To anyone else reading this, I do appreciate when people point out typos. I know I'm not the most detail-oriented writer. One day I'll have an editor and I'll be much more popular (if they don't kill me first).
If anyone wants to volunteer their editing services, by the way, I'd love having an editor! I really wish the relationships that I had with my editors at the Earth First! Journal and Slingshot, actually. A good editor makes writing better. If there's someone out there who feels like my message is important, but could be improved, please get in touch! I'm much more reasonable IRL than you might think!
I'm kind of a qualified editor/proofreader as it happens. Well, technically I do freelance translation (when I can get it - I am being incrementally replaced by machines), but that also entails editing other people's translations. Although I probably wouldn't be able to check all your facts and references and so on, I could certainly proofread your articles.
It kind of goes without saying I think your stuff is of great value.
If I was to ask of anything in return it would only be that you aid me in my heroic quest to increase my subscribers from the grand total of six to the even grander total of seven, lol! Then again, anarchism reigns, thus, freedom of choice. Truth is I wouldn't ask for anything in return, really, as that would make me a total hypocrite. And I can't stand hypocrites.
Likewise - here's a good point about the bellicose school - the fact that they have to - knowingly - lie with their statistics and present what they know to be fraudulent evidence effectively proves that their bellicose hypothesis is wrong - and they know it. Anything at all which requires a knowing lie to try and prove must, by definition, be wrong. That's an interesting philosophical point, come to think of it...
Thank you for saying that about my work being of great value! But I don't think that goes without saying... I mean, I assume that if you're reading my stuff that you must value it to some degree, but I don't
It's very hard to calibrate your mentality as a writer... you know that people are reading your writing and presumably being influenced by it... but the fact that I often low engagement relative to my view counts makes me wonder... What percentage of my audience hates me? I assume that some of my former comrades read my work because we have many of the same points of reference... My writing is about the kinds of things that a person like me would care about, and my former comrades used to be people like me before COVID turned everything upside down. Anyway, on one hand you have to have a thick skin and on another you have to aim to please to a certain degree... which involves imagining what your "typical reader" might like... but I'm pretty sure that if my audience have one thing in common, it's being non-conformists! Not exactly easy to predict what a heterogenuous bunch of non-conformists you've never met would like! So I pretty much do what I want. I might start a Discord channel at some point or something because I actually want to get to know my readers better... and I'm sure I could learn from y'all too. Nevermore's not for everyone, and I think it has succeeded in attracting very open-minded, curious, intellectually honest free-thinkers, and that is something that pleases me enormously. Sometimes I'm blown away by the quality of some comments... clearly people aren't just passively absorbing my writing... they're thinking about it and building upon it and taking it in directions I wouldn't have thought of on my own... that makes me happy.
I'm reminded by a folk punk song by a band called Days'n'Daze:
"Do what you like and they'll like what you do when you do it, and if they don't that's fine, fuck 'em!"
And I love "in-kind" energy exchanges like the one you're proposing. I propose discussing possible collaboration over the phone/voice call.
I will drop you an email in due course - one thing I forgot to mention was the time difference (I'm in France), so we would have to take that into consideration. For example it's nearly my bedtime right now! (My other half has been hogging the computer all evening - apparently I'm allowed to use it a lot more tomorrow though, lol. Still, means I get a lot more done in the garden. This winter, owing to a lack of money for wood and a helpful storm, I have cut down and into size two entire dead 15 foot pine trees with a pruning saw - yeah, really!).
I understand what you're saying about readers. It is really difficult to know what they think sometimes, especially if there's little feedback. Also, I'm one of those people who finds it quite impossible to 'compromise' and sacrifice what I want to write in exchange for writing something that others might like but I might not - I have this pathological urge to be true to myself all the time. My hope is simply attracting the people who would like what I do without my having to do that kind of compromise. Being shit at marketing and self-promotion doesn't help!
One of the main things that attracted me to your writing was that when I discovered your site (pretty much immediately after I created my Substack earlier this month) I saw you were writing articles about precisely the kind of things I had been preoccupied with myself for some time - the anthropology stuff I mean - I've been angered to the point of drink oftentimes about this constant bombardment of the masses with the bellicose narrative - what angers me the most, I think, is that people actually fall for it. Despite the obvious cognitive dissonance that if you were to ask any randomly selected person whether they think they are in any way aggressive, violent, selfish and all the rest of it they'd say 'oh no, not me'. And they don't seem to realise this applies to maybe 99% of the population. The point about all the so-called 'history of war' is that all those wars were instigated by the 1%, by 'leaders', not by the people. And in order to get the people to support it the 1% have to convince them it's 'self-defence' - all humans (well, any lifeform) perfectly accepts the moral principle of self-defence, so that's the only propaganda that will work.
I must not digress. Well, not too much. Anyway, we are definitely on the same wavelength with this subject, and especially, I think, about how important it is - if we could only convince the masses of the truth about human nature then they would simply refuse to go along with the dictates of the 1% anymore. And that would be that. I've been including quite a few links to your articles in some of my own.
So, yes - 'attracting very open-minded, curious, intellectually honest free-thinkers' - this is what I would love. And, naturally, people who love a good story - and one that actually teaches vitally important stuff along with it.
Still, it's early days for me I guess, so we shall see.
Anyways, I shall drop you an email as I say. I'm not good over phones, though, by the way - I'm so much better in writing (hope you don't mind sticking to email). I think I may have had a bad experience with a phone when I was a child (along with a whole range of other very bad experiences, but that's a whole other dissociative story).
You wrote "Stephen Fry, by the way, is the author of Beyond War...". I think you meant Douglas ;-)
thanks for catching that!
