Culture

Consuming Creativity

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(This column is posted at www.StevenSavage.com and Steve’s Tumblr.  Find out more at my newsletter.)

Tyrants and those that would control us fear creativity. They can be out-imagined, out-thought, and thrown down often by means they didn’t foresee. Tyrants fear creativity.

Though tyrants may try to ape it, or own it, or redirect it, tyrants also try to hold people in their iron grip. Those they cannot deceive or bring over to their cause, they gladly terrorize. Indeed, such people revel in power anyway, and will do so until overthrown and thoroughly broken.

That terror can consume creativity.

When you are afraid, your resources rally to survive. In the terror produced by tyrants, your creative abilities easily focus on simply getting through the day. This can sap your creative powers, as you are spending so much effort surviving, you can’t imagine what is needed to overthrow a tyrant and give them the fate they deserve.

I don’t think tyrants entirely do this by design – terror is the coin of their realm. But they certainly are glad to have you so worried you can’t scheme against them.

Therefore it is the duty of a creative person to maintain that creative spark at all costs, because losing it costs all.

The simplest way is to make space for creative work – to draw, to write, to speak, to joke. To keep that area of your life where creativity is more than survival doesn’t just keep the flame of imagination going, it powers it. As long as you can see new vistas and make new songs, you can find new ways to survive the tyrant’s rein, and do your part to end it.

A creative should also remember that by keeping their creativity going, they help others. A song can soothe those terrorized by would-be rulers. A joke can lead to laughter and release, giving people a moment to see how small the tyrant is. A game can inspire and lead people to new ideas to resist and defeat a dictator. Remembering what your creativity does for others aids you.

But there is one other path – to use survival to inspire you.

Turning your creative energies to survive and prosper under a tyrant, to work towards their just reward, can be a great motivator. To dream of ways to communicate to others, to undermine evil, to free the imprisoned harnesses your creativity. It also gives you a sense of power – you have gone from surviving to finding the potential of triumph.

We should take joy in the ways we creatively battle the evils of the world.

But one should always cultivate a diversity of creativity – we should sing while we scheme against the king, the acid words of a good joke can be turned to the clever worlds of a good polemic. We should always keep that raw fire of creativity burning, not only taking pleasure in the eventual defeat of a dictator. Keeping that primal creativity keeps the infinite potential at the ready.

Besides, if one focuses only on the overthrow of a tyrant richly deserving defeat, then one may loose touch with all the creative things they can do. If you do that, you might become a tyrant yourself as you loose that vital, human, imagination.

Steven Savage

Not Back To Normal: Health

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(This column is posted at www.StevenSavage.com and Steve’s Tumblr.  Find out more at my newsletter.)

Awhile ago I posted how even applying the good lessons from the coronavirus will change life and the economy – in this case, work from home. Sure we learned a lot of good things, but applying them would involve massive changes to our lives. So now I’d like to talk health.

It may seem that we’ve sort of learned the obvious lessons about the coronavirus – social distancing, masks, and all that. But let me be blunt.

Avoiding people when sick, washing your hands, masks during periods of disease would have been REALLY GREAT IDEAS TO DO ALL ALONG. I say this as a person who over the years has found his co-workers dragging in diseases and infecting entire teams.

Now imagine in a future where we’ve got the coronavirus vaccine but also we apply our lessons about health. A dose of hypochondria from the coronavirus may motivate us for many years, but we’ve also learned some damned good behaviors for, say, cold and flu season.

But what would those involve?

WORKING FROM HOME MORE: I’ve covered this, but bluntly, during periods of disease more people should stay home, work from home, etc. That of course means all the things I’ve mentioned before – but also “seasons” of sudden shifts in how people work. That’s going to be disruptive, leading to things like changing office arrangements, hours, or even part-time use of buildings.

USE OF MASKS: Handy things, really. Despite the bizarre politicization of basic health behaviors, I think masks are here to stay. I’m already seeing fashionable masks. So I expect more mask wearing – and more politicization, sadly.

BETTER HYGIENE: Well there’s little downside to this, but more hand-washing, house-cleaning, etc. is a good idea. That means more products for such in demand, with potential runs or shortages or over-purchases. I suppose the biggest impact is dermatitis.

RULES FOR BUSINESSES: We’ve learned the benefits of social distancing, but imagine these coming back in every cold and flu season. Or “senior hours” being maintained at stores simply for the health benefits. This means some businesses may restrict themselves seasonally.

