regulated in such a way as to keep the safety of its workers as its paramount concern.)

Cigarettes cause some people a little more angst, because of the added potential dangers to the users and to others, but, one can smoke cigarettes without harming others. One need only be considerate of one’s fellow human beings. And we don’t stop people from slowly killing themselves with alcohol, stress, or overwork, so why fuck with them about their smokes?

I think part of the problem is, in our quest for a more just and equitable world, some factions of our culture have gone way over board into extreme political correctness.

I’m not talking about common respect, dignity, and tact.

I’m talking about the policing of a person’s ideas to an extent that borders on thought crime.

(as an aside, I personally like when bigots, misogynists, and homophobes run their mouths, because: know your enemy.)

It’s one thing to have standards of decency and social conduct, (which I think we should have), it’s another thing entirely to try to enforce those standards on anyone’s private behaviors and thoughts.

As a culture, we’ve always wanted to have our say; to be heard. Heaven knows I am one of those “last word” motherfuckers myself. But when did we get to the point where we think we have the right or the ability to tell people what they should be thinking, or how they should be thinking it?

I don’t want to make this a screed about Political Correctness, so let me bring it back around to the original question.

It does seem like, for anything considered socially edgy, we have to come up with some politically correct rationale, some reason that other people can feel that they look good getting behind.

And I wonder, whatever happened to just liking something and wanting to do it, and that being a good enough reason thank you very much?

When did we have to start justifying things like they’re guilty pleasures?

When did we start feeling guilty about the things that give us pleasure?

When did, “Fuck you. I like it,” stop being an acceptable reason for doing anything?

Probably longer ago than I can remember…

…But it still pisses me off.

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Just the Facts Ma’am…

Posted on June 30, 2015 by tessarnold2

So, it’s been an interesting week, what with the Supreme Court upholding the constitutionality of healthcare subsidies and declaring that a ban on same-sex marriage is unconstitutional.

I live in the South.

I’m surprised I haven’t seen or heard more heads exploding in sheer and utter shock.

But I haven’t heard the explosions, and I can only assume that this is a good thing.

I have heard some other things that I don’t see as quite so promising.

The first thing I heard/ saw on the social networks, was the inevitable slippery slope arguments: “Well, what’s to stop groups of people getting married, or people marrying their pets, or even pedophiles marrying children?”

A couple of things here:

1) There is no good moral argument for why groups of consenting adults should not be able to marry – as a group.

2) Marrying their pets? Really? First, that’s just fucking silly. Second, I’m sure the ASPCA would have something to say about the inherent cruelty to animals.

3) Pedophiles? What the actual fuck? Why is it that seemingly religious minded people always default to equating anything they don’t like with pedophilia? Is it some obsession, intrinsic to religion, that always has these god-botherers talking about screwing kids? Or is it that hard core religion just tends to attract that type of person? Or is it a bit of both? I don’t know, but you’d think at least one of these religious types might stand up and say, “Hey guys, maybe we should stop talking about violating the youth, you know, in light of our past records on the matter?”

Of course, looking for common sense in religion is like looking for a virgin in a whorehouse; sure, you might find one, but the chances are seriously fucking slim.

More broadly, why don’t people know, why haven’t they figured out that the slippery slope argument holds no weight. Just because you say one thing might lead to another, doesn’t mean that it will. So, for the sake of public discourse – something, I’m sure you know is essential for the functioning of a democracy – can we find better ways to argue than to constantly trot out that tired old fallacy? That would be great.

But, and lest you think that this logical fallacy is the only impediment to public discourse, there is another, perhaps more pernicious problem. And it pops up in our media – who should fucking know better – and in our rhetoric: Straw Man arguments.

The straw man argument is also a logical fallacy. It consists of taking an opponent’s view, contorting it all out of proportion and reason, and then attacking the view of the argument that you, yourself have created.

And it happens all the fucking time in this country. The media, and politicians are particularly at susceptible to this type of crime against reason, because both those groups essentially exist, survive, and thrive on ratings – popularity. And people that thrive on ratings and popularity tend to reach for the inflammatory more often than not.

But there is a pernicious version of the straw man fallacy which has popped its hay-filled head up to scare away the crow-like masses: just fucking fabricating the facts.

