THE STORY SO FAR. PART 335: SATURDAY

SATURDAY IS A GOOD DAY FOR THINKING—BUT SLEEPING COMES FIRST

Actually, I tend to sleep as much as possible on Saturday —the more hours the merrier. Often I get up around six am and do a couple of hours of work first, but then I sleep or read or both until midday (a truly relaxing period)—and quite wonderful.

Sleep—like spinach, blueberries, walking, and intellectual curiosity—is a good thing. Mothers-in-law are normally bad things. Babies are marvelously cuddly things. Life is really quite simple when you get right down to it.

I realize that many people of my age don’t sleep very well—I’ll be 70 next May—but, generally speaking, I sleep marvelously (for which I give daily thanks). In fact, overall I have the suspicion that if we all slept more, this world would be a better place. Just for starters, you make better decisions when well rested. And it is absolutely certain that you write better.

The military seem to think it is a sign of weakness to need sleep, which may explain why so many bad decisions are made in war. Personally, I think all hostilities should cease no later than ten every evening—not to be resumed until after a late breakfast (and not at all if it rains).

I like the idea of thinking great thoughts on Saturday—after I have slept—but more often than not compromise by dozing.

Ah, but I haven’t abandoned my work ethic. My subconscious—where I suspect the real talent lies—works on while I dream.

And we should all dream.

AFTER 9/11, WAS THERE ANOTHER WAY? I have long maintained that the U.S. over-reacted after 9/11 and that the consequences have been disastrous—and a stronger word might be in order. The cost to this country has been trillions of dollars, a vast increase in our indebtedness, fundamental damage to our economy, the death of thousands of our troops, hundreds of thousands of wounded and otherwise affected—and nothing resembling victory. In fact, terrorist attacks in Iraq vastly exceed those prior to 2003, and are climbing. 

Now, I have data to support that opinion.

A Rand report examined 268 groups using terror tactics in the period 1968-2006. It found that other approaches were more effective than military responses.

• 40 percent of the 268 group were eliminated through intelligence and policing methods.
• 43 percent ended their violence as a result of peaceful political accommodation.
• 10 percent ceased violence because they had achieved their objectives.
• 7 percent were defeated militarily.

Despite possessing the most expensive and technically advanced intelligence apparatus the world has ever seen, we tend not to know this stuff until too late—and to be indifferent to the motives of our enemies. The consequences of such ignorance defy description.

 

 

 

THE STORY SO FAR: PART 334: FRIDAY

IN SEARCH OF BIG IDEAS—BETTER YET, BIG ORIGINAL IDEAS

You might think that publishers—to give but one example—would be looking for original writing. Actually, they are normally looking for some slight variation on a familiar genre because they know it sells. In fact, virtually everything they cannot categorize immediately scares them – and truly original work terrifies them. In practice, virtually the first thing that happens to you as an author is that you get boxed (typecast)—and getting out of that box is incredibly hard.

As can be seen from the extraordinary number of sequels, the movie industry operates much the same way—and, certainly, corporate America is remarkably conservative despite all the lip service that is paid to innovation. Mostly, major companies expand through acquisition. It is much easier to buy companies than to grow a company. Besides, originality, by definition, is new, unknown, and unpredictable—and, therefore, dangerous. And it is notoriously hard to manage.

Yet society desperately needs big original ideas—because the alternative is that we stagnate and then decline. In effect, we need what we often don’t like—at first—to get us firing on all cylinders. Big original ideas mean change, and few of us are happy stepping out of our comfort zones. On top of that, there are always vested interest who will fight like fury to defend the status quo. Look at how Big Oil has embraced alternative energy. In the main, it absolutely has not.

What is a big original idea—and both terms are relative and should be reviewed in context? Well, you need look no further than Kennedy’s decision to put a man on the moon in ten years, or at Apple. But perhaps it is best illustrated by its absence.

During the Great Depression, the Roosevelt administration came up with a whole host of such ideas and implemented them, if not without difficulty, overall with great success. In contrast, we have recently experienced the Great Recession, and the reaction to it has been remarkable for its lack of creativity and vision. Consider me appalled. Surely a nation of this size and wealth should be able to come up with something more original than the Sequester!

But I didn’t really start this piece to write solely about the economy. I guess I’m just expressing a certain frustration at corporatization and the status in general. The ideas are out there—I’m convinced of it—but they are not surfacing in anything like adequate quantities.

We could solve problems like unemployment and growing the economy adequately—but we chose not to. The Usual Suspects are entrenched in opposition. Who are they?

• Vested Interests - who profit from the status quo and its imperfections.
• The Ignorant & The Lazy – an embarrassingly large number of people who either don’t understand, or who aren’t bothered to try.
• The Republican Party – a party with a fine tradition - which seems to have been hijacked. As a consequence, it opposes everything.

Let me celebrate an innovator.

