I should be reading more. Specifically, I shoudl be reading more of that Anarchy of Families book. When I was an undergraduate, I used to dream of having that book. Now that I have money and was able to buy the book, I suddenly do not have the interest or energy to read it. Burn out? What is the cause of my disinterest? It could be the result of the last elections. It's pointless. Even to understand. Maybe what happened is useful as inspiration for a story about political dynasties in some speculative setting. Some hope, something useful that can be pulled out of the hopelessness.
Also maybe read something about mass psychology. How to understand all these people who always vote 'against their own interest.' But who are we to determine what is it that is their interest or not? It's a simple thing - they're poor and yet they keep voting for these rich folks who are keeping them poor. Who keep their lives miserable. I don't know. Political psychology I think is the field. Political sociology. Political anthropology. Class consciousness. Class unconscious.
That Palahniuk thing where he tells about how he has some problem or idea that he wants resolved/explored, and then he thinks of some metaphor or something like that, and then he writes and then a short story or a novel emerges. Maybe something like that. Re-read that Palahniuk writing guide.
A good project would be a kind of oral history of this place. Interviewing key people from all walks of life. Their memories of older relatives who experienced the second world war for example. Stories about the founding of some town or place. This is a landmine, especially if you're doing personal family history. Maybe find out that you have a relative who collaborated with the Japanese. Maybe find out your ancestor was a landgrabber. It takes a kind of courage and self-abnegation even if you want a truthful account to emerge.
Negative utilitarianism. Ethics. Political, social implication. Benevolent World Exploder. I think the metaphor or what's the word philosophical mental experiment? What if? It's just at the tip of my tongue. Why can't I remember it. Russell's Teapot kind of thing. [[quick Google: "thought experiment"]]. Implications of a 'Children of Men' situation. But the cause of sterility is known. It is a bio-weapon developed by a cadre of negative utilitarian revolutionary anarchists with nihilistic tendencies. Anti-natalism. Birth strike.
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