Welcome to the cranky uncle’s website & microblog!

What stories are about  “Stories are about change.  Positive or negative. The status quo must change by the time the story ends,” says Torshie Torto on Medium.  Sounds about right!  And continues: “Here’s a rule of thumb: be a fucking sadist when it comes to the well-being of your characters, especially the protagonist.  This is how you ensure that a reader never puts your book down until The End.”

Morning pages  A very funny writer quotes Hemingway: “I write every morning as soon after first light as possible. There is no one to disturb you and it is cool or cold and you come to your work and warm as you write.” [V.]  They say you should write your “morning pages” for the allotted time.  I can’t, if I don’t have anything to say!  But it could be useful to “train the writing muscles”, in a way. The idea is to write a lot consistently, then discard the most, hoping something good would come from it all Maybe I should try it.

She also recommends disconnecting the internet from the machine you’re working on.  Not a bad idea at all!  No “I’m going to do a little research now just a sec”; jot it down in a paper and research later.  We’re writing now!

She goes on: «Writing morning pages has driven me to grow very fond of good notebooks, especially ones with skinny lines and thin paper. A good notebook can drive you out of bed in the morning. I tried for two months to write in a dirty composition notebook leftover from being a teacher, and I found it akin to trying to have sex with an unintelligent, generic-looking person with a beer gut and no sense of humor: it got the job done, but there was absolutely no pleasure in it.»  Hahah!  She has a way with words.

The new niggers  For most of humanity, there wasn’t such thing as adolescence; there were children and adults.  Teenagers were expected to start finding their way into the world of adults via apprenticeships (though women were expected to prepare for marriage); and to show their mettle by taking responsibility.

It was only the children of the elites who went to boarding schools, and suffered the neurosis of prison-like education, hazing & bullying, repression from severe & stern teachers etc.

Now society expects every teenager to experience the same fate as the decadent rich; and we deprive teens of their agency.  Society as a whole doesn’t see them; they are expected to remain quiet & invisible in the background until they become adults and can legally work, vote etc.

So we consider as much as a fifth of society, non-people!  Children are to be looked after; adults are expected to take care of themselves, but teenagers remain in a “twilight zone” where they yearn for meaningful activity, to be productive, to learn in the real world, but we insist in confining them to a child-like, meaningless existence, with scarcely any responsibilities.  Meaning comes from responsibility!

Just as “a fish doesn’t see the water,” or the ancients saw slavery as natural, we think it is “the way of the world” to treat teens as infants.  But it’s only been like that for the last three generations; it’s only the children of the poor in rural areas who become men quickly as soon as they hit puberty.  “What privilege!” you might think; “We don’t want it!” is the unanimous cry of teens everywhere!

It’s no wonder that teens live in a perpetual state of neurosis: adolescence itself is a neurosis!  It’s in the very name —it means “to suffer”— and it shouldn’t exist!  A teen should start progressively assuming as much responsibility as they want and are able to.  If no-one takes you seriously, you can’t thrive!

It’s been a while, but I think the worst thing a teen needs, is a lot of free time to mull on the inanity of their existence.  The plandemic and online learning have wrecked havoc in teens’ mental well-being.  It’s time we stop this madness and allow them to become —progressively and with their parents’ monitoring— productive members of society.

BTW it already happens in some well-off families.  Bourgeoisie families pride in their “your only responsibility is to study” stance, but in a few families that own businesses, I’ve seen that they have their children work in the family business since early ages.  They learn quickly and can later inherit the business or open branches.  They seemed to me very mature, polite and well-rounded kids, with none of the rudeness and moody nonsense we associate with adolescence.  I wish more could have had that experience.  The kids yearn for the mines!  Ha-ha.

