A wide angle shot always conveys a fuller picture than a selfie. Context makes the dfifference between a workable quote and a weaponized soundbite. So too with democracy.

In the fast-paced digital age, “democracy” is a red flag buzzword. It triggers a knee-jerk yes or no response. It is a true or false pop quiz on whether two people or two nations, see eye-to-eye politically. In fact, democracy is a social process that hasunfolded in cycles throughout history.

Again with apologies for butchery, civilization began as a simple social pact. Two people agreed on how to hunt a dinosaur and how to split the carcass. It likely started in the delta where Asia and Africa meet, now known as the Middle East. Over many, many millennia it spread out in dynasties like Mesopotamia and Egypt. Eventually Greece wrote up the basic tenets of democracy in the thoughtful city of Athens while sister city Sparta plied the tradition of warfare. Swashbuckling Rome came next, complete with a set of gods.

Religion became a major cultural factor with the idea of a single God in charge of worldly affairs. This happened with Christianity in the west, Islam and Hinduism in the east. Many offshoots arose from these while the earliest monotheistic culture was Judaism, already stigmatized by conflict with established societies where they were driven.

The marriage of religion and culture went through phases. The infamous Spanish Inquisition. was one. The Dark Ages of science denial were followed by the Renaissance in Europe. The Crusades took Christianity to the far east where Arab nations bumped heads with Mongols and occasional Japanese intruders. The period of European expansionism struck gold with the discovery of America and the Caribbean region.

All the Americas became the new focus for European commerce The slave trade that had existed in Rome as an offshoot of war became big business for all except the slaves themsels. Portuguese outposts in Africa fueled ethnic wars for a tiny profit the winners earned. The British, French, Dutch, Belgians and Spanish became middlemen. They also established expansionist hubs in key hubs like India, Africa and the Philippinesl. The commodities there were natural resources and strategic location.

“Location, location, location,” reads a common commercial real estate ad. In the digital age, the truism applies to all sectors of society at all levels from national to regional and global. At all those levels, the collective power of the single individual is the driver of sustanable growth. TLessons learned from European expansionidm serve as a model for gauging the location of a nation on the global cultural map.

Colonialization was bloody and brutal. It was hugely demeaning to the native peoples conquered. But as the civilized tool of diplomacy advances, phyical force to maintain social order becomes ever more a vestigial organ. Like the human appendix, it serves no purpose and in fact can lead to fatal sepsis. Territorial overreach like Russia is doing in Ukraine is dead in the water for any kind of long term gain, History is the proof of the pudding.

Psychologist Abraham Maslow has laid out a heirarchy of needs. Those include basic needs for food, ahelter and clothing; psychological drives like curiosity and sex; and finally the social drives for safety, love, belonging, esteem and self actualization. Obviousy, the cultures that best meet the needs are most successful. The greatest xrises arise when reality cmes crasing up against an ideal.

However great the scars, resentments and guilt that stem from the age of colonialism, they are potentially workable if parties are willing, resourceful and tenacious. Some situations seem intractble they are so convoluted. Haiti, for example was the site of the first slave revolt in the Americs. The effects of French retaliation still reverberate. Israel was set down on land where Palestinians lived. The region is still in turmoil. On and on around the world but possibly most glaring is the status of American blacks

As former slaves in the mekka of equality, Americans fight for their rights as fiercely as Ukrainians on the verge of losing the freedom already hard won. But the fight of American blacks for Constitutional rights comes as those rights in the general population are eroded by a would-be strongman who managed to capture a dangerous portion of the public. Blacks spearhead the drive to save democracy but they remain largely in a vaccum as enablers of the strongman weaponize rge red alert buzzword of immigration.

All that occurs as cultural values decline in the US. Much of that is due to traditions such as fetishes for guns and new electronic gizmos. A corporate culture of unbridled profit puts corporate interests ahead of the individual by a country mile, as the saying goes. In short, America may be on the verge of becoming a plutocracy where an elite class rles instead of we the people.” But even if that happens, Euope is ready to hold the fort until the US either comes to its senses or is forced back into it be global economic realities..

and self-actualization. ong all oppressed poples, slaves were the first to revolt. The French retaliation for the slave revolt in Haiti continues to reverberate. Native peoples slaughtered during conquest, including in Australia and Canada, have just recently been recognized as victims. Yet the African slaves who were freed by the American Civil War remain stuck in the vortex where reality is in a chokehold with the ideal. Ukraine is the global equivalent of that clash.

