I think I should start out by acknowledging that not everything I write is remotely nice. I do, in fact, write some dystopian type situations and some characters that make me truly uncomfortable while they are whispering through my synapses. Not every story had a happy ending. I read the occasional strictly dystopian book, and I have a true affection for disaster movies. There is nothing wrong with dystopian fiction...until there is.
See, the thing is that too much of it can be a serious problem just like too much of anything can be. What we read changes how we think. It changes how we see the world around is. Worst of all, it can subconsciously be the tool we use to make decisions and react to changes. The stories we tell ourselves become the blueprints to our reality. If you are ONLY ingesting dystopian stories about how terrible a fictional world is, you are far more likely to recreate that in reality. Want an example? Just look at how 2020 went and ask yourself if you are making choices based on the very worst things you've heard about the experiences of others during that time even if you did not have similar experiences yourself. Be honest. You're no longer expecting any sort of "return to normal" and you have probably bought extra toilet paper, haven't you? You've done this based on the stories you've been hearing even if your personal experience does not reflect the same level of crisis. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that there shouldn't be concern. I'm not saying there isn't a problem that needs to be addressed. I'm also all for being prepared. Doing so buys you the time and ability to make better decisions without immediately being in crisis mode if things go wrong. But, what else have you done to prepare for the worst case scenarios you've been hearing about? What are those around you doing? And how can those choices actually manifest into those scenarios becoming your reality simply because you expect them to occur? Now, would that be the same reality if we were all focused on the more positive aspects of the situation? Imagine if instead of worrying over the horrors and uncertainty we all actually focused on the silver linings and positive things we can do to actually solve the problems. Want an example? How many households and companies could both benefit from a workforce that can functionally work from home while encouraging a better work/life balance? Not only could a solution like that lower the overhead of many industries, it could allow families to reconnect, show children the value of work in real time, lower traffic congestion (and emissions) during daily commutes, and potentially produce happier employees with more productivity. Instead, we latch on to the horror stories of zoom calls gone wrong and dysfunctional home environments. Or how about instead of expecting farmers to euthanize livestock or let crops rot because the facilities and shipping industry are having problems connecting goods to consumers, we focus on grass roots efforts to work together to solve the problems at more local levels. Nothing is insurmountable if we look at a situation with hope. The biggest problem we currently have is that we don't solve problems, we embrace them and expect them to be our experience. You attract what you focus on. Your brain believes the words you tell it to believe - especially when you say those words over and over and over again. It really is as simple as that. I personally think that this issue of creating negative realities through the stories we tell ourselves is especially true when dealing with young minds that are still forming their own opinions of how the world around them works. Feed those minds on a diet of terrible worlds and hopeless situations, and that is the world they will see around them. That is the future they will build for themselves. They won't have the problem solving tools necessary to find a positive way out of a bad situation. As an author, I think it is my personal responsibility to help hand the tools necessary for positive outcomes over to my readers. Do I do this every time? No. Do I always hand the best tool for the job out? No. There are those stories written under this pen name that refuse to have nice endings and there are those characters that just don't deserve them. Plus, let's be honest here, life is not always fair. That's important to know, too. What I do try to do is keep some kind of balance in both what I put into my brain, and what I allow to come out of it - or at least what I share with others that comes out of it. So, if you are a writer, I guess that what I'm saying is just be mindful. That nasty little world you are building on paper could very well be the one you are living in one day. Those hate filled characters may just be your neighbors. You may want to write in a fire escape that helps us all get to a better place.
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AuthorJosie Dorans Archives
June 2022
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