My Writing and the Zeitgeist
I want to change the world for the better with my writing. I am an idealist. I want to communicate with people and raise sensibilities to create a harmonious, tolerant world. I wish to put an end to war and the rape of the planet. I want to change the culture from one of thoughtless greed and selfishness to one of caring and creating.
This is something I have been doing all my life in one form or another.
It is alright. I am not completely barking mad – far from it.
I do not believe that I can work miracles. Neither do I believe that the world can be changed overnight. It is a slow process.
My mum used to say ‘it takes all sorts of people to make the world go round’.
She was right. There are miserable people and blissfully happy people, evil sadists and altruistic saints, intelligent knowledgeable ones and ignorant jihadists. They are of every shade of complexity and sophistication, every demeanour, shape, colour and size.
But every era has a different ethos, a different ‘feel’ to it. And I, as a scientist, believe that is due to a mental/emotional force that operates collectively. I know not what it is. It hasn’t been discovered yet. Perhaps it is a psychological emanation. I may be wrong but I believe it collects people together in an overarching ‘mood’. Each period of time has a distinctive feel to it. I lived through the optimistic sixties and the greed-ridden selfish eighties. This is the nearest to spirituality I’m going to get.
That mood is the zeitgeist.
I believe we all contribute to the zeitgeist; we make it what it is.
Like the ants in a huge ant-nest each one of us is emanating and living in the sea of essence being produced. We all contribute.
I aim to make my contribution as telling as I can possibly make it. I may be one lone worker in the colony but I can put out as much ‘essence’ as I can muster. I can fight for what I believe in with all my spirit, stand up against the wrongs and shout as loud as my voice can go, express what I believe to be true with every ounce of my strength, logic, intelligence and integrity. I can summon up my fury, my passion and my belief to force the wind out of my lungs straight into the gale that is coming back at me. I can stand against the hurricane of hate and indifference, ridicule and derision and speak my truth.
And hope that someone, somewhere, is listening……………. And agrees……….. And that our combined voices carry more strength ………………. And that others might listen and agree ………… And together we can stand more firmly, shout louder, so that we are no longer lone voices, we are a group ………… And that one day, those voices will be loud enough, forceful enough, to blow the wind of hatred, injustice and inequality right back.
My voice, my thoughts, my feelings, my creativity, my dreams – all might be a futile gesture. But I am not alone. Already there are many other dreamers, idealists, angry people and activists who are fighting for a new world that is so much better than this one.
We are building a new zeitgeist, a positive zeitgeist and our voices are being heard.
The raped forests, slaughtered animals, war victims, starving and diseased need to hear our voices on the wind to give them hope. They need to know that it isn’t all selfishness and greed that makes the world go round. There is love too.
Someone cares.