Structure narrates as well  Finally I understood a missing piece in my writing.   Reading a piece from Medium:

Think in terms of structure. This is a HUGE topic, which I’ll tackle in more detail in future posts, but I want to include it here even in an abbreviated form. Chances are, if you think of yourself as a writer, you are very accomplished on the micro level — that is, you can put together a very nice sentence. The difference between that and really soaring as a writer is structure. By that I mean you are able to build a compelling, interestingly paced story. You know how to tease your reader along; you know how much to explain and when to explain it; you know how to reach a narrative peak and how to settle down into a conclusion. This is incredibly challenging — much more than just writing a nice sentence. It’s the essence of being a good storyteller (as opposed to being a good sentence-writer). The first step towards achieving that is to be conscious of it. Does your story unfurl in an intriguing way? Will a reader want to keep reading because you’re teasing them along? Do you introduce new characters and settings smoothly? Yes, it’s important to pay attention to word choice and all the tiny details in your writing, but you also need to zoom out frequently and see how the whole thing is working in its entirety.

I got a glimpse of the fact that composition can be a storytelling device when watching Siete cajas (2012), a Paraguayan movie that my friends and I noticed mastered the edition process as a means to tell a story.  Vargas Llosa’s last short story Los vientos at first got me wondering: these trivial musings, is this the best a Nobel-prize-winner writer can do?  But as I kept reading, the pacing of the story, the concatenation of events, were showing Vargas Llosa’s mastery of the craft!  A lot was said that was not put in words, so to speak.

Another article [V.] expounded onto the same topic: it’s not just bricks, mortar, metal and cement, but how you put them together, that makes an architectural masterpiece, something people with gaze at with pleasure.  Though I don’t write much fiction, I hope I can incorporate that into my writing.

Just as movies convey emotion & mood not only with the events and dialogue, but also with lighting, camera angles, filters etc., one should try to do the same with how one presents the ideas.

Bus fares control  For a while I struggled with the idea that many oppose raising bus fares “until they improve the service.”  I contended that it is impossible to improve service unless fares are raised, getting into a Catch-22.  Let’s make a reductio ad absurdum, using goods and services as examples.

Imagine govt sets a maximum price for mobile phones: $30.  For that price you can only get a feature phone, not a smartphone.  Many grumble that smartphones are nowhere to be found in stores; only cheap feature phones; but people still support phone price controls!  “We’ll allow price increases as soon as they offer iphones for the price of feature phones!  That’s impossible; dumbphones have a price and smartphones another entirely different; one can’t become the other!

Another example: we’ve seen shysters or unqualified lawyers peddling their services for cheap in the halls of courts (this being the third world).  Imagine government set price control for the services of lawyers!  “They can earn no more than minimum wage per hour.”  Those are even lower than shyster rates!  Would that ensure quality legal services, or rather the opposite?  “We’ll allow lawyer rate increases, when shysters and unqualified lawyers provide top-quality services, first!

You can see that one thing can not become another; witch doctors are cheaper than specialized doctors for a reason!  Price controls only prohibit better quality goods and services; they impede market segmentation; they ensure a market for the lowest quality providers.  That’s not how you improve services!

That’s why government violence can’t improve anything, but it can worsen a lot!  Not only that, but the religious belief in the omnipotence of the violence of the politician and bureaucrat, makes people dumber.  As soon as someone starts: “da gubmint should…,” I know someone has stopped thinking long ago.

Another example from the mayor of Durán [V.].  He acknowledges that the water company doesn’t collect enough revenues, not even to make payroll, lest produce clean water; and admits that his advisors encourage him to raise water prices charged to homes; but refuses to do so, since the supply is not regular and the pressure is low.  Let that sink in: he acknowledges that the service is poor because of low revenues, but refuses to charge more until service improves, which he can’t do because he doesn’t collect enough…  It’s an irrational Catch-22 of his own making!  He holds a degree in business & finance.  What do they teach them??

🇪🇸 Mamón, el dios del hombre contemporáneo  Marx y Nietzsche propugnaban incansables el fin del "opio del pueblo".  Yo creo que lo han logrado, ¿no?  La religión, para las masas, no es más que una simple costumbre familiar para ocasiones especiales, como quemar el año viejo o poner el árbol de navidad: cuando alguien nace, se casa, muere, se hacen ritos religiosos, pero pare de contar: no influye en los valores sociales.

