I got a lot done, but most of it was writing. I had been putting off doing it because I never felt in the mood of writing, but now that I’m approaching release it became urgent, it’s become much easier than before.
However, it is not without it’s quirks: my writing now resembles my worklogs, but I’ve learned to work with it. I let the words flow out, I allow it to take detours, and when I’m done I put it in order.
Something which also presents difficulty is writing things like “you can contact me” or “you can contact us” or “you can contact Method of Action”. Hmmm, now that I write it down it seems the correct option is the last one.
I wrote “Method of Action is the creative endeavor of a human being, so I communicate as a human being”, perhaps I ought to give it more thought. But no time for now, the first person is what and I will leave it as is.
When I was done with all this writing my mind was in a state of chaos, so I went to the gym, and after the workout, an older man came into the sauna and greeted a younger man already there. They begun chatting, and the topic turned towards feminism. The younger man begun whining about the state of things, and the older one, with great skill, defended the cause with compassion.
I was mystified, because I identified with what the younger man said, but from the exchange it was obvious that the man who was in the right was the older one. He invited the younger man to the presentation of a book on gender violence during the Roman period next Thursday, the older man turned out to be a scholar and a prolific author on Roman Law, and he would present the book of one of his most talented female students. I barged in the conversation and asked if it he didn’t mind that I attended, to which he responded positively.
Some days ago I participated in a discussion on minimum guaranteed income and the discussion was quite acrid. I don’t hold strong views on the issue, but the fact that the person was strongly arguing against it made me polarize to the other side. Some days later, the same person posted an article on the ideological Turing test: if you can convincingly argue for the other person’s side, then you are not an ideological robot. Things connected and we had the same discussion, this time roles reversed, and it was much more instructive than the polarized discussion.
I feel, regarding feminism, the same thing has happened to me: since I’ve interacted with people whose views are quite extreme, I have been pushed to the opposite camp. I know intuitively that it’s a bag of very important issues mixed with superficial ones. That it has done great good and great harm, but when I try to think of the “great good” I have difficulty to come up with an answer, while the “great bad” flows out naturally (hence my identification with the younger man’s whining).
So I’ll surely attend the event next Thursday.