i have noticed my worldview changes a lot depending on what i am passionate about at the time

in high school i liked the band slipknot. i did not only like slipknot because i liked the music; i did not only like the music because it was 'good' music. slipknot was how i saw the world

in 2006 i read ee cummings a lot. i did not only like ee cummings because i liked his poetry; i did not only like the poetry because it was 'good' poetry. my worldview was based on cummings. cummings wrote about being different from 'mostpeople' and he wrote in a way that was different from most people. the year i started reading cummings i started eating vegetarian and writing poetry

in 2008 i read walt whitman a lot. i did not only read whitman because i liked his poetry; i did not only like the poetry because it was 'good' poetry. my worldview was shaped by whitman. whitman is about being alive, tearing down dualistic hierarchies, and embracing everything. the year i started reading whitman i became active as a vegan, i stopped buying sweatshop clothing, and i started reading critical sociology


i am interested in works that can be this way for people, works that 'matter' not only in the context of art but in the context of being alive

there are types of movies that can be people's 'favorite movie'

my brother and i have both watched american beauty over 10 times. we don't do this because it's 'well made' or funny. the movie embodies a worldview we identify with

my personal goal i think is to create books that can be people's 'favorite' books


in this post so far i have focused on how artists and writers embody worldviews, but i think almost anything can do this

my brother likes biking, and he watches biking videos in his free time because that is what he likes. he has said that biking represents things to him: environmentalism, being healthy, being frugal, having freedom


leaflets or documentaries on specific issues are still valuable because people need actionable steps and reasoning for specific movements, but the amount of people willing to consider those movements is, i think, shaped by the music people listen to, the novels people read, the video games people play

because the core of a person is shaped by those things and their time is spent thinking about those things. those things seem just as powerful as the specific 'should' of an ethical formula, especially over time


people's interests/passions are not just things they like. when people are excited about some thing, over time that thing shapes their core from which their decisions/feelings flow


when people become involved with some thing, they don't usually identify with all of it. they identify with some of it or they have a logical reason to do it, but the time spent involved with that thing brings them to identify with more elements of it

my brother was not very concerned about health when he started biking, but over time being in that community and practice he now appreciates the health benefits of biking. a friend of mine started dumpstering a year ago. at first he did it only to save money; now he understands it as an anticorporate activity


to notice the correlation between aesthetics and identity is to be empowered as a producer of culture i think

people dismiss fiction and poetry as 'just' 'creative writing,' but i think a widely read book, or 10 books, or 3 books and a blog, can do a significant amount to change culture over time