“I pity the poor immigrant,” wtote Bob Dylan in 1967. He was the American singer-songwriter who became a Nobel laureate in poetry. He was writing about the immigrants who built America into the economic powerhouse to be mugged by today’s immigrants because the first immigrants turned the land of opportunity into green fields for the greedy.

Young America earned its reputation as the seat of democracy because of the values set out in its 1775 Constitution. Democracy actually started in Greece and became a worldwide movement against prevailing monarchies at when America spelled out its principles in writing. It sparked the French revolution among many others. At home, America was land f the free and of opportunity as it trampled the rights of occupants already settled inAlwas a vast wilderness. Always prone to hypocrisy when high ideals clashed with selfish greed, In the digital age, America suffers from a split personality disorder.

Possession is 9/10s of the law,, according to a common cathraphrase of law. Conservatives in America seem hell-bent on staying in power ever since America elected the first nonwhite head of a western industrialized nation. America’s democratic majority is divided into moderates, progressives and the ultra-progressives the ultraconservatives have derided as “woke.” As the world’s economic leader stews in its vacuum of domestic concerns, the world gallops ahead with American values pitted against other models of governing in an enlarged mirror image of America’s conflicts.

Racial reckoning is a major global concern as climate change, political upheavel and ethnic conflicts drive migration north and west. Europe is the current fulrum of the newly evolving world order as tested by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine for a range of reasons all centered on democracy and democratic ideals.

The ideal of equality between all peoples of the world is a romantic fantasy at best. The smallest town in any of the world’s near-200 countries has a henhouse pecking order social structure that is of great interest to individuals and the groups they join. The ideal thus strikes a false note rectified over time by larger cultural forces. The best that can be achieved at any time is to narrow the gap betwen reality and the ideal.

Global events like the Olympic games are great equalizer for bringing reality closer to the ideal, especially in the digital are. Law is also a powerful tool for advancing equality. But the greatest driver is information sharing, a virtual Swiss army knife wielded by all sectors of societies.

Writing for world democracy

Globalism divides Internationalism unites

Democracy is the creative driver of prosperity

Creativity is an innate drive that gets human babies from birth to adulthood and beyond. Creativity is an outgrowth of the curiousy that draws toddlers into the walking stage as part of exploring the world. Creativity is also a wild pony in need of a jockey, trainer, arena and event.

As most creative artists know, talent and even genius can wither without the discipline to produce tangible work. As history has shown, even genius dies early without an audience most often secured by a third party. That third party is an intermediary. a person who appreciates the talent and know how it can satisfy the needs of others. At best, all three levels of creativity work together. That is the democracy dynamic.

Why Democracy

American poet Walt Whitman said it was a beautiful trith that all people contain something of the artist in them. That quality of delight in glimpsing some new aspect of the world is obvious in children, who become part of the world in stages.

Curiosity gets babies to reach for shiny mobiles. It prompts toddlers to dart forward for a toy, then retreat to the comfort of a caring adult if scared. That same curiosity guides kids through school, teens through the heavy-duty socialization phase until young adulthood sets the person onto a life path. That path depends on variables that can nurture or impede.

Children learn to navigate the world by darting forward from the caretaker comfort zone. Courage in venturing ever further depends on the security of knowing comfort and safety are there if needed. That pattern continues throughout life in various ways and to different degrees based on a combination of personality, opportunity and experience.

Career practitioners of any art are the lucky ones in a society. They are free spirits, dedicated to self expression. Unfortunately at present, society does not recognize artists as central to its soul. The Covid pandemic may have sparked a revolution in the direction of art.

Isolated in a series of shutdowns, people deprived of routine distractions found life empty. Pre-pandemic jobs were boring and not worth the security that servitude offered. The creative seed had seemingly found fertile ground but society had to till the soil if the flower was to flourish.

A Google search shows creativity as synonymous with innovation and its value is measured by income. A search for social and cultural creativity brings up a whole slate of different countries, half of them with emerging economies. Perhaps this current divergence in values points to a happy future world with art having a central role in the soul of each country.

For such a change to occur, the west would venture forth from its current tech comfort zone. The United States in particular would drop its disdain for intellectual pusuits. Liberal arts degrees would be promoted as much as MBAs and they would be mainstreamed so as to free the intelligent from their current Ivory Tower prisons. Most importantly from the perspective of a writer, the current social media dumpsite would take on meaning.

