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Some people hold the view that the sole aim of writers is to write, get their works published, and obtain as much pecuniary benefits as possible. This view completely ignores the question of the social responsibilities of the writer. Writers are a social group that plays a vital role in shaping the public opinion. This is because what we write contains ideas which cannot fail to influence people. As John Maynard Keynes has correctly pointed out:
"Ideas, both when they are right and when they are wrong, are more powerful than is commonly understood. Indeed, the world is ruled by little else." (The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money, 1936)
Since the world is ruled by little else, the writers can in fact rule the world - or misrule it - if they realize their role in the society and their power. They must approach the whole issue of writing and getting published in this way: What really matters is not how much you get published and how much you earn from your writing, but what you write and how much it helps the people. If what you write is in your view helpful to the people in some way, will not mislead them, will not corrupt or poison their minds, then your work is already successful. Even if you remain unpublished, or get your work published but earn little money, you are a more successful writer than one who is widely published and earns a lot of money but whose writing is designed solely to earn money, does not uplift people's spirits, does not inspire them, and only meets a need. Merely meeting a need, even a social one, is not enough. Prostitutes, too, meet a social need, or at least the physical and sometimes emotional needs of their customers, but does this fact make their work commendable?
Writing books, articles, essays, and short stories that contain ideas that are immoral, or harmful to the society, especially to the impressionable minds of the youth, is being socially irresponsible. If a short story or novel holds readers' interest mainly because of its description of sexual encounters, or sexual phantasies, it lacks artistic merit.
Look at the society today. Men and women are free to change their partners at will, make or break their marriages easily. Infidelity to one another's sexual partners is commonplace. Even though it is a common knowledge that when a marriage breaks, it is the children who suffer the most, Canadians routinely break their marriages, giving little thought to the suffering it will cause to their children. They do so to satisfy their own personal needs, and what makes it easy for them to do so is society's acceptance of this as a normal, commonplace occurrence. If a Canadian was to betray his country by divulging state secrets to a foreign power, would the society consider it normal? Of course not! But when he or she causes great suffering to his or her children by breaking marital bonds, or by denying the children access to the other partner after divorce, why does the society accept it as a normal occurrence? These are the questions that we must ask ourselves.
The society has become what it is because the writers, who are supposed to be people's guides, whose writings are supposed to illuminate people's path, are not playing their role. They had beacon in their hands to guide the people, but they have thrown it away and are engaged in writing works that will fetch them bundles of money, or revising their work so it pleases the maximum number of people and thus becomes easy to publish. In this context, the following is worth pondering over."The unravelling of the Soviet Union at the height of its military power suggests that the influence a great nation can exercise in the world depends largely on how its domestic society is perceived, both from within and from without. For a nation to be a great power, it is not enough for it to be rich or militarily strong. Its social and political institutions must represent something to admire, and even to emulate.... American popular culture, American prosperity, and the American values of free expression and individual opportunity are admired, even envied, all over the world, but the reality of American cities, schools, political process, and family life inspires little admiration or envy." (Richard J. Barnet, in The New Yorker, April 29, 1991, page 95)
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