Thursday, July 24, 2014

Sick of Arguing, Desiring to Work on Art

I am plagued by knowing too much.

For example, the way I feel right now, I just want to read and write plays. Nothing else. I don't want to work on scholarship. I don't want to do book reviews. I don't want to do anything but write plays. I don't want to argue politics or economics or anything of that sort. Just plays.

Now, is this because I have just gotten sick of all that stuff? Or is this because I tend to go through cycles because of the neural structure of my brain, which likely has positive feedback dominating it, resulting in cycles of interests and behaviors? I go through periods of wanting to work on creative work and periods of wanting to do scholarly work. So it may just be that. But at the same time, I have dealt with such utter nonsense and idiocy of late, from logical fallacies to misstatement of facts, that I'm beginning to see just how futile it is to argue with anyone. When you cannot persuade someone that they have their facts wrong -- and when you get accused of "name-calling" for correctly pointing out that someone is demonstrating their ignorance when they get facts wrong -- there's no point in arguing anymore.

More, I am not persuaded that direct argumentation ever really changes anyone's mind. It is a colossal waste of time to try to change anyone's mind in a direct fashion. I am, rather, persuaded, that it is only through literature and the arts that one can change others' morals and, thus, change the foundation on which they act and judge. However, this raises yet another problem. If I post a poem, who reads it? I have to get my plays performed or at least get someone somewhere to read my artistic writings. Who will do so? In my experience, not many.

Is everything, then, a waste of time? Perhaps not. Sometimes you just have to reach the right one or two, and that makes all the difference in the future. Who knows who that person will be, or when you will reach that person? You just keep writing and you keep hoping.

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