I’ve offered my books for free “always”. All you had to do was email me and ask for a free, no-strings-attached copy. Perhaps you remember one earlier post, on whether art should be free. There I said how I preferred this way over permanently listing my work online for free because I wanted my readers to make the effort and be proactive in showing they want my work.
Quite a few people have done this over the years – and we’ve had some pretty great discussions in the process. However, after deciding to offer all my apps for free some time ago – for reasons you can read about here – I began wondering whether I should do the same with my books.
The answer was obviously, yes – you might have noticed the blog menu has a new entry, “Free Books”. And this post explains the reasons.
Virtually every man-made thing you see around you right now is likely produced because of capitalism. It’s capitalism that has allowed me to write this post on my Chinese-made mini laptop, and you to read it on your (almost certainly) Chinese-made device. “Awesome!” you might think. “Capitalism is freedom, then! You’re a free writer and I’m a free reader.”
No. Capitalism isn’t freedom.
It feels like that because both you and I happen to be – for the time being – near the fulcrum of the seesaw of economic exchange. And this seesaw isn’t well balanced, either. On the one end sits a hippo (capital), and on the other end half a billion ants (workers) trying to keep the thing from imploding. You and I are somewhere around the fulcrum. And because of that, most of us are stupid enough to think we’re more related to the hippo, rather than the ants.
But that’s the bubble-gum, pink-clad, rough love of capitalism. Like every system of dominance – think religion – it promises you heaven but makes sure to show you hell if you don’t fall in line. “Oh, so you don’t like the way things are, then? Well, why don’t you go and live in [insert sweatshop country]?”
Capitalism is an economic system predicated on injustice and psychological conditioning. We are all accomplices; the system works thanks to us.
How can you be a free writer in such a framework?
Wanna enslave someone? Make them depend on something. Writers are no exception – they will whore themselves for sales, clicks, likes, you name it(more…)
In Bertolt Brecht’s play Galileo, the character of Andrea affirms: “Unhappy the land that has no heroes!” To this, Galileo responds: “No. Unhappy the land that needs heroes”. People seem to hold heroes in high regard. Few are those who realize the repercussions of having heroes in a democracy.
A hero is generally an individual (this is important, as we’ll see) who displays great courage, aspires to great achievements, and overall plays an important, central part in a certain event or historical period.
What could possibly be bad about that, you might wonder.
The operative element here is democracy, so let’s see the definition of that word as well: It comes from the Greek words δήμος (people) and κρατία (power, rule); rule of the people, that is.
Democracy relies on informed, rational citizens collectively and intelligently deciding on the affairs of the state. Ironically enough, that’s precisely the reason why democracy inevitably fails.
In reality, people are a collection of individuals. Most of them are of, well, average intelligence and with, well, adequate moral convictions. A few (or…?) are truly stupid and malicious, and very few are highly intelligent and benevolent. Obviously, there are many gradations in between. Moreover, the systemAs this word carries a lot of baggage and can convey an aura of conspiracy theory ("them", "they", or "it"), I should clarify that system in this post simply refers to the ruling class; the status quo. has an incentive to undermine or even silence those few whose integrity is so powerful, they completely disregard danger – with a few shining exceptions, their stories are lost.
The thing is, in such a setup, heroes in a democracy that struggles appear as an attractive solution. Heroes in a democracy almost feel like what the “mortals” need to be inspired by.
And yet, heroes in a democracy are a dangerous paradox: the very element that assures democracy is dying.
Heroes in a democracy is a dangerous paradox (more…)
