The future of the writers' guild

Free speech. What is it?

Free conversation is what it is, in my opinion. Everyone has the right to converse with any other people about any topic under the sun.

The word "speech" by itself, means that you have something to say. You are pontificating. Unfortunately, most people haven't invested the years of time in their writing studio thinking about life in a comprehensive fashion. It's people who do this - who have thought further than their society... who have something to share and teach, when they put pen to paper.

An illness is overcoming the field of writing in the usa. This is very much analagous to what happened to the music guild in the last decade and two. The internet gives anyone the opportunity to devote themselves to learning the art of writing... however, the writer's guild is absent from the whole process. Skilled writers are not creating websites which would tutor would-be writers in the trade.

So what is happening... ? Well, the answer from the other side of the room when someone touts the majesty of free speech is the cynic who says "Opinions are like assholes, everyone has one." There is something to that stance, if you'll pardon the denigration of a part of the human body. People who have not thought comprehensively about the world, don't have any wisdom to share with the world, and they find themselves with "writer's block" when they sit down to pen an essay. So what they do is follow form. This is the standard technique for learning most things, isn't it? They take one model which one social group has about a certain issue in the world, and they elaborate on that. They flesh in with different details, the same model that's been touted a thousand times in other essays. And if they're getting flamboyant, they start throwing in all the hyperbole they can stuff into the fringes of their essay.

Unfortunately, what happens because of this custom, is that the world fills up with an ocean of words and ideas without any substance. It becomes harder and harder for a person who is approaching his trade honestly... who has something to teach, who has something to share - who refuses to take one side or the other in a debate - to get his words heard.

And, in fact, it's true with all art... you have to be a very deep thinker to produce inspiring art... whether that be film, music, visual art, writing, or anything else. You have to have something to say, embedded in the motifs of your work. And as you get into vaguer and vaguer symbols, you'd better have a much more clear agenda of what exactly you want to say - and you'd better be right in what you think about that topic. Otherwise the art is going to be very ugly.

Inspiration - in the opinion of a viewer of an art piece - is a vague concept... some body of ideas was brought to mind by this thing he saw or heard... which seemingly was unrelated to the physical object, or sound or image. However, it is the magic which the artist has studied, which he is using to bring those ideas to your mind. Combining motifs is to speak a language... As you use vaguer and vaguer symbols, you can speak more and more broadly about a topic - and on many levels.

Unfortunately, our society is not constructed in a way which allows people the years they need to study art... and to think deeply about all aspects of life, before they start presenting their ideas. Even when an artist or writer is working on projects for presentation, he needs his flex time. The creative process has certain parameters which need to be given it, for it to work.

This is why we writers need to organize to create an economy where we can do well for ourselves... I don't think that we can be having our books retailed in bookstores, and still make a decent living for ourselves... our own profit margins become too tiny. We need to take control of the business of our book selling. We need to encourage the cottage industry of writing to take root.

The problem with our neglect of all these new writers across the internet is profound. If we encourage debate and hyperbole, we are pounding the spikes one by one into our own bed of nails. When environments get that dirty, there will be manipulative people with bad agendas who will want to use that environment for their own projects. Look at the politicians in the usa in 2006. Those people got themselves into power with a manipulative process which had to do with intimidating anyone else who wanted to contest them. This group of sourpusses on the internet who are just testing their wings, today, are going to be in positions of power in ten to twenty years with the same kind of impetus. They will be using "debate" to intimidate and silence anyone with opinions which are different than those which will further their own bad agendas.