The Role of the Writer in Society

The role of the writer in society is one of a questioning dissent.

It is not enough for the writer to merely go along with the status quo or to live in the mainstream meme.

The writer must question authority.

The writer must always pose opposite thoughts.

The writer must engender conflict and thrive in controversy.

Too many authors today believe the role they were born to play is one of the local curmudgeon or, worse yet, the impetuous imp seeking attention through the performance of farts and bellyaching.

The writer’s role in society is a vital and necessary check on the values and cultural norms that encrust groups and falsely empower minority interests in setting the world agenda.

When society is in an uproar — fear and lonesomeness are first restored by force in the imprisonment of the writers — then innovative thinking and dangerous creativity are left to die in the Sisyphean loss of rivulets of lifeblood and in the spillage of buckets of inspiration.

As obedience and passivity are reset to rule again, the writer once more tumbles to the foot of the mountain, shoulders the boulder back up the incline and longs to find joy, reasoning, and responsibility in the suffering effort.