Author Archives: Don Neeper

Blog 30. The Movie Inequality for All

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The Movie:  Inequality for All

When it comes to your theater, don’t miss it.

Robert Reich is a professor who teaches public policy at the University of California, Berkeley. He was President Clinton’s Secretary of Labor. Now he’s also the witty star of an entertaining new film released this week to theaters across the country. The film was directed by Jacob Kornbluth.

In earlier blogs of this sequence, I outlined how the society and the economy are complex systems—and how, if you want to change a complex system, you must adjust one or more of the rules by which it operates. Reich expands on this in regard to the increasing disparity of wealth in our economy. Continue reading →

Blog 29. The Real, the Ideal, and Stories

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Underlying every social tension there is a gap between the real situation and the ideals of the society. For example, American law espouses the ideals of equality, justice, fairness, and popular consensus. However, our politics and our business are based on competition, domination, manipulation, exclusion, and political spin. This gap between the real and the ideal generates both outrage and a malaise of helplessness. Continue reading →

Blog 28. Socially Significant Fiction

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Entertainment and significant fiction

Much commercial fiction is pure entertainment. That’s ok; we enjoy being entertained.  However, fiction offers a marvelous opportunity to be more significant, to explore social issues, leaving the reader changed as well as entertained.  Fiction can show a social issue in the setting of the story in the background canvas across which the plot moves. Continue reading →

Blog 27. The Must-Do in Fiction

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How do you write fiction?

An artistic woman asked me that question. In part, she was asking about the mechanics of drafting a novel. In part, she was asking how you get past the stinging criticism when someone accomplished in the art reads your first draft. One answer is this: don’t show a first draft. Show an edited manuscript that’s as good as you can make it. Maybe the 21st draft. Continue reading →

Blog 25. Climate Extremes or Political Extremes?

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A little history

In 1986 I was at a technical conference where an invited speaker was presenting data on a little-known project—measuring atmospheric CO2 concentrations, day after day, year after year. The terms “global warming” and “global climate change” weren’t used—they weren’t in the general vocabulary at that time. Nonetheless, I watched the data on the screen in growing horror. I suspect the other participants had the same feeling, but nobody said so. Continue reading →