BUSINESS CHANGES: I can’t even begin to predict all the impacts, so simple to say the coronavirus has led businesses to consider other models, such as many restaurants acting as grocery stores. Some of these changes have permanent health benefits, and may stay around or become seasonal.

CHANGES TO GATHERINGS: Imagine big conventions, sporting events, etc. and how they’ll change now that we’re more health conscious. Temperature checks. Moving events to avoid disease seasons. Mask requirements. Some things may not make sense anymore to even keep.

PERSONAL HABITS: I can’t see myself returning to a gym for months if not a year – and now that I’ve changed my workouts do I want to? I’m not sure I need to, so how many other personal habits will I change? Will others change? What businesses does that affect?

PERSONAL EVENTS: When’s the next time you want to host a 20 person get together? I think people may shift to more health-conscious events, smaller gatherings but also more virtual gatherings. I suppose its a good time to work at Zoom or Discord.

MORE ATTENTION: Coronavirus is a damned scary thing and its got people paying attention to medical issues. That’s good. It also means more hypochondria and more attention to conspiracy theories and more doctors rolling their eyes.

A NEED FOR MORE MEDICAL PEOPLE: Alone a lot of doctors and nurses and first responders are burnt out and tired. We’re going to need more people to help them, replace those we lost or who are retiring, and to deal with increased demand from a wounded and concerned public. There’s career options here, but also for sad reasons.

A DESIRE TO RETURN TO NORMAL: Which won’t happen. The US coronavirus response was dismal, and revealed our health system and general health habits were the same. Some people will want to go back to normal, and next cold and flu season, even with a coronavirus vaccine it won’t go well.

So I’m glad we’re probably more aware of health. I’m really hopeful to see a coronavirus vaccine in the next 18 months if not sooner, and perhaps protective measures before that. But I’m also aware applying the lessons learned will be a shake up.

We’re not going back to the way we were. That way doesn’t apply, but also kinda wasn’t so hot.

Steven Savage

Social Ruggedization

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(This column is posted at www.StevenSavage.com and Steve’s Tumblr.  Find out more at my newsletter.)

You didn’t see any blog posts from me last week as life was busy and disrupted due to the coronavirus. Don’t worry, I’m fine, its just that there were a lot of changes.

I, my girlfriend, and a lot of people we know are working from home, which is a huge schedule change. We’re in a shelter-in-place order here. Then there’s the collapsing economy and so on.

You’ll understand the lack of blog posts and the large amount of junk food consumed.

So now a lot of us find ourselves in a disease crisis, not leaving home, and worrying about the state of the world. We’re all working to stay connected, stick together and make it through. So I wanted to talk about “social ruggedization.”

I’ve heard people use the term “ruggedizing” to refer to dealing with climate change – we need to make our cities and supply chains rugged in the face of disruption. The same goes for our social systems, from our world to our countries to our own social groups.

This crisis has shown the need to build resilient social systems. That’s not just my job, or your job, it’s everyone’s job. So here’s what I’m doing and a few suggestions from what I’ve learned.

Connect Regularly: People need some kind of regular checkin to connect. This could be a regular event like a weekly call. It could be a regular tool people use for communication like Discord. Sync up.

Overcome Space: Right now we’ve got to overcome the space between us, but remember there’s always space between us. It may be the space of a schedule change, or someone is laid up, or simple distance. Be pre-emptively planning to connect with people.

Share Events: There’s doing things together, but you can also share events passively. A lot of my friends and I do viewing parties where we just hang out, watch TV and do our creative projects, and so on. We’ll move those online – and streaming and so on make it easier.

Check In: Reach out to people to see how they’re doing regularly. Right now I post a daily update to some social media and check in with a few people via text messages. It’s a way to let people know you’re OK, hear from them, and encourage them to do the same.

Pool Resources: Start getting ready to share resources now. It could be food, it could be technology, or something. Start getting into the habit of helping each other and covering each other. We need it and have always need it.

Built The Society You Want: Focus on building real connections and social structures you want. Have a vision. Make it work.

Share and Promote Ruggedization: Share and promote making serious, surviving social structures. Share tips like this. Share technology that works. You want a stable society, share what you learned in making your own little stable society.

Meet New People: Go on and meet new people. YOu might make new friends and make new connections. Sure, be selective and have standards, but see who else fits them.

Connect People: In these tough times, I’ve been working to introduce people to each other. This way folks make more social connections and find allies and resources.

I hope you’re doing well in surviving these crazy times. Reach out to me with your thoughts and your ideas – or just reach out.

Steven Savage