I find most early-year socially engaged wishlists boring because of a simple misconception: that you can either wish to solved the world's problems or wish its complete destruction. That you either want to end poverty, stop wars and make everybody equal, or nuke every nation but yours off the face of the Earth. If you want status quo, you're an idiot. I think this polarization of intent is not the only way to discuss our future. What can we do to make the world a more interesting place to everyone in 2015?
I have a couple suggestions.
There was a lot of anger in 2014. A lot of outrage. Now, there are things worth getting angry about. The U.S police force is indeed militarizing and seem to be using black people for target practice. Your vote doesn't really matter because both sides are looking to rob you all the same. Bill Cosby is a serial rapist. Joe Arpaio is still alive and well. In the era of social media though, there's always somebody outraged about something. Sometimes, a little compassion would be in order, to put out the fire of public opinion.
Take the case of Matt Taylor for example. The fuzzy British scientist who landed a freakin' robot on a comet was driven to tears in a press conference after being accused of wearing a mysoginistic shirt during an interview. Sure, his shirt featured a Japanese anime babe in kinky attire, but what does it exactly say about the guy? That he hates women? No, it means that he watches Japanese anime and that like most nerd, he's unself aware, that's all. The man goes to work with Cannibal Corpse shirts too. Did I mention he was married and had two children?
Next time you're about to nail some poor sucker who stumbled into the headlines for the wrong reasons, think about this: (s)he might not be stupid. (S)he might've just made a mistake. People are imperfect, they make mistakes all the time, but the ridiculous scrutiny of social media doesn't allow it anymore. Allow people the right to make mistakes before judging, that would make people (mostly celebrities) a little looser, it would restore the trust between both parties and interesting things might happen.
Creativity
Unfortunately, the art business isn't about creating art. It's about making money. So there's a lot of people succeeding by simply following a musical or a narrative genre template despite being devoid of all creativity. Every investor is looking for the next Breaking Bad, the next Arcade Fire or the next great zombie movie. It's what people like, so it's what makes them money. The only thing that can break this cycle is a creative breakthrough and I wish them to multiply in 2015.
Creative breakthroughs follow no pattern. They emerge out of a single, unlikely and original work of art that connects with people on an emotional level. This is what turned Harry Potter into a cultural phenomenon close to two decades ago, and it revived the entire industry of YA literature. Whenever such an work of art sprouts into mainstream culture, it's a win for art that becomes more diverse and unpredictable, as it should be. I wish creativity upon culture in 2015, so that we streer clear of zombies, YA dystopias, Liam Neeson thrillers and hipsterdom.
The Glamorization of Public Intellectuals
Henry Rollins, Chuck Klosterman, Roxane Gay, Sarah Koenig, Maddox, Joe Rogan and many others are part of this new generation of public intellectuals and they've each been getting some love over the past couple years (over the past couple decades for Rollins). Let's turn them into rock stars in 2015, prop them all to David Foster Wallace status. Give them talk shows, book deals, have them featured in prime time television and on billboards. Let's make public intellectuals sexy.
Our society have this narrow vision of what an intellectual should be and often confuses it with an academic, living in his office, disconnected from the ''real world''. If we've successfully glamorized people like Kim Kardashian who never really did anything constructive in their lives except maybe look good (and I don't think it took all that much effort), why not glamorize people who have idea and provide us perspective on who we are and how we live? Let's make it cool to have ideas and perspective.
The Collapse of the Self-Help Industry
This sham of a business is based on a very simple idea: a psychologist/motivator/life coach should be able to take your money without having to give you any attention. If you want to witness the damage it did to an entire generation of people, just open Facebook and read comment sections on your newsfeeds' post: me, me, me, me, me, me. It's all you're going to find. Even when people are discussing together, it's more often than not about themselves, their experience and their expertise on whatever is the discussion topic.
Unless you have thoughts you can't control, you are fundamentally OK. If you do have them, it's not a book that'll help you.
Working on being happy will never make you happy. You're not the center of the universe, you're just a link in a ever growing and ever complex web. Try making your neighbor happy. Help him shovel his car out of a snow bank and don't ask for anything in return. Try listening to someone's frustrations and advising him/her without ever putting yourself in the equation. Try being good to someone else because it actually FEELS good. I'm not saying ''change the world'' here, but substract yourself from the equation.
You're fine, despite whatever that book told you and I hope an entire convention of self-help authors get caught with blow, hookers and no pants in a Vegas convention this year, so people can get their lives back.
Fiction
A lot of it. Fiction is an exercise in empathy. It allows you to step outside yourself for a moment an live the complexity of a fictional self's situation. There you go, I said it. Reading fiction makes you a better person.
I'm not going to lie though. The fiction business is kind of in a healthy place right now, especially on television where it's going through a golden age. I wish more fiction upon society in 2015. That more original, complex and ambitious storytelling reaches into everybody's homes and triggers passions on social media. Let's strike the iron while it's hot and make fiction a fundamental part of our society again.
You're fine, despite whatever that book told you and I hope an entire convention of self-help authors get caught with blow, hookers and no pants in a Vegas convention this year, so people can get their lives back.
Fiction
A lot of it. Fiction is an exercise in empathy. It allows you to step outside yourself for a moment an live the complexity of a fictional self's situation. There you go, I said it. Reading fiction makes you a better person.
I'm not going to lie though. The fiction business is kind of in a healthy place right now, especially on television where it's going through a golden age. I wish more fiction upon society in 2015. That more original, complex and ambitious storytelling reaches into everybody's homes and triggers passions on social media. Let's strike the iron while it's hot and make fiction a fundamental part of our society again.