Hoy, las masas y las élites ya no se preocupan de asegurarse un más allá, sino de su bienestar material prseente…  ¿Pero no crees que ha generado una sociedad de individuos "enloquecidos por el dinero" como decía C.J. Arosemena?

Vemos la ultraviolencia irracional de las bandas criminales: “me pagas la vacuna o te mato, me pagas rescate o te mutilo y luego te mato… Si te opones a mis negocios chuecos, te mato, si me perdiste un alijo de droga, también te mato”, etc.…, como que nos hemos ido al extremo opuesto, ¿no crees?

Obstaculizar el enriquecimiento de un psicópata, le resulta algo tan grave, ¡como poner en riesgo la salvación eterna, para un creyente de antaño...!

Como sociedad, o adoramos al Dios cristiano, o inmediatamente degeneramos en adorar a Mamón o al oro con forma de becerro.  No hay más: los ateos siempre fueron una minoría.  ¡Las masas siempre creerán en algo!

Just two  “A story should do two things: it has to help, and it has to be about us.” [V.]  Entertaining is helping enough; putting a mirror in front of the reader with your story, is another way of helping.  And expressing some truth about the world or human condition, and it’s about “us.”  “Every story is an act of trust between a writer and a reader … that we may glimpse, at least occasionally, how to live without despair in the midst of the horror that dogs and unhinges us.”

Yeah that sounds about right for a purpose for writing & reading: an incantation to dissipate —albeit temporarily— the horror

So journos won’t have to learn to code  The solution to newspapers’ plight must be something akin to Medium.  For a fistful of dollars, you get to read your favorite journos’ pieces.

Gone are the days when people paid $15 a month for home delivery of a newspaper or two, each.  Millenials never subscribed, and zoomers won’t, either.

So the future, as I see it, is some platform similar to Medium, or Medium itself (aren’t writing cooperatives in Medium similar to regular publications, already?).  One will follow one‘s favourite journos and pay for them to write & make videos.  One will subscribe to a “constellation” of authors, so to speak.  Then you should get the choice: pay an extra $1 to add access to sports news & commentary, or add $2 to access French reporters, for instance.

The thing is, people will sooner or later tire of having too many subscriptions; moreover if garbage entertainment content is available 24/7 for free on tiktok (you pay with your soul).  Offerings must centralize soon.  Right now we have Medium (flat fee, can’t “improve” it or tip creators), Patreon (easy to add new creators, but a dollar or more each it gets dear quickly, and are trigger happy canceling creators who go against the mainstream), Substack (at $5 or more per creator, soon you’ll run out of money!).

Traditional newspapers for pennies gave you access to a roster of renowned authors and news.  Netflix gives you access to countless movies for pennies each (once I reckoned 25¢ per hour watching).  Newspapers must follow the same model, or perish.  #newspapers-new-model

Next post I’ll go back to a papyrus-style posting, that is, chronological and scrolling down, last posts at the end, not at the beginning.  Maybe it’ll make for easier reading?

🇪🇸 Eatin’ the rich won’t fill the state’s belly  Lo oímos constantemente de los zurdos: «¡Que la crisis la paguen los ricos!», gritan indignados.  Mas los fríos números nos dicen que no será suficiente, ni siquiera confiscándoles todos sus ingresos!

El déficit total del estado —incluyendo pagos de deuda por vencer— asciende a $17.2 milliards, según diario La Hora.  Casualmente esta cifra equivale a todo lo que el estado recauda en un año, entre impuestos y petróleo; es decir, el gobierno pretende gastar en un solo año lo que normalmente recauda en dos.  Imposible.

Supongamos que “ricos” son los que ganan más de $4.500 mensuales, según la revista Gestión:

Vamos a aplicarles una tasa impositiva progresiva a partir del 25% hasta un confiscatorio 80%, como son los sueños húmedos de los zurdos.  Para facilitar el análisis, usaremos un promedio de rango de ingresos como representantivo de todos los individuos; y le aplicaremos “a las bravas” el tax bracket, sin tomar en cuenta fracciones básicas ni excedentes, ni tampoco deducciones.  ¡Impuesto puro y duro, baby!