I was listening to some evangelical, rail on NPR today, about the Supreme Court’s ruling. He stamped his foot and raised his voice and got downright righteously indignant about the court trying to use the law to force him to perform marriages that are against his religious convictions.

(For my two cents, I’m not sure anyone in the business of making money actually has any religious convictions. But that’s another rant entirely.)

I’ve heard this same ranting and raving from other sources, both religious and political. And I have a question…

…What?

Really. What the fuck are you talking about?

The law doesn’t say a damn word about infringing on anyone’s ability to practice their religion. You just made that shit up.

It does say that government officials have to obey the law, and in this case, offer marriage licenses to same-sex couples.

You get that?

The Government.

Not churches and not clergy.

Just the fucking government.

And yet, these morons, one of which has recently announced he’s running for the presidency of these United States, are railing about the government “forcing” them to act against their religious beliefs.

Sorry guys, not the case here.

Nothing in the Supreme Court’s decision states that religious institutions have to, by law or any other way, perform ceremonies not in keeping with their particular doctrine/ dogma.

Nothing.

Nowhere.

Not. A. Fucking. Word.

So why are these asshats, on the radio and other media, getting so bent out of shape?

The answer to that question, like many other problems, lies in the question itself: those two words, radio, and, media.

It’s just to get attention folks.

It’s a smoke screen. A way to gin up support and contributions. A way to make even more of the money roll in to their greedy little coffers.

It’s marketing. That’s all.

And, being marketing, we can pretty much safely assume it’s bullshit. It might be dressed up pretty, but an ass in a prom dress is still an ass, and it just happens to be hitched to a wagon that is making these greedy little shitbirds millions of dollars.

So, why do we keep falling for it? Why, as a culture do the vast, seething masses of us seem to dance to whatever tune these maniacal minstrels deem fit to play?

I think it’s because we’re afraid.

And not of what two consenting adults wish to do to and with each other in the privacy of their own homes.

(Although, it’s increasingly clear that some of these public pundits are actually afraid of what two consenting adults might be doing…   …Again, a point for another post.)

I think the media and the politicians and religion in general have made their bank on pushing people to conform to certain standards; standards that benefit whoever is doing the pushing. In most cases I do genuinely think it is about money, and by extension, power.

But, and the grown ups reading this should recognize this as a common fact: people are easily swayed by fear.

It’s easier to motivate someone through fear than it is to inspire them to action.

So how does it go? Want someone to move right, get them shit-scared about what’s on the left, and let human nature take its course.

But, this kind of thing has been going on forever, right?

Well, yes and no.

Yes, people in power, or who want power have often to almost always used fear to get what they want from the populace.

No, in that, only since the advent of radio, television, and the internet has it been so easy to do so much with so little, in regards to ratcheting up the fear of the citizenry.

And, I think, if you look around at the country we’re living in, you’ll see the evidence everywhere, that the job of making people afraid has been thoroughly done, and well.

And now provoking fear is about the easiest thing in America. Provoking indignation comes in a distant second.

Face it, there are only two options, as far as I can tell, to explain why we buy so much of the fear-mongering that gets peddled nowadays:

1) We have, collectively and individually, become idiots and are no longer capable of thinking for ourselves, critically or otherwise.

or

2)We live in a culture where we always feel like we are a knife edge away from being attacked; from having to defend what’s ours.

On bad days in traffic I lean towards the former, but realistically, I think it’s more likely the case of the latter.

I think we have been conditioned to constantly be on our guard, lest our precious property be taken away from us.

And while we’re scared about losing our stuff, we are that much more susceptible to being herded in whatever direction someone crafty enough to bark in the right tone chooses.

And then we lose our liberty.

Not just in the form of doing what we like – which isn’t so much liberty to begin with, but a shadow we’ve been tricked into thinking is the actual light – but in the form of deciding, for ourselves what we will think. What we will tolerate. What we will support, condone, or fight.

And it may actually be too late, even to retain that.

The fight might have been lost – for our culture – a generation ago.

But maybe, just maybe, there’s hope for you; hope for the individual yet.

I don’t give it good odds, not with what I see when I look around. But maybe.

Maybe…

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