THE ANGLED FLIGHT DECK: If you are, or were, a naval aviator, the angled flight deck was a big original idea. In fact it was invented by British Royal Navy Captain (later Rear Admiral) Dennis Cambell. The British, for some quirky reason, seem to be disproportionately innovative (though they tend to be distressingly bad at making money out of what they invent).

But if your ideas are innovative, yet you do not seem to be being well received, reflect upon the following.

"Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm." -Winston Churchill

 

 

 

 

THE STORY SO FAR: PART 333: THURSDAY

SMELL THE GANGRENE!

WHY EXACTLY DO WE LET THE BIG BANKS—AND OTHER FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS—GET AWAY WITH IT?

Some poor unfortunate minority gets caught with drugs on him and gets sent away to prison for years.

In horrific contrast, JP Morgan Chase is caught rigging the electricity markets, is fined a token $410 million (token in the context of its financial strength) and no Morgan Chase employee suffers at all. In fact the corporation does not even have to admit to any wrongdoing for stealing from tens of millions of people .

This is injustice on a truly gargantuan scale, and it makes complete nonsense of the much touted concept that the U.S. is a nation of laws. It is a travesty of justice.

If offences like market rigging were rare, it would bad enough; but, in fact, criminal behavior by the banks, and financial institutions in general, on a massive scale, is so routine that scarcely a week goes by without an announcement similar to the JP Morgan Chase affair—and here we are are talking only about those who get caught (and most are not).

To the big banks, penalties are just a cost of doing business. The American people may suffer; but they, the major financial institutions, don’t care—and they are blatant about it. They have a predator culture, and since there is no real penalty for blatantly criminal behavior, they do it because they can, because they are incentivized to do it, and because it pays massively.

As from 2011, JPMorgan has paid nearly $7 billion in penalties for a whole string of offenses, but has made over $50 billion in profit. That scale of egregious behavior projects a picture of an organization that regards itself as above the law because it has the financial muscle to buy whoever and whatever it it needs—and it does just that. Why not indeed! It has assets of well over two trillion dollars. Now that is power. But it is a scale of power that demonstrably  corrupts.

Since the major financial institutions and other corporate interests are Congress’s paymasters, I’m far from sure how we’re going to get out of this mess—or whether we ever will. The U.S., as we have known it, may just be vanishing behind a façade of delusion, distraction, and dissuasion.

Will the American people rise en masse and put a stop to this corruption?

Don’t hold your breath. The system has us within its grasp and it has all the necessary tools to keep us in thrall. 9/11 provided the necessary excuse and it was seize upon with gusto. We are now a surveillance state which it is very hard to oppose—even in an entirely legal, democratic, and righteous  way.

I have long believed that no foreign enemy could ever defeat the U.S., but that we have every reason to fear rotting from within.

That is exactly what is happening.

LET ME END ON A CHEERFUL NOTE: Fan mail has the habit of arriving at just the right time—and cheering me up greatly. Such e-mails are deeply appreciated.

Are you planning any new books. There is a vacuum out there for your type of books. If you do please ensure that it is available in e-reader format as well.
Thanks
Jim Edge

It appears I have my marching orders. The answer to the two points raised in this note is YES! And the books are written with more on the way. 

 

THE STORY SO FAR: PART 332: WEDNESDAY

“80 PERCENT OF U.S. ADULTS FACE NEAR POVERTY, UNEMPLOYMENT”

GIVEN THAT SO MANY OTHER COUNTRIES OPERATE SOCIAL SAFETY NETS—WITH CONSIDERABLE SUCCESS--WHY DOES THE U.S. REFUSE TO?

The lack of outrage about the structural flaws in the U.S. economy continues to amaze me—though I really shouldn’t be surprised. Stories of real economic significance have a disconcerting habit of dying fast. It is almost as if our corporate media were more interested in distracting us than keeping us informed. The Royal birth served this time around. The Wiener situation helped. A penis is more fun to write about than poverty. In fact, now I contemplate the matter, it is more fun overall.

The media mindset is another fundamental problem. The structural flaws in this economy are not a hot new story that you can summarize in a sound bite.  Instead this issue represents an existential threat to our national wellbeing, and requires a much more measured approach backed up by a deep knowledge of the subject matter. Journalists with such credentials are in short supply and rarely have the freedom to say what they really think.

The story—dated July 28 2013--that really got my personal attention was an AP report, summarized in the Huffington Post, which stated that:

Four out of 5 U.S. adults struggle with joblessness, near-poverty or reliance on welfare for at least parts of their lives, a sign of deteriorating economic security and an elusive American dream.

The gauge defines "economic insecurity" as a year or more of periodic joblessness, reliance on government aid such as food stamps or income below 150 percent of the poverty line. Measured across all races, the risk of economic insecurity rises to 79 percent.