Como vemos en la esquina inferior derecha de la tabla, la escala confiscatoria sólo recaudaría $1,9 milliards, equivalente a la novena parte de las necesidades de financiamiento de este año.

Si nos volviéramos comunistas radicales y les confiscáramos toditos sus ingresos a los ricos, sin dejarles un centavo —$4,5 milliards—, sólo cubriríamos a duras penas la cuarta parte del déficit; y eso sólo en la teoría, pues al segundo mes de confiscaciones ya no quedaría ningún futbolista de élite, ningún ejecutivo de transnacional, ningún banquero: todos habrían emigrado a puertos más acogedores.

Concluimos así que los problemas del estado ecuatoriano son estructurales; nos ha prometido gastar en tantas cosas, pero no recauda sino la mitad de lo que necesitaría.  Es como un joven que conquista a una chica con generosas promesas de viajes, lujos y caprichos, pero sólo gana el sueldo básico: tarde o temprano habrá de sincerarse con ella, y ella decidir aceptar un recorte de su estándar de vida, o dejarlo.  En nuestro caso, acordar como sociedad qué gastos vamos a recortar, o generar un nuevo pacto social…

En contraste con lo que habitualmente se oye —«somos un país rico, sólo que mal administrado»— hemos de aceptar que sí somos un país medio pobre, donde pocos pagan impuestos; y no, no son “los ricos” los que no pagan, sino la mitad de la población que sobrevive en la informalidad de bajos ingresos.  Ellos no pueden costearse los servicios que esperan, ¡y los ricos tampoco!  ¿Qué hacer?

Ante la imposibilidad de lograr acuerdos como país, hemos de buscar las soluciones a nivel local.  Tarde o temprano ha de aceptarse que el grueso de los impuestos se quede a nivel local, y que sean municipios quienes proporcionen la mayor parte de los servicios, como ocurre en EEUU.  Pero a esta ficción llamada Ecuador, donde todos pretenden vivir a costa del estado central, se le están viendo las costuras desde hace rato, y no será viable.

Una vez más para mis zurdos de bajo IQ: el recorte es inevitable; es más, ya está ocurriendo, en forma de atrasos cada vez peores de sueldos, proveedores, transferencias a GADs, universidades, IESS etc.  Hemos de preguntarnos si estamos bien así y deseamos conservar esa situación, o tomamos decisiones duras sobre dónde recortar.  Y mostrarle a violentos e irracionales como Iza el garrote de la ley, que la violencia que él promueve no proporcionará los dólares que se necesitan; más bien los ahuyentará (¿sabían que Iza ya ha causado al país pérdidas similares a las que sufrió el estado en la crisis bancaria?).   #eat-the-rich

Brave New World  I finally read it.  What a good novel.  The dialogue with the Controller is superb: you see the perspectives of the elites, and you are inclined to agree with them!  You see they’re devoid of malevolence; they’re not comic book villains, as we sometimes picture them.  The Controller is cogent and even likeable!

Of course if you find yourself disagreeing with such a world, you’ll be steamrolled by it; it can’t be anyway else.  Such is the banality of evil: harm does not require malevolence, at all!

We are but mere vessels  Jung said it well before Dawkins: “We don’t have ideas; ideas have us.”  Dawkins drew attention to the fact that we can see the living world as a very complicated effort of genes to multiply; a very ornate effort, in the case of us humans and our civilisation.  Genes being but information, can’t we conclude that similarly the marketplace of ideas is a Darwinian survival of the fittest ideas?  

Those ideas that bear the best fruits eventually win over bad ideas that might look more appetizing in the short term.  I remember I said before, that ideology is first and foremost an æsthetic choice, and thus it’s almost impossible to change.  So no-one convinces anyone; irrationality dies when the irrational generations pass away.

The Logos thinks and solves conflicts, through us!

