If we accept Swain's view that a salable story requires that the point of view of the hero must be cast from his emotional outlook, then can we extend this to real life? Is it salable and interesting for precisely that reason? Or is literature different from real/rational life and its escapist view is what makes it of interest?
I've been thinking about this today. There is a lot of Twitter action in re AOC's "new green deal" and let's look at this issue from an emotional point of view. Did AOC create this due to her emotional view of what was true?
The NGD makes no economic sense and almost nothing in it is of practical value. That probably sounds a bit harsh, but if you look at what the proposal requires, there is not enough money in the world several times over to implement it. Nor are the required technologies existent. It requires rebuilding ever structure in the USA, a new smart electrical grid, guaranteed income and retirement, etc., - even if you are "unwilling" to work. All good stuff, if I were younger, I'd sign up for the "unwilling worker" position.
You'll have to take my assumptions on the costs, etc.; but if you object to my assumptions, make sure you look at the assumptions in the first few sections of the NGD. The environmental disasters they "know" are going to happen are all long overdue and are only on Al Gore's fevered horizon.
Thus allow me to conclude that I've proven that this proclamation is nothing but an emotional smorgasbord and little in it is rational.
Now, it is pretty amusing reading and someone suggested that AOC was a creation of Trump to reassure re-election... But seriously, we have some proof here that some portion of the ruling class is driven solely by emotion. There also seems to be a lot of folks eager to support this manifesto, a number of her colleagues have signed on to sponsor the proclamation.
As voters perhaps we should take this emotional motivation into account at the ballot box. Do we want to empower folks who are guided by this lack of rationality?
I have a friend who is an avowed socialist. As various public debates came under discussion, her only "solution" was to implement a new tax and spend money to "fix" it. No sense of scale of what was required and no sense of unintended consequences and no understanding that folks who were going to be the victims of the new taxes might not look fondly on it.
It seems I'm making a pitch for a political party made up of engineers.
In the past I thought, sometimes out loud, that it might be nice to have a businessman in the White House. We have one now. I, for one, am not disappointed. I think his doing the things he promised when running is setting a severe precedent for the next president. We don't usually expect our legislative bodies and presidents to actually do anything and especially what they promised us.
I thing Trump is pulling us into interesting situations. The future changes will be quite profound unless Trump's mode of operation is erased and the various interests manage to return to the old ways. There are a lot of vested interests in the old ways. I think it's more likely that we will slide back then continue Trump's style of governing. But an engineer can hope.
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