Mark Twain and Ernest Hemingway were just two of the many writers throughout the ages who stressed the importance of experience to writing. “Write what you know,” Twain advised. In today’s highly structured society, independent experience is a hair-raising venture.

Churchhill once said that success is the ability to go from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm. By that measure, a writer becomes good at the craft by chasing daily success in the form of faith in the process despite the lack of external acknowledgment. Writing a tweet can take little or much effort. Only the writer knows whether the words conveyed the idea intended. Number of follows, retweets or responses bear little or no relevance to the writing.

As an expression of thoughts and feelings. writing is iniquely poised for precision. A writer knows when the sweet spot has been hit. When it hits that same spot in thr reader, eureka!

In the social media age, words fight through jungles before that mutual sweet spot is hit. By then, those wordsa have already made the laborious trek from mind and heart to the screen. Alas, evidence is scant that many writers brave the rigors of honing words to great precision. Yet the classics prove the value of the effort, however tedius the reading by modern standards. “To be or not to be” is as relevant as ever.

Scholars, students and esoterics read the classics. They are a joy to know. Those who write in the classic mode are in for a hard struggle. Posting on social media calls for suspending all the the rules that help a writer express deep thoughts and feelings.

Personal, Local, Global

Creativity in Life, Art and Commerce

Creativity is hazardous to internet drab. It is also a victim of the cautiously limited transnational business model being slowly devised.

Commerce aims for profit. Creativity takes a back seat in business plans. But the free-market scramble for attention has created a quagmire that chokes creativity, especially in the most developed countries where the patience needed for creativity to sprout is in short supply.

.People in the poorest or most troubled of the world’s near-200 countries are busy surviving. They have little time, energy or resources to spruce up refugee camps. In the richest countries, adults are too busy chasing careers to devote enough nurture time to develop creativity in kids. Pacifying electronics take the place of hide-and-seek. Safety is prized more highly than the development of curiosity and adventure. But creativity is a life force that can explode into a genius beyond any AI construct. It can also fizzle if neglected or prematurely forced into a narrow focus, which leads to poverty of the spirit.

Cave drawings show that humans had a creative instinct that cried out to express itself. Drawings of animals, weather events and tools show humans striving to make sense of the world and bring it under control by making pictures. Indulging the urge to express the self may have led to the bonding that eventually led to civilization. On the near end of the spectrum, humans have not tired of speculating what space aliens may look like.

Today a creative work will be overlooked by search engines set to SEO rules. It will also go without feedback from followers looking for number of emojee-driven interactions alien to content. The ansence of visible impact has always thrown cold water on creativity. But if the creative force is strong enough and the drive to communicaate endures, the creative spirit faces challenges that would inhibit its development.

The internet is a trove of handy information of very limited reach. Compare the web thesaurus with the print version and the relative anemia is alarming for creative thought. Further, the mechanics of sorting through a million repetitions of the same sources eats up time, as does the management of ever new devices. That time is the indispensible nutrient for creativity to flourish.

An old New Yorker cartoon showed a man in a beret sitting at an easel doing nothing. The caption read “creativity at work.” A well known saying ascribed to a number of writers states that I hate to write but I love to have written.” The American writer Mark Twain said the difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug. Coming up with that right word is the agony of creatvity.

Long periods of solitary pondering, procrastinating, diversion and temporary retreat from the project can go into a creative work. For some, contemplation itself is a satisfying activity & cloistered communiries fill their need. Others get enjoyment from making thoughts & feelings concrete That was the realm of diary jounaling until the internet came along as a vehicle for mass gut-spilling. But a work of art elevates those internal workings into an otside object that packs a punch as powerful as a jab from legendary boxer Mohammed Ali..

Psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud described art as a sublimation of other basic drives, mainly that of sex in the Victorian thinking of his time. But creativity that is indulged can be a battle for control of the driving energy. The battle can be all consuming and the result can be no more than some deep insight. But the sense of relief that comes with the eureka of discover is as liberating as sexual release in a bodily orgasm.

No doubt Newton felt that jolt of a creative payoff when he saw gravity behind an apple falling from a tree to light on the concept of gravity. Einstein must have felt it repeatedly as he zeroed in on E=mc squared. Surely Picasso felt it throughout his life as he saw a growing number of dimensions he tranlated into his paintings. And for sure Mark Twain felt that spark when he noted that the difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug. That there is the big difference between art and commerce. Art looks for the right word while commerce has constraints.

