you've got to question, and then you have to laugh

I'm writing about a piece of political satire I love, and I've been thinking of what an impact such work has had on shaping my more serious inquiries and values.

Political satire serves a valid purpose: it makes people question. Questions are good. Questions are necessary. The more you learn, the more you need to laugh, but the more you need to question.

While some people are fighting hard, with a lot of money, for the right to turn your surroundings into a true hell hole, I'm beseeching you, here: ask questions. Ask questions about the answers you're given. Think of what someone with a point of view might think, and then, question the motivations behind that difference. You can question a true thing and find it's true, but you'll not for long have the luxury of believing everything you hear.

I believe we often have little sense of how free we used to be, human beings. Please bear with me as I try to articulate this. However shorter our lives were, we have a balance in things: attitudes towards some basic, humane equality in the value of one life and the next have evolved, but ownership of the place you step next has swamped our spirits with civilization.

At the same time, a tide of civility brings differences to wash on our shores, into contact with our conscious minds. Safety, security---they are had in some places more than others. They are precious to those who enjoy them, and they must remain so. We still have more freedoms than most of us realize, of which we should take advantage; there are freedoms we need back, too, sometimes keeping them out of the hands of our would-be protectors.

It is important to find the answers behind the financial and governing bodies; who they are, how they work, and in this, we must keep good humor. It is no wonder many people can't stomach it; I am not sure why so many think they cannot imagine it. If we are going to help each other, we have to understand what we really need, and work together. And there are so many traps awaiting the best of intentions.


All of this falls within the discussion of what we mean by socializing, what we mean by community, and what we mean by something so abstract as the fabric of our society.

It's always required what kindness and love we can offer, but it's set against a mental background where unethical, unkind people have the most material gain to swallow, as what one honest person can make for a living draws upon a slimmer pool of actual, available wealth one can earn. What passes for thinking for one's self is left to the individual; to have anything but a stupid conversation, or none at all, we need people thinking for themselves. It's that intangible realm of the heart, however, that guides that individual quest.

Criticism of these problems is the work of social satire, and it must be done with an origin in that realm, the heart, the emotions, reaching its zenith from head speaking for a full heart. .

Arguably, there is more of it available than ever; satire bears the face of society's changes and the features of its follies.


I encourage you to enjoy "Get Down, America!" over on Integr8dFiction.blogspot.com.


I am very near starting my own social satire and commentary in fiction, so if I'm gone for few days---gone for a spell, as I'd say--- there are really a lot of my own original pieces, and more as yet conceived.

I want to work on "Phenomenal Experience", the Stuckwayze comic, "This Star Fallen!" and D'n'A #2, as well as continue playing music. My analysis of Steve Gerber's got me very interested in writing a new satire, an element in much of my favorite programming.

Further, I've got to grab the time to read some more books. And my drawing needs a lot of practice! So that's my life. That is, my chosen life, instead of turning towards the tidal wave of my problems and screaming as it hits me.

No. Let's surf this.


Be Chill, Cease ill


Gone for a Spell

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