Bullshit  Tony Stubblebine, Medium CEO, has an interesting take on journalism [V.]: «It’s expensive to write about things that you don’t already know. That’s why journalists have to be paid a lot to get a high quality piece up. The reporting is really time intensive.»  That’s the advantage of blogs, he continued, as in them people talked about things they knew and care about; but journos had to have a “take” on the topics du jour.

He was also asked: «Q: Do you think you’ll ever pivot to video?  A: I just had a board meeting. We’ve got a five-year roadmap and it’s all text. There’s something inherently healthy about reading and writing. I’ve been trying to land this joke. It’s never worked. But there’s a reason that Homer didn’t write “TLDR: Odysseus had a hard time getting home.” There has to be a home for people who just love reading and writing more than anyone else. I think we can do that.»

It’s an interesting interview, with someone in the front-line of publishing and reading.  Recommended read.

Writers chose to suffer  A very funny writer in “The 4 Quadrants of Writing Joy” says: «Choosing writing as a career is choosing to go barefoot through the thorny thicket that is life. It’s choosing to live with your parents until you’re 65. It’s becoming an involuntary minimalist. It’s choosing to burden your spouse with paying the bills (sorry darling…). It’s becoming a William Shakespoor, a Hungry Hemingway, a James No-Joyce, a George Owe-well.  Yes, sure, some writers make it big. But, statistically, you won’t.»  Well put!

He goes on to say that one should aspire to write about 1) topics that are interesting for us, and 2) that we’re competent in.  “Competence” can also refer to writing ability; so, if one is skilled enough, one could tackle a boring subject, but write in an interesting manner for the reader, so both —writer & reader— have fun!

🇪🇸 Simios con metralleta  Calculemos qué fue peor: si las “marchas pacíficas” de Iza, o la “Invasión al capitolio” de simpatizantes de tRuNp; enfocándonos en los daños materiales y las pérdidas de vidas, y haremos ajuste según las diferencias de economía y población.

EEUU tiene una economía unas 212 veces más grande que Ecuador (23 trillions vs. 110 billions).  Para que los daños “sean equivalentes”, los daños causados por simpatizantes de tRuNp deberían ser 212 veces mayores que los de Iza.  El paro de 2019 dejó pérdidas por 821,68 millones; el de 2022 por 1,1154 milliards; dando un total de pérdidas de 1,9 milliards.

Por lo pronto podemos decir que las “protestas pacíficas” de Iza costaron al país más que las pérdidas que tuvo que asumir el estado ecuatoriano en el salvataje bancario, que rondan 1,4 milliards; y esas pérdidas fueron concentradas en la sierra norte y centro.

El asalto al Capitolio causó daños por alrededor de 1,5 millones de dólares; si la economía ecuatoriana es la 212 parte de la gringa, los daños ecuatorianos, para ser “equivalentes” debieron ser de sólo $7075, pero fueron como vimos de 1,9 milliards, es decir 273k veces más; por lo que concluimos que las protestas causadas por Iza fueron doscientas setenta mil veces más destructoras que las de tRuNp, ajustando a las diferencias de tamaño de las economías.  Iza fue implacable con este pequeño país.

Ahora veamos muertes.  En el asalto al capitolio, sólo Ashly Babbit fue ejecutada por fuerzas del capitolio durante el “asalto”; el resto de las muertes comúnmente atribuidas al evento, fueron por causas naturales, sobredosis y suicidio, y en días distintos [V.].  En las protestas de 2019 murieron 11 personas y en las de 2022, 6 personas.  En total, 17.

Siendo que la población americana es 18,6 veces más la ecuatoriana (331,9 millones vs. 17,8), para que sea “equivalente” en Ecuador debió morir, por decirlo así, “cinco centésimas de persona”, pero en realidad murieron 17, es decir, 316 veces más.

En conclusión: Iza fue doscientos setenta mil veces más destructivo que el asalto al Capitolio, y sus protestas fueron trescientas veces más mortíferas.  ¿Habrá quien le ponga un freno a ese psicópata?  

