"Andy,
I read
your article in SAIL magazine on the Cape Horn windvane. Very well done. Clear
and articulate . . . probably the best I have seen on windvanes in a long time.
Some
random thoughts:
I
learned photography with a manual SLR 35mm camera. There is nothing like it to
teach photography. I use digital now because I got lazy. I miss the SLR 35mm.
With the common snap-shooting pocket digital it is very hard to get the photo
one really wants. Technology may make things easier but it does not always take
us forward. I applaud your efforts and philosophy.
We share
a similar philosophy about keeping things simple—that is apparent in our boats.
Though I think we are not alone, we are a very small group. The vast majority
of folks are victims of consumerism . . . in all things. But for sailing . . .
I think you have to love to sail if you want to keep things simple. I suspect
most folks don’t really like sailing . . . they like what it represents. They
are not really comfortable under sail . . . thus they motor.
Regarding
your Friday column on the economy, etc., I share your idealism but as you
probably know it is all about the bottom-line for most businesses. That means
advertising. Whatever you can do to generate interest increases your
advertising revenue. I have noticed whenever I write anything the least bit controversial
the number of visits to my site skyrockets. That is interesting to me. So, if
you are NBC, and you have data that shows that running tweets generates
interest, viewership goes up . . . revenues go up. etc, etc. I think this is
foolish in the long-haul but they are not thinking about the long-haul . . .
just quarterly profits.
When I
was a student at the war college we were visited by a well known national
reporter. He went on and on about the first amendment–which we all profoundly
support, of course. But when we asked “why does the news only run the bad
things that are happening in Iraq (this was 2004) and not all of the good stuff
we had seen every day while operating there,” his answer was that “good news
does not generate as much viewership and revenues as the bad events and the
news after all is a business.” Well of course that is very hypocritical. He
(the news media) is playing both sides of the coin to their business advantage—arguing
the moral high-ground of the first amendment (the people need to know) all the
while making decisions based on revenue vice ethics. It’s an interesting subject and of course it
has a life of its own. I don’t really know what the solution is except to say
that we (the public) need to be aware of, and discriminating in, what we read
and we need to pay attention and understand the specifics of what is at stake .
. . political, economic, social, and military policy decisions, etc, etc.
Regarding
my website, I have been asked why I don’t have advertising links. Well, first I
don’t think I would make that much money. But more importantly, I don’t want to
be unduly influenced to write something differently than I normally would just because
I think I can generate more revenue. Not
only that, it seems to me that I would only be helping to provide advertising
to companies who so often don’t seem to be really interested in selling the
best product . . . just a product. I would, in fact, be helping to support the
very thing that you and I agree is harmful—excessive consumerism.
For
those who would like to make a living as a writer this poses an interesting
dilemma—one has to generate interest in the product to make money. Idealism vs
reality. I once read an article by Yvon Chouinard the founder and owner of
Patagonia. I admire him for several reasons
but the most relevant to this discussion is that he seems to have developed a
philosophical solution to the conflict between ethics and consumerism. If my memory serves me right, he basically
said, we at Patagonia talked so big and mighty about how green we were. But, we
finally had to concede that we were polluting the environment with our
manufacturing process just like the companies we put down . . . we make
synthetic and plastic clothing and gear which require harmful chemicals for
manufacturing them, etc. But, he also said we are a profit making company. How
do we bring our profit making capitalism efforts better in line with our
environmental ideals? He said that is when they decided to lead the way towards
greener practices, use post consumer recycling in their manufacturing
processes, and donate significant sums of money to the environment. Chouinard
also said that by making the best products they could, even though they cost
more for the consumer, they would last longer and therefore the production
levels would be less than if they made cheap stuff that had to be replaced all
the time. I admire him for his honesty and think he has developed a more reasonable
moral position . . . blending ethics with capitalism.
With
regard to writing and advertising, I think writing about topics that are
important and will help others, combined with a writing style that is clear,
articulate and interesting to read is the way ahead. The subject, and the writing
that takes the reader there, should be the driving factor.
So what
does all this mean? Perhaps it is that we need to make sure we know what we
believe and be careful about straying from it because we start to see dollar
signs. I think this is easier said than done. Nonetheless, if we know what our
core beliefs are . . . and incorporate them in everything we do . . . I think
we can do something now that we will still be proud of when we are sitting in
the rocking chair in our old age. Moral decisions always stand the test of
time.
Sorry to
ramble, but your writing caused me to think today and that is what a good
writer does. Well done.
John"
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