I
have learned a lot since I finished writing Death
Stoppers Anthology last year, much of which has added
justification and detail to the conclusions I reached then. In many
ways, I experienced a microcosm of my life before, attempting to
reconcile the need to conform to the expectations of the majority
around me, for both survival and sanity, with an accelerating lack of
trust in both the logic and morality of those expectations. This
time, though, I had the perspective of decades of living and thinking
to help make sense of it, and the experience in turn tested and
refined that perspective. The net result is that I finally know
enough to take specific action, and I have the conviction to go ahead
with it.
Unfortunately,
timing is critical, which I discussed in the latest Idea Explorer
blog post, "Impacts."
By any measure of practicality, my prescription for significantly
extending humanity's longevity and avoiding major casualties is
impossible; yet, as the self-evaluation
using a set of proposed universal goals revealed, I am compelled to
do whatever I can. With my particular set of skills, that means
effectively writing to convince a lot of people to keep from having
more than the replacement number of children and capping or reducing
their consumption of ecological resources to a healthy level ("the
message"). It also means more actively developing the tools I've
long known are the key to short-circuiting the corrupting influences
that threaten people's survival and core happiness.
So
far, my creative effort has been focused on material that I
personally like, and it naturally includes many themes related to the
issues I care about. For example, the novel Lights
Out is based on early research
into limits to global population and consumption, and is in the genre
of science fiction, which has been my favorite from the time I
learned to read. Death Stoppers Anthology is a collection of
my best writing, and includes both the most artistic and most
meaningful aspects of my experience (some of which have been
extracted from blogs).
Judging
from sales and blog hits, I have a small but significant audience for
my work, which I greatly appreciate, but it needs to grow a lot if
I'm going to have an impact anywhere near what I'd like. This means
that I will be vigorously marketing all of my work, and becoming more
public with my views, all with the ultimate focus of promoting the
message and its rationale as much and as long as is necessary.
Other
people and other groups are sharing their own variants of the message
for their own (and often similar) reasons, many over several decades
as our world's natural limits became clearer. I am merely adding my
own voice after becoming convinced on my own terms; and I urge you,
my readers, to find your own terms based on your own priorities, and
to do as much as you can as a result of your conclusions.
