Sitting on a pumpkin

(or why I am writing this series of newsletters)

“I would rather sit on a pumpkin, and have it all to myself, than to be crowded on a velvet cushion.” — Thoreau —Walden

This series of newsletters is because as a novelist of popular fiction (30+ books and counting), I am a veteran of the Culture Wars. They have been impossible to avoid in publishing and I have come to discover my opinions are different to many. They may be wrong. They may be right. Who knows? But they are mine and I want to try them out and share why I have reached the conclusions I have.

I should state I am not Woke but a heretic standing against this particular set of philosophical beliefs. In 18th century parlance, a set of philosophical beliefs was called a religion. So I am for the freedom of religion — the right to have your own philosophical beliefs or no belief. With the Woke, I often find myself muttering under my breath Eppur si muove like Galileo is reputed to have said as he walked out of his heresy trial.

So a bit about me — I’m American by birth and a naturalized British citizen, a dual national. In some ways, a person with two souls. When I took my British citizenship, the Life in the UK book stressed that a good citizen is a person who takes an interest in their community and country and thus began a more intense interest in politics etc. I grew up in California, went to college/uni in Minnesota and had a Junior Year Abroad at Lancaster University where I met my husband. I graduated and went back to California for a few years until I married and moved to the UK in 1988. For many years I enjoyed being an expat and acting like the problems were not really any of my concern as I couldn’t vote. In 2018 I took the plunge and became a British citizen (partly I was impressed that Meghan Markle was so certain after living here for such a short time — we all know how that turned out for her).

One of my major beliefs is in the Right of Dissent aka the right to be wrong or simply to hold an eccentric or unpopular beliefs. It is the right which often goes first as nations inadvertently stumble down the road to totalitarianism, according to Edward R Murrow. He was speaking about the US during the McCarthy era, but I believe his words hold resonance for today. The fanaticism of the Woke and their No Debate, My Suddenly-stated Way or the public stocks and ruination does send a chill down my spine. I believe without the Right of Dissent, democracy and freedom cease.

Am I right wing or left? More likely somewhere in the muddle.

I really believe in individual responsibility — people create things and if you go back far enough, you can find out the why behind. Sometimes like the woman who faithfully cut off the ends of her roast before cooking because her mother and grandmother had always done so but when she finally asked her grandmother why, the answer came back that her old roasting tin was too small, we accept things without questioning. Knowing the why behind can help you decide if the policy or idea remains fit for purpose.

Dismantling things and ideas no longer fit for purpose can take a lot longer and be far harder than one imagines at the start. You have to know the actual problem you are attempting to solve, rather than being distracted by what I like to call St Ives concerns (hopefully you know the St Ives nursery rhyme — as I was going to St Ives, I met a man with seven wives, Every wife had seven sacks, every sack had seven cats, every cat seven kits. Kits, cats, sacks and wives, how many were going to St Ives. Answer one as the man and his companions were going in the opposite direction)

There are many social problems. There are always social problems. There has always been social problems. And unfortunately there always will be social problems. I think Thomas Sowell was right when he said — today’s problems are often a result of yesterday’s solutions. In order to understand some of the problems, we do have to understand why the failed solutions were reached and if the proposed remedy will do any good. It doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try to solve the problems. It just means I believe utopias are impossible to achieve in the real world.

You will probably learn more about me as we go on, but by writing here at least I am not boring my family who roll their eyes at me or making comments on another substack which are not appropriate to the topic.

Anyway, this is me sitting on a pumpkin. You are more than welcome to draw up your own and discuss current events with me.