While racial and ethnic minorities are more likely to live in poverty, race disparities in the poverty rate have narrowed substantially since the 1970s, census data show. Economic insecurity among whites also is more pervasive than is shown in the government's poverty data, engulfing more than 76 percent of white adults by the time they turn 60, according to a new economic gauge being published next year by the Oxford University Press.

"Poverty is no longer an issue of `them', it's an issue of `us'," says Mark Rank, a professor at Washington University in St. Louis who calculated the numbers. "Only when poverty is thought of as a mainstream event, rather than a fringe experience that just affects blacks and Hispanics, can we really begin to build broader support for programs that lift people in need."

The fact that the richest country in the world allows this situation to continue is an absolute disgrace—and now the Republicans are trying to cut Food Stamps (which are already too low).

This is mean-spirited, shabby behavior, morally wrong—and economically inefficient. Currently, corporate interests are working hard (and successfully) to create a low wage economy—and purchasing power is being reduced accordingly. For the time being, shale oil and the revival of the auto industry are giving the economy a boost, but the bulk of the economy is deeply troubled. Most of the jobs that are available are badly paid, part-time, or both.

The fact that 80% of the population is at risk is truly mind blowing—especially as this figure is projected to rise to 85% by 2030. This reflects an economic system that is not working in the interests of the population as a whole. Now this has been obvious for a considerable time; but, given that Congress is controlled by corporate money, nothing is being done about it.

Worse still, though economic insecurity is rampant in the U.S.—with all its attendant pressures—I see scant evidence that people understand the sheer scale of the forces they are up against—and that unless they fight back, continued decline is inevitable.

At one stage, the deficit was considered to the source of all our ills, but now that issue is fast being resolved, it can be seen that the real problems are much more widespread and deeply rooted. Here, I would add that Europe’s adoption of Austerity has proved to be a disaster—a case history in what not to do. Certainly, there are times to cut back—and government expenditure always needs to be tightly controlled—but cutting is ill advised when your economy is sluggish or in recession. Then you merely undermine growth and increase unemployment—which is exactly what has been happening. Our own extensive cutting of government jobs, mainly by Republican state governors, plus the sequester, has had exactly the same effect.

FINANCIALIZATION: Thanks to taxpayer money, and massive support by the Federal Reserve—which continues at the remarkably rate of $85 billion a month—the financial sector has now fully recovered and is more prosperous than ever. In fact, it is the largest business sector on Wall Street. Meanwhile, the well-being of the average American continues to decline. These two facts are directly related.

 

 

THE STORY SO FAR: PART 331: TUESDAY

THE LONG AND THE SHORT OF IT ALL

I have been thinking a great deal about multimedia recently—partly prompted by my recent burst of screenplay writing; partly because I don’t have TV at present so am relying on my computer for entertainment; and partly because, as a writer, it’s my job to be aware of this particular world.

The growth of video is downright frightening to a traditional wordsmith like me—and sometimes I wonder whether the written word will survive in anything like its present form—or will it evolve into pictograms or something similar. However, I’m fairly confident that it will see me out, which is just fine by me. And if my difficult children do get me a headstone, I don’t want it to show a video at the press of a button—it’s the way things are going—but to be granite and inscribed with good old fashioned words saying something like:

WORDS, WOMEN & WINE

HE DIED OF EXHAUSTION

Actually, that just about says it all, now I think about it—and, no, I don’t mean to be sexist. Trust me, it covers a multitude. Inspired by reading when I was a kid, it was my ambition to have adventures when I grew up—and life has not let me down. What exactly constituted an adventure? I didn’t know—which is part of the point.

In fact, my current focus is not the survival of the written word, but lengths and formats. Supposedly, a movie’s length is based upon the endurance of the average bladder—and U.S. TV programs are based on the maximum number of ads that can be squeezed in before viewers shoot their sets—but today with Smart phones, tablets, endless recording devices and the internet, the possibilities are endless.

My preference is for a movie—if it’s any good—to be 120 t0 140 minutes, but am otherwise biased towards mini-series and part-works. I like the idea of being able to develop a story free of the merciless time constraints of a movie script.

Such thoughts apart, it is clear that there is going to be a growing demand for short programs—ten to twenty minutes long—to provide sustenance for the YouTube generation.

This is a tough one to crack well—my comfort zone is long form—but it’s a compelling challenge. Indeed, one might almost call it an adventure.

PEOPLE DON’T DIE ANYMORE: Americans seem to have a profound fear of death (yet we chose  lifestyles which kill us sooner than other developed countries). People don’t die, they “pass” or, as I read today, they “enter into rest.” This is rubbish, and is undermining that wonderful thing, the English language.

“Bring back death,” should be our cry—and personally, I intend to die. 

 

 

THE STORY SO FAR: PART 330: MONDAY

WHATEVER HAPPENED TO THE REALLY GOOD (ORDINARY) AMERICAN MOVIE?

