Barman, bring me the soapbox, please
Is this microphone on?...
Oh... ah, never mind, I'll try to speak clearly...
Hello, kind people,
The Big Bad Web has won and I don't know there's much we can do about it; except not joining the baddies, and be the resistance and all that romantic nonsense, carry the flame for kinder times.
How to carry the flame? I am proposing to create kindly, to do things kindly. Rejecting hefty dreams of world fame, let's write for this one person, even if an imaginary one, creating with care, slowly if it needs to be so, not compromising a dot to the algorithm when that compromises our kindness.
Our work is not meant to create the Ring of Doom to find and enslave them all. Our work is to create kind things, be them useful, beautiful or just toys, but not chains or manacles. Our work is not to become slavers, to turn readers into addicts. It's neither to help those who create those things. It's not to create a virus, nor anything viral.
Our work is much more straightforward to do: to create something of value, even if it's just to one person, even if that person happens to be yourself.
Wise words, a return to simple good faith, and basic instinct of love for one's fellow man. The world desperately needs refuges such as this, where one can commune without pretension, for its own sake.
I was having a discussion this morning about the meaning of work.
Does it have to be enslaving? Is the dream of the oppressed to become the oppressor?
What is value? Something above power and money?
I agree on being kind, I've been calling it, these last years, 'love'. Do it with and for love... Maximize the amount of love you can give, that your works create...
I know it's hard in a harsh world, but it's also something noble, desirable, aspirational, a nice dream to follow, and good actions and decisions to take
so true! i agree. this is such a sweet message. the internet is full of cruel places, and the best rebellion is to be kind.
The question I have is: can our work be easily undermined by malicious actors/bots? I fear the answer is "yes" given how easy it is for bots to generate text. I think our main advantage here is: we are relatively unknown, none of us are worth advertizing to, the moderation is reasonably democratic, and there is no FOMO as the pub is mostly quiet.
I think if any of these things changes, we will be swarmed.
This suddenly came to mind while re-reading your post title:
"Write kindly, and carry a smol schtick."
I was going to write that I am right behind you on this.
Then I realised. No.
We are right beside you with this.
Blog Bless this piece of writing! I 100% support this, and I admire it's wordsmithery :)
Yes, let's make this the M.p motto, and hang it in a spot that is viewable upon entry to this small web establishment!
Hope everyone is well :):)
This is incredible. Thank you for writing this! Inquiry's right, this should probably become the Pub's manifesto... I'll need to see with bartender where we could hang it. Oh and probably repair that microphone too.
If that's not a front-runner for a Midnight Pub Manifesto, I don't know what is.