Those devoted to the arts are exceptional people who have retained the ability to see the world as a child before attention was reined into specialized directions. That perspective is a gestalt view of the world. They see the world as a totality without prejudice for any part. They indulge in the pure joy of the senses. The pragmatics if life take a back seat. For those lucky enough to land in a career that allows for such an innovative voice within its fold, the future is relatively rosy. For those who need to forge their own path, the future is challenging indeed, with commerce as a constant companion.

Fogarassy came of age at a time when writers were supplicants looking for acceptance and space on the pages of respected periodicals and the imprints of major publishers.  The SASE (self-addressed stamped envelope) was a requisite inclusion with the submitted work.  It usually came back with a printed rejection or an encouraging note that said try us again.  Rejection was routine and led to a renewed effort to better the craft of writing and aim at the target.

Over the years, Fogarassy’s work has been deemed by editors to be everything from profound to most overwritten ever seen.  Those critiques are aptly applicable to a writer thinking in complex Hungarian as expressed in straight-forward English, on who sees the world in the subtleties of an artist with the awareness that the message must be simplified for the pragmatic marketplace.  The challenges of Fogarassy’s calling have been monumental.  The rewards made the effort more than worthwhile.

Early short works were published in literary magazines such as the Texas Sidewinder and the Canadian Queen’s Quarterly.  Two dozen of the short works were published by literary magazines throughout the world when her first novel was published by Quality Publications of Ohio.

Mix Bender is a novel about complex Hungarian-American immigrants meeting on a carefree Caribbean island.  “A lively, intriguing and gutsy novel,” wrote international journalist Lydia Ferabee.  Other reviewers described the novel as “exhilarating,” “intelligent and entertaining,” and “a fascinating novel of personality, interactions and complex emotions.”

Her non-fiction Mission Improbable: The World Community on a UN Compound in Somalia was enthusiastically received by numerous publishers, including Howard University Press.  Even so, only Lexington Books published the work.  The US perception of events in Somalia during the intervention was considered too strong to afford any sizable interest in Fogarassy’s first-hand record of events.

Even so, the book was well reviewed by Abdul Rahman Turay of Sierra Leone, head of the UNOSOM Somalia Mission.  He said the book set the record straight.  The Mission in Somalia was succeeding but nobody in the greater world knew of the success.  He said the book was a provocative argument for humanitarian intervention in global cires.

George Parker, head of the Press Section at UN Headquarters in New York, said the work was an accurate and comprehensive view of the Mission.  It provided a unique insight into UN operations and shed a remarkable light on the peace the Somalis were trying to achieve after a jump-start from the UN with US help withdrawn just short of the mark.

Among others who expressed support for the views expressed in the book were Richard Holbrooke, Jonathan Howe, Jimmy Carter also on behalf of wife Rosiaynn, Bill Clinton and Anthony Lake.  Their views, like those of Fogarassy, are  of long-term duration, spanning the inevitable ups and downs of forward progress in mutually beneficial global relations.

Fogarassy’s simultaneously published novels about global relations were the first to enter into the cyber-age.  Light of a Destiny Dark about the contrast between the European and American experience of the Second World War era, has been called unrelentingly dark.  The Midas Maze about the vast UN global network is a novel in search of an audience.  While the mighty United States was the driving force behind the United Nations aimed at preventing another world war after the Second, America has remained complacent about the rest of the world and has denigrated the diplomatic solution to problems that it first championed.

A global pandemic may have changed that course, particularly under an administration that came to power after the country made great strides as a global leader by electing the western industrialized world’s first non-white head of state.  As the world grows global and details merge, differences and similarities become clear.  At bottom is the basic human connection.

Nobody anywhere likes to be poor or insignificant.  All strive for the maximum impact they can make on the world within their circumstances.  Achieving that goal requires a balance of risk and retreat to safety grounded in personal circumstances.

As a writer driven to express her experience of life as encountered, Fogarassy has presented her work to literary and commercial outlets.  She has been called profound.  She has also been deemed the most over-written writer ever met.  The range of views about her work represents not only her stabs at finding her voice and target audience,but also the structural demands of society at large,

The trick today, as throughout history, is to push a personal experience out into the greater world to make an impact.  Great or small, profound of over-written, the bottom line is to make a mark worthy of the feeling that the mark has been hit.  Progress has been made by experiencing life as it presenlf and the experience has been passed on to others through the workds and contacts of a lifetime.