To anyone else reading this, I do appreciate when people point out typos. I know I'm not the most detail-oriented writer. One day I'll have an editor and I'll be much more popular (if they don't kill me first).
If anyone wants to volunteer their editing services, by the way, I'd love having an editor! I really wish the relationships that I had with my editors at the Earth First! Journal and Slingshot, actually. A good editor makes writing better. If there's someone out there who feels like my message is important, but could be improved, please get in touch! I'm much more reasonable IRL than you might think!
I'm kind of a qualified editor/proofreader as it happens. Well, technically I do freelance translation (when I can get it - I am being incrementally replaced by machines), but that also entails editing other people's translations. Although I probably wouldn't be able to check all your facts and references and so on, I could certainly proofread your articles.
It kind of goes without saying I think your stuff is of great value.
If I was to ask of anything in return it would only be that you aid me in my heroic quest to increase my subscribers from the grand total of six to the even grander total of seven, lol! Then again, anarchism reigns, thus, freedom of choice. Truth is I wouldn't ask for anything in return, really, as that would make me a total hypocrite. And I can't stand hypocrites.
Likewise - here's a good point about the bellicose school - the fact that they have to - knowingly - lie with their statistics and present what they know to be fraudulent evidence effectively proves that their bellicose hypothesis is wrong - and they know it. Anything at all which requires a knowing lie to try and prove must, by definition, be wrong. That's an interesting philosophical point, come to think of it...
Anyway, let me know if you want any proofreading.
Wow! Thank you so much for the offer. Could you please shoot me an email at thecrowisamessenger@riseup.net?
Thank you for saying that about my work being of great value! But I don't think that goes without saying... I mean, I assume that if you're reading my stuff that you must value it to some degree, but I don't
It's very hard to calibrate your mentality as a writer... you know that people are reading your writing and presumably being influenced by it... but the fact that I often low engagement relative to my view counts makes me wonder... What percentage of my audience hates me? I assume that some of my former comrades read my work because we have many of the same points of reference... My writing is about the kinds of things that a person like me would care about, and my former comrades used to be people like me before COVID turned everything upside down. Anyway, on one hand you have to have a thick skin and on another you have to aim to please to a certain degree... which involves imagining what your "typical reader" might like... but I'm pretty sure that if my audience have one thing in common, it's being non-conformists! Not exactly easy to predict what a heterogenuous bunch of non-conformists you've never met would like! So I pretty much do what I want. I might start a Discord channel at some point or something because I actually want to get to know my readers better... and I'm sure I could learn from y'all too. Nevermore's not for everyone, and I think it has succeeded in attracting very open-minded, curious, intellectually honest free-thinkers, and that is something that pleases me enormously. Sometimes I'm blown away by the quality of some comments... clearly people aren't just passively absorbing my writing... they're thinking about it and building upon it and taking it in directions I wouldn't have thought of on my own... that makes me happy.
I'm reminded by a folk punk song by a band called Days'n'Daze:
"Do what you like and they'll like what you do when you do it, and if they don't that's fine, fuck 'em!"
And I love "in-kind" energy exchanges like the one you're proposing. I propose discussing possible collaboration over the phone/voice call.
I will drop you an email in due course - one thing I forgot to mention was the time difference (I'm in France), so we would have to take that into consideration. For example it's nearly my bedtime right now! (My other half has been hogging the computer all evening - apparently I'm allowed to use it a lot more tomorrow though, lol. Still, means I get a lot more done in the garden. This winter, owing to a lack of money for wood and a helpful storm, I have cut down and into size two entire dead 15 foot pine trees with a pruning saw - yeah, really!).
I understand what you're saying about readers. It is really difficult to know what they think sometimes, especially if there's little feedback. Also, I'm one of those people who finds it quite impossible to 'compromise' and sacrifice what I want to write in exchange for writing something that others might like but I might not - I have this pathological urge to be true to myself all the time. My hope is simply attracting the people who would like what I do without my having to do that kind of compromise. Being shit at marketing and self-promotion doesn't help!
One of the main things that attracted me to your writing was that when I discovered your site (pretty much immediately after I created my Substack earlier this month) I saw you were writing articles about precisely the kind of things I had been preoccupied with myself for some time - the anthropology stuff I mean - I've been angered to the point of drink oftentimes about this constant bombardment of the masses with the bellicose narrative - what angers me the most, I think, is that people actually fall for it. Despite the obvious cognitive dissonance that if you were to ask any randomly selected person whether they think they are in any way aggressive, violent, selfish and all the rest of it they'd say 'oh no, not me'. And they don't seem to realise this applies to maybe 99% of the population. The point about all the so-called 'history of war' is that all those wars were instigated by the 1%, by 'leaders', not by the people. And in order to get the people to support it the 1% have to convince them it's 'self-defence' - all humans (well, any lifeform) perfectly accepts the moral principle of self-defence, so that's the only propaganda that will work.
I must not digress. Well, not too much. Anyway, we are definitely on the same wavelength with this subject, and especially, I think, about how important it is - if we could only convince the masses of the truth about human nature then they would simply refuse to go along with the dictates of the 1% anymore. And that would be that. I've been including quite a few links to your articles in some of my own.
So, yes - 'attracting very open-minded, curious, intellectually honest free-thinkers' - this is what I would love. And, naturally, people who love a good story - and one that actually teaches vitally important stuff along with it.
Still, it's early days for me I guess, so we shall see.
Anyways, I shall drop you an email as I say. I'm not good over phones, though, by the way - I'm so much better in writing (hope you don't mind sticking to email). I think I may have had a bad experience with a phone when I was a child (along with a whole range of other very bad experiences, but that's a whole other dissociative story).
Thank you. I was thinking they were related 🤷🏼♂️