People all over the world spend countless hours of their lives every week being fed entertainment in the form of movies, TV
shows, newspapers, YouTube videos and the
internet. And it’s ludicrous to believe that this stuff
doesn’t alter our brains.

It’s also equally ludicrous to believe that – at the
very least – this mass distraction and manipulation is
not convenient for the people who are in charge.
People are starving. They may not know it because
they’re being fed mass produced garbage. The
packaging is colourful and loud, but it’s produced in
the same factories that make Pop Tarts and iPads,
by people sitting around thinking, ‘What can we do
to get people to buy more of these?’

And they’re very good at their jobs. But that’s what
it is you’re getting, because that’s what they’re
making. They’re selling you something. And the
world is built on this now. Politics and government
are built on this, corporations are built on this.
Interpersonal relationships are built on this. And
we’re starving, all of us, and we’re killing each other,
and we’re hating each other, and we’re calling
each other liars and evil because it’s all become
marketing and we want to win because we’re
lonely and empty and scared and we’re led to
believe winning will change all that. But there is no
winning.

What can be done? Say who you are, really say it in
your life and in your work. Tell someone out there
who is lost, someone not yet born, someone who
won’t be born for 500 years. Your writing will be a
record of your time. It can’t help but be that. But
more importantly, if you’re honest about who you
are, you’ll help that person be less lonely in their
world because that person will recognise him or
herself in you and that will give them hope. It’s done
so for me and I have to keep rediscovering it. It has
profound importance in my life. Give that to the
world, rather than selling something to the world.
Don’t allow yourself to be tricked into thinking that
the way things are is the way the world must work
and that in the end selling is what everyone must
do. Try not to.