David McElroy

You might have seen this cartoon dog and these flames before. The artwork has become popular on “memes” which satirize people who are oblivious — or in denial — that their world is falling apart around them.

I feel like the little cartoon dog. I feel as though the world is on fire around me. The economy seems to be collapsing. The political system is in a dangerous shambles. The broader culture is a dysfunctional cesspool which is driven by idiots who are out of touch with reality.

But it’s not just the broader outside world. My own life is burning down, at least by the standards of what I expected and what I wanted — and even by the vision of what I believe is possible for my life.

I’m sitting here passively — in the metaphorical sense — and I’m watching the chaos play out all around me. I’m not doing anything about it because I haven’t figured out how to fix everything. I keep functioning as though everything is normal.

But inside, I am painfully aware that this is not fine. Something has to change.

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I was honored to be the guest Friday night on the YouTube livestream of Aya Katz. The link is embedded below, but I also encourage you to check out some of her other videos.

In our wide-ranging conversation, we talked about my experiences in politics but we spent most of our time trying to find some sense of how best to change the world around us. I argue that art has the best chance of changing the culture — and thus changing the political establishment — but Aya is less optimistic that we can change the world in this way.

Who’s right? We might not know for years, but she’s still trying to prod me toward trying to make more films — which I already know I ought to be doing.

Aya Katz is linguist, primatologist, writer and artist. She has a PhD in linguistics and also has a law degree, which allowed her to practice law in Texas for nine years. She has a human daughter, but in many of her videos, you can see her chimpanzee named Bow, who lives with her. You can find her YouTube channel here and her novels and non-fiction works on Amazon here.

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This is the second of a three-part series about where I’m going with my life and work.

We no longer live in the Age of Reason. Or even the Age of Enlightenment. Today, we live in what might be called the Age of Entertainment.

Those who don’t entertain the public are marginalized or trivialized. It’s easier than ever to publish or broadcast to almost everybody in the world, but what good is that when the cultural norm is for consumers to dive into mindless entertainment and trivia? What good is it to publish if few will read? What good is it to speak if almost nobody will hear?

What good is reasoned argument if few are willing to think?

There was a time when I was certain I could rationally explain to any person why he was wrong about anything. I was confident in the power of reason. I also assumed that other people wanted to know the truth if they were mistaken. I believed that if I showed people the morality of individual freedom — of voluntary self-ownership by every individual — I could change the world.

And more than anything else, I assumed that I was right about everything. I’ve slowly had to accept that my reasoned assumptions were wrong — about almost everything.

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