My First Public Reading Day

I haven’t been feeling particularly safe at home recently, and I’ve been having difficulty concentrating on my reading and writing. I really should have been cleaning the house today, but I thought instead I might take myself into town to experiment with a political technique I have been meaning to try out.

One of the hurdles I have to overcome if I wish to spread some of the ideas I have been reading about is finding a format where people would be prepared to show interest. I have had little success spreading ideas online, and I think I know why. People often misunderstand my meaning and intention when discussing these issues, and also often find offence in their interpretation of what I have to say. I have found that this occurs less often if I am more passive, and simply wait for someone to show interest. In the mean-time that gives me plenty of time to read books, refine my discussion points and think about different ways to present the information.
I have this theory that a good enough idea passed onto the right people with spread like a virus. But you have to do it face-to-face, you have to wait for someone who is prepared to listen, you have to understand your audience and establish some common ground, and most of all, you have to avoid looking like a raving lunatic, which is difficult when you are speaking of what may sound to some like fringe issues that you are very passionate about.

So put on my doughnut badge and hit the streets. My idea was that rather than preaching to the public, I would simply sit and read, sit my books out and invite people to browse. The books were selected by the following criteria:

*They need to be written by someone with some kind of credibility, whether it be experience in the fields they discuss or academic qualifications.
*They need to be books that are hard to get anywhere else (many of the books I read are so new, they aren’t in libraries or most book stores. You need to order them. Fullers stock some of them)
*They need to be recent and relevant
Even if a person does show interest, I want to be careful not to be too drawn into defending or espousing the ideas too much, but rather encourage people to do some research themselves. They can preview the book, I can give them a summary of what the book covers and who the author is, and recommend where they might get their own copy, or find more information.
So I wheeled my books down into town (I had no bus fare), arrived at Franklin Square and set myself up. I put all my books out as if on a book-shelf, set up my laptop, connected to the Hobart City Council wi-fi, and streamed a video preview of Kate Raworth’s book, ‘Doughnut Economics’ with a copy of the book sitting next to it.
I had a lot of people walking past who seemed curious as to what I was doing, and one person even came and had a closer look, but it wasn’t until after I packed up and then set up again to go to the bathroom that I met Bradley.
Bradley is a mathematician who is living on the streets for the experience. He said he saw me putting myself out there for an intelligent discussion and thought “why not?”.
Had a lovely chat with Bradley. He said that he thought what we need is an ethical aristocracy in total control. Sounds a bit extreme, but it’s not as out there as it sounds. I said “you mean like Plato suggest? A benevolent philosopher-king?” he said “yeah, I agree with Plato, that’s exactly what I mean.” I told him of a joke meme I had put out on the Internet of a homeless man with a cardboard sign that reads “benevolent philosopher-king”. He misinterpreted the intention of the joke at first, and said “that’s not funny, that ME!” I just said, “you get me wrong bro, that’s me too in a sense. I’m having a laugh at a society that puts people like that in that position, not taking the piss out of homelessness.” We got along well after that. Although we did hit a sticking point where he was trying to say that extreme economic inequality was caused by evil street junkies. I just said “I don’t believe in evil people to be honest.” I explained my belief that that kind of behavior shows up more often in more unequal societies, and is a symptom of disadvantage. He said he thought it was the other way around, that they are evil, and a drain on society that causes inequality...somehow. I said that I don’t believe they are really in an economic position to control the economy in that way, only the wealthy have that power. He disagreed, and we ended up agreeing to disagree since we’d had such a lovely chat already.
I thanked him for his interest and the chat, told him he’d made the trip worth it.
After one friendly face complimented me on my selection of books, and two more people had a browse, I was getting the hairy eyeball from a Hobart City Council person who was listening to the conversation and no doubt talking to someone important about this lunatic raving in the street with loads of books.
So, what did I learn?
Well, for a start, I need to learn not to be too drawn into those conversations. I get a bit worked up, and getting worked up is exactly what I need to avoid if I want to be seen not to be harassing people on the streets. Besides, the authors of the books put all this stuff much more eloquently than I can, and I think the time would be better spent browsing the book.
Also, I think I need a sign or two to make it more clear what I am doing. That the books are not being given away or for sale, but are there for casual perusal.
Other than that I think it all went quite well!