Para hacernos una mejor idea de en qué magnitud de la barbarie perpetrada por Iza es mucho peor, imaginemos que Trump hubiera azuzado ya anteriormente otro asalto al Capitolio; que hubiera recibido amnistía por los múltiples delitos y muertes cometidos en aquello; y no contento con eso, que el asalto hubiera durado semanas y semanas…

Otro ejemplo: mal hace un raterillo que bolsiquea un dólar; mucho peor hace un Daniel Salcedo que roba $270.000 de hospitales, indudablemente.  Así es la dimensión de la destrucción causada por Iza.

Malo es ser más o menos responsable del homicidio culposo de una persona (si le atribuimos responsabilidad de la muerte de Ashly Babbit a Trump, y no al policía que jaló el gatillo); pero mucho peor sería desencadenar eventos que causen la muerte de 316 personas, durante varias semanas, y reincidiendo luego de haber recibido amnistía por lo mismo.  La violencia de Iza es de dos órdenes de magnitud superior, y debe ser detenida.  iza-peor-que-trump

No carpenter’s block  I remember the dictum that “there’s no such thing as carpenter’s block; so there’s no such thing as writer’s block, either.”  That's why I find it ridiculous that some girls talk about their supposed “reader’s block,” where they pretend they liked a book so much that they can’t read anything else for months on end.

To write, one basically needs something to say; and someone to say it to.  Then it’s as simple as writing a letter!  «I speak conversationally like I’m talking after a glass of wine … I write as though speaking directly to a younger me or a friend who’s chill with my secrets … it helps immensely to write as though you are writing to people you genuinely care for … I write in spew mode, not editing mode» says a very amusing writer [V.]

Easy advice to follow!  That way I’ll always have someone to write to; and if I’m to write, um, smut, I can think of any of “all those girls I’ve loved before,” and write to her.  Hey, you know who might be interested in this funny anecdote?  Your friend ***.  Tell it to him, imagine you’re writing him a letter or an email.  Is it a female friend?  Imagine you’re talking to her ear…! ;)

As for something to say, if I’m writing fiction, for short stories it’s usually enough to put the characters in a setting, letting them loose, and the story practically unfolds itself, with daily revisions of what was written the day before.

🇪🇸 Writer’s block, pero en español  Leyendo “La loca de la casa" de Rosa Montero, sale esta parte interesante:

es el argentino César Aira quien, en su lúcido librito Cumpleaños, ha hecho la reflexión que me parece más atinada sobre por qué un escritor es atacado de pronto por el desánimo, el bloqueo, el desaliento, la seca (como decía Donoso), la mudez definitiva o pasajera. Convengamos primero, para entender el análisis de Aira, que novelar consiste en gran medida en vestir narrativamente lo que cuentas, en inventar mundos tangibles. El Premio Nobel Naipaul se lo explicó muy bien a Paul Theroux cuando le dijo: «Escribir es como practicar la prestidigitación. Si te limitas a mencionar una silla, evocas un concepto vago. Si dices que está manchada de azafrán, de pronto la silla aparece, se vuelve visible». Pues bien, Aira llevaba escribiendo un par de décadas cuando, cerca ya de los cincuenta, empezó a sentir esa desgana creativa que tanto se parece a una enfermedad física. Y explica en Cumpleaños: «A la larga me di cuenta de dónde estaba el problema: en lo que se ha llamado la invención de los rasgos circunstanciales, es decir, los datos precisos del lugar, la hora, los personajes, la ropa, los gestos, la puesta en escena propiamente dicha. Empezó a parecerme ridículo, infantil, ese detallismo de la fantasía, esas informaciones de cosas que en realidad no existen. Y sin rasgos circunstanciales no hay novela, o la hay abstracta y desencarnada y no vale la pena».

Este es uno esos casos que los textos dicen una cosa, pero yo leo otra más interesante, jeje.  Por alguna razón lo leí como una solución al “bloqueo” del escritor.

