https://thedailyedge.substack.com/p/1939-all-over-again
"Depending on my mood and the prevailing political circumstances, the idea that
“the pen is mightier than the sword” has always seemed to me either slightly
optimistic, completely naïve or totally delusional.
At the same time, writing remains essential. Ideas can be transformational.
Facts, at least to some people, can be powerful things.
On Friday, May 13, I took over the Pen America Twitter account for three hours
and live-tweeted an event they were hosting at the United Nations.
Billed as an “Emergency Conference of Writers,” the event echoed a similar
gathering of writers that Pen America hosted in 1939 at the World’s Fair in New
York in 1939, the same year that American Nazis held a 20,000 person rally at
New York’s Madison Square Garden.
These two Pen America events, 83 years apart, both had a similar goal: to
challenge writers to come together and use the power of the written word to
combat the growing threat of fascism in the world.
It didn’t work in 1939.
As one speaker at this year’s event said, “writing didn’t stop the Nazis.” But
writers did, at least, get to write the history of the Nazis. I grew up in the
world in which writers were still admired and Nazis were villains in war movies
and British comedy shows.
So writing alone cannot stop evil. But at the same time, it is one of the best
weapons we have to keep people informed and educated in ways that, hopefully,
inspire good."
Via Susan ****
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