Like all blessings, technology is mixed.  It unites the near-200 countries of the world but in doing so it obliterates nuance.  It provides a wealth of knowledge but the information is superficial compared to what human wisdom requires.  Thanks to technology, world society is speeding.  The modulator for this rapid dynamic is the wise leader among myriad cultures able to elevate the respresented people into the global  mainstream.

According to common psychological wisdom, humans like all animals are born ignorant and are trained to navigate the world around them by their nurturers.  In human, the quality of that nurture varies widely but certain constants prevail.

Humans raised with the ineffable quality of love learn to absorb tech advances with guidance.  Along that timeline, they also develop the human qualities that can lead to wisdom, including curiosity, courage to take measured chances and the ability to discern between truth and falsehood.

Mass communication did not start with the tech revolution.  It started with Gutenberg back in the 1600’s when he made prints of the Bible it had taken Scholars centuries to transcribe by hand.  Mass communication is a phenomenon has evolved through Town Criers, Yellow Journalists and now to Social Media.  Communication among the masses of the world calls for a new assessment of the personal need to communicate.

From the first yowl after birth, all humans and animals demand to be heard. The social media have satisfied that need.  A  tech world need now is to active the editor function through the system developed over time since the Gutenberg Bible.

TMI, too much information is the watchword of the modern sociual media tech world.  Control of that runaway Infor Highway train is  counseled by historical advisors from a simpler age.

Classical American author Mark Twain made the point succinctly over 150 years ago.  He said the difference between the right word and the almost right word was the difference between lightening and the lightening bug.

Based on personal experience and observation of the oputside world, the right word seldom appears fully formed with the first thoughts on a subject.  The forum of social media, however, can lead to exchanges that lead to deeper thought.

Significantly enough, the social media of developed countries like the US focus on personal  stories, such as the finding of a lost cat.  The social media of emerging countries focus on national cries for help in freeing themselves from tyrannies.

Communication across cultures in the world’s near-200 co9untries all speaking different languages is a formidable challenge.  It beings with the individual becoming a comfortable part in the home culture and then extending the bounty to those deserving a shot at getting a leg up in a complex world.

presenglobal demeaOther markers of global change have come to the fore with Russia’s invasion of Ukrine. India, for example, has recently overtaken China as the world’s most populous country. It is potentially a huge market for global products, services and trade. Rich in cultural traditions, its values align with democratic principles. But its history with European colonialism has made it reluctant to join the NATO Alliance for defense of Ukraine. Its ethnic and religious complexities also seem too nuanced for Westerners to navigate.

Thus the Asian powerhouse India follows China’s lead in undercutting Western sanctions against Russian aggression. And while China’s influence in emerging markets is limited by distrust, the lead of trusted India makes a huge impact in China’s favor. The global balance of power would definitively shift if China were to broker a peace deal for Ukraine like it has signalled it was eager to do. But a China-brokered peace deal for Ukraine would leave nothing resolved. The element of trust and confidence are the real issue at stake.

China is mistrusted by different countries for various reasons, most of them based on experience. China approaches emerging countries or regions with great opportunities to quickly build up infrastructural capacity for needs such as roads or bridges. If agreed upon due dates aren’met, China presses and settles for resources. It takes a “pound of flesd,” as Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice would say. By contrast, Russia approaches investment targets with promises of protection in exchange for strategic concessions such as access to transit or waterways. Russia’s deals are notoriously open for corruption.

Mistrust of America stems from its vast power to influence other cultures by default. It produces products that have global appeal with no regard for the market culture. It is seen as a bully in promoting its values in global trouble spots it meddles in, then hi-tails out when the going gets rough. The US is also seen as aloof and interested only in profit, closing its eyes to ills if the get in the way. Hypocrisy and greed are the flip side of the generosity and innovation that endear America to the world, also making it a target of resentment and envy to some..

By contrast, European countries in the EU are known for a pristine adherence to law and respect for diversity but only at a distance. In some countries and regions, Europeans are seen as preachy do-gooders with tight purses and stern demands. These qualities came to the fore. In the NATO Alliance to protect Ukraine. Also emerging through the Alliance is the wide cultural gap between East and West Europe as a result of Soviet occupation.

50 years of isolation behind the Iron Curtain have left a deep scar on Eastern Europeans. Those scars are evidence that Western democracy is far superior to communism as economic and social drivers. They also prove the intractible effects of oppression aside from otherwise shared cultural factors. In that way, American blacks have a lot in common with Eastern Europeans and with much of the emerging world