Si en el ítem anterior vimos que siempre tienes a quién escribirle —por lo menos, ¡a tu “yo” de hace unos años!—, si se te hace difícil escribir, tan solo pon una silla, ¡y “añádele azafrán”!, como si fueran polvos mágicos.  De esa manera ritualística has iniciado el proceso, has echado a rodar una pequeña bola de nieve.  Tu humilde y prosaica silla, al ser manchada de azafrán, ahora es parte de un setting literario, has iniciado el hechizo en el lector —el suspension of disbelief— que ha empezado a imaginársela.  Has «vestido narrativamente» tu humilde silla; has empezado a crear «un mundo tangible».

Pon un sustantivo, añádele un calificativo.  ¡Zas!  Has realizado la alquimia de la literatura.  Ahora es cuestión de añadir unos cuantos personajes, echarles un conflicto como quien arroja un jamón a una jaula de fieras hambrientas, ¡y narrar lo que va sucediendo!  ¡Adéntrate en el agujero del conejo, y cuenta lo que ves!

No human rights  There’s this video from a TEDx talk from Yuval Harari that posits that human rights don’t exist.  It is still making the rounds almost ten years later, specially in rage-baiting videos.  Make sure to watch it, he makes a good point.  In summary: human rights are social constructs, as are language, religion, the different forms of political organization, money, etc.  Mere ideas, after all; ideas that live only in our minds.

I like to add that the idea of human rights has been hegemonic only for the last 3 decades; before that, it was denied altogether in communist regimes, and for over 99,99% of humanity, it has been an unknown idea; it took roots only in Christendom, and only for the last two centuries has been codified into solemn declarations & laws, oftentimes without much thought into its moral justification without retorting to religion.  Attila, Stalin, Ivan the Terrible, etc. would sincerely laugh when faced with such an idea that people have rights!

Harari also poignantly draws our attention to the fact that money is the most common idea!

Don’t be too quick to dismiss his ideas.  By picking our interest with some eyebrow rising, in his talk he recounts the most important task for us moderns: devise new narratives for our culture; narratives that can include a diminishing belief in God and organized religion —while intransigent minorities wish to foist their radical beliefs on us— and still build a functional society.

It’s the first time this —the widespread lack of religious beliefs— happens since the invention of agriculture and history; so there are hardly any historical precedents to follow (the atheistic communist regimes are not examples to follow!).  Let’s not fumble this one!  Our survival as a civilization depends on it.

I contend that the doctrine of human rights has run its course and is not useful anymore to face modern challenges: Muslim immigration (specially from countries with lower IQ), the ultraviolence of drug cartels,

Writing, as evasion  Many read to evade reality. We can write precisely for the same reason: to evade a dull life, and to recreate what we wish we could do. As many parents toil to give their kids the life the wish they had, we write to have our characters do what we wish we could.

Reading novels and short stories, with their complex plots and clever twists, I can't but admit defeat: I'll never be talented enough to conceive intricate stories like those, let alone write them as skillfully.

But then I realized I didn't need to: even if plots and their twists show mastery of the craft, having change in a story had to be good enough.

Just as we listen with curiosity and fruition to gossip or a funny anecdote —they take us out of our ordinary lives and start the trance of suspension of disbelief— readers will read stories that put them in a similar trance; stories that take us away from our dull, ordinary lives.

It's like, despite all our technology, we still are medieval peasants living in "municipal and thick" lives… and then the minstrel arrives to town, and we feel the anticipation: we're going to be entertained!

So if a story lacks clever plots and twists, it should at least have movement, change.

For example: everyday you eat your breakfast, go to school, come back home. That's expected, there's no change there. One could argue that, due to the inertia of the events, there isn't even perceivable motion; as if you were inside a train that goes on tracks.

But if that train got derailed, well, there's your change! There's motion to somewhere else! And there you have at least an anecdote to tell. What event derailed that daily routine?

Another example: a husband kisses his wife goodbye for the day. No drama, no conflict yet. But… what if she had a secret!? Then the story starts.

So there you have them, the elements of the alchemy of simple storytelling: create a setting, put your characters in it, and… move the plot!