 

I love the movies and have the sneaking suspicion that, on average, they have real life beaten hands down. I have put in “on average” to cover myself against some rather special people who may be tempted to chastise me for seeming to dismiss some wonderful moment or occasion (of which I am glad to say I have had many).

But though romance and great lovemaking are wonderful and memorable—as are one’s children (when small) and close friends, romance in particular can be exceptionally painful—whereas, where movies are concerned—the  pain, thankfully, is confined to the screen.

But enough of the preamble. What I really want to say is that there seems to be a decided shortage of the kind of intelligent, well written, well acted, tightly edited, and crisply directed movies—which an adult (and here I do not mean porn) can watch with enjoyment—and which Hollywood used to turn out in profusion; and which didn’t cost an arm and a leg to make.

My archetype is EXPERIMENT IN TERROR starring Glen Ford which admittedly had the advantage of also starring Lee Remick and Stephanie Powers and being directed by Blake Edwards—but otherwise was a routine movie. In fact, I originally saw it in black and white back in 1962 when I was at university in Dublin, Ireland. It was a compelling, and thoroughly entertaining, thriller.

I’m prompted to raise this thorny subject because I have just been reading about the apparent financial failure of no less than six enormously expensive blockbusters, and because I have been watching of the recent crop of thrillers via Netflix—for both professional reasons and just to chill out—and have been decidedly under-impressed. Mostly, the latter—even when starring well known names—are mediocre at best. And I’m being charitable.

All of this makes me wonder if Hollywood is not losing its production quality edge when it comes to movie making.

Watching a number of foreign movies and TV series—French, Swedish, British etc.—reinforces that viewpoint. The production quality of the British TV series, WAKING THE DEAD, for instance, way exceeds that of most U.S. made thrillers that I have seen over the last few years—and for sheer originality of plotting and characters, you would be hard to beat LUTHER.

I’m not against blockbusters, especially when they are of the quality of LAWRENCE OF ARABIA or A BRIDGE TOO FAR, but I’m far from sure the current trends are healthy for the U.S. movie industry—or for the viewing public.

Fortunately, Netflix’s outstanding HOUSE OF CARDS and HBO’s GAME OF THRONES (which I haven’t seen, but which is being widely praised) gives us hope. On the other hand, the programming of the mainstream networks could well induce one to find a high bridge over a hard place, and jump.

ELECTRONS VERSUS PAPER: “Nielsen reports that they have it on good authority that fiction eBook sales will overtake print by 2014. According to their Understanding the eBook Consumer July Report, Nielsen estimates that for next year, eBook sales of fiction will amount to 47 million units, some 300,000 ahead of the paperback figure and 48% of total fiction sales.”

I’m reserving my opinion at this stage. We live in very strange times where the book business is concerned.

 

THE STORY SO FAR: PART 329: SUNDAY

THE WORK OF THE DEVIL

Every so often, Microsoft’s Windows Live Writer—which I like a lot and use for blogging—seems to get confused by life and refuses to upload to my blog. Yesterday that happened again—to my vast frustration. On the other hand I eventually found a solution so arguably should pleased at my ingenuity.

I am reluctant to take a bow. I don’t pretend to be a computer guru—and will happily settle for software that just plain works.

Years ago, I forecast that we would reach this nirvana by 2010—(and I started trying to use a computer, after some preliminary disasters, in 1986) but it appears that I have been optimistic. Certainly, there has been considerable progresss, but I still seem to spend too much of my time advancing from glitch to glitch. That said, I get a great deal of work done by computer so I shouldn’t complain too much—and I’m deeply grateful to those companies whose software can be relied upon.

In that spirit, from time to time, I’m going to recommend software that I have used personally for a period (in excess of six months) and which I have found robust and reliable. This does not mean no glitches will ever occur—bug-free software is, so I’m told, as rare as hen’s teeth. It merely reflects my experience. After that, you are on your own.

My opening advice: Buy a Mac. Windows, despite being vastly improved, is the work of the Devil at his absolute worst.

Bill Gates, despite the commendable work of his foundation, needs to apologize to one and all for the misery he has caused by marketing an operating system that not only sucks—but which is endemically flawed because of its underlying structure. He knows this is the case, yet has never tried to remedy the problem. In contrast, when Apple recognized the limits of the Mac OS,  they bit the bullet and introduced the Unix based system that has been so extraordinarily successful ever since.

SOFTWARE RECCOMENDATION: If you are a compulsive note-taker and collector of electronic clippings—which I will confess I am—you would be hard to do better than to store your data in EVERNOTE. It is cross-platform, features EVERNOTE CLIPPER which makes saving web pages ridiculously easy, and saves both in the Cloud and on your local hard drive. Go look and play. There is a free version or you can pay. I pay. It’s worth it.