Thoughtful
News of the Decade, Not News of the Day
Today’s musing is the third to the last musing of Fleas and rats.
The Little Thing: Thinking made visible
An Essay Each Month
Last week I wrote that, starting in June, Fleas and rats will feature one essay each month, published in parts over the course of the month: Serial essays on small things that matter.
The point of writing essays is to make thinking visible. And the point of writing about small things that matter is to understand how they matter and why they matter, in order to help people figure out what to do (or least, what to notice and what to reflect on — or what to ask about).
I am working on the first essay now. In the meantime, here is another recap of what I am aiming to write about:
News of the decade, not news of the day.
Little things that add up to big differences.
Connections between ideas and action, or at least connections between ideas and understanding.
As I wrote last week, in other words, I want Fleas and rats to be thoughtful, positive, and practical.
Thoughtful Means: “News of the Decade”
The point of the essays in this Substack will be to think out loud about what matters.
Small things matter most of all because it’s all the small actions that add up to global scales. Since almost all of us are ordinary (not exceptional), or are those who occupy life in the realm of small things done by ordinary people (by us), a thoughtful series of essays about small things, and about small people, can help explain how things work globally.
It’s tempting to write about the “news of the day” because novel stuff is interesting, news is what people are talking about, and having readers who are interested in what’s being written is one point of writing essays.
I have no problem with focusing on the world of today, writing about what’s happening in the here and now. And it would seem strange to ignore big deal things, like American aggression in war and peace, the breaking down of international rules against torture and mass violence against civilians by the major powers, and the trade war that currently being waged against Canada by the United States.
The focus is on “news of the decade, not news of the day” even though I don’t actually know what’s going to be remembered in ten years time; that’s not the point. The point is not to predict what will be considered important in the future, but rather to try to understand what’s happening now, or what matters now in terms of how we live together as a society in our future, at future that we hope to live out, even if big things happening tomorrow are barely noticed today.
Fleas and rats is about the here and now — not about futurism, even though we are creating the future in the present. The question is, what matters? Shallow analysis risks grabbing onto whatever is catching attention and saying that because it’s seen, it matters. What we notice may matter, but it may not. I am interested in ideas about what does matter, and writing about these ideas is the aim of Fleas and rats.
Now, it’s time for me to get back to writing the essay for June 8th.