Teahon-Freelance writer For all writing services and advice.

The writer, the writer, and the writer with issues…

Well hello!  It's been a fairly subdued few days with a few events just to keep things spicy.  I had a response from one of the writers that expressed an interest in writing for me.  They provided an article, and it pinged the word length, and it was pretty good.  After a little tweaking here and there, I accepted it.  It is now on the dreamtemplate.com site.  I have asked the guy to complete nine articles.  He believes he can do this in three days...fingers crossed.

A few weeks ago I put an ad on a facebook group trying to recruit writers, only to find that the ad had been pulled with the following message.

"Screw your $1 100 words and screw you dude.  I told you not to put it up."  Chris Anderson. 

Now Mr A. has always come across as a highly strung fellow, and talks a lot about pay for writers, and being good enough, and other topics of that ilk.

At first I was taken a back by his response, a little shocked if I'm honest about it, but it got my cogs turning about the bigger picture, and our treatment of people who don't share our beliefs and views.  Now I don't want to start a debate about views about, or from far away lands, but something a little closer to home. 

If we take our view of someone who makes a remark, or a gesture which is outside the social norm, then we tend to ostracize them.  They can loose their jobs, social circle, and generally they are treated as some kind of outcast. 

I'm not trying to vanquish someone who makes a racist, sexist, or some other "ist" remark, but is this the best way to deal with this issue?  Are we not just shutting it out, hoping it will go away?  In acting like this, are we not reinforcing the view, rather than trying to influence it through rational debate? 

In this respect, it seems the logic is a little like the flawed logic in carpet bombing, where the belief that extensive destruction of cities will cause a population to rebel against a government, or indeed break their will into surrendering.  This has never proved true.  In actuality, the opposite effect has always been achieved.  

Also, isn't this kind of society, where people are ostracised for 'saying the wrong thing', or 'having the wrong view', a little like being ostracised for not having blond hair and blue eyes, or being Jewish?   My point is that to shut people out of society, for whatever the reason does more harm than good.  It is a form of fascism.  Which is odd, because most of the strongest perpetrators of this view, are indeed ultra left-wing.   Maybe this is the biggest indicator that we need to think again.