I’m interested in the idea of writing fiction, in particular science fiction, to help promote the model of a participatory economy. I even have an idea for a couple of stories.
Story Idea One: We meet a man named Mel. Mel is a CEO and like the stereotypical CEO is self-absorbed, sociopathic, manipulative, mean, quick to anger, and even quicker to make decisions. He is woken up early one morning and is told that half the employees of his company have quit, because he and his whole company have magically been transported to a world with a participatory economy. Suddenly, everything that Mel knows and everything Mel knows how to do is ineffective at best, and usually hideously wrong. In a matter of weeks, everyone in Mel’s company has left, and so Mel is forced to start anew, but the comedy or errors just continues. Nobody wants to join Mel’s worker’s council because they regarding his incessant bossiness as akin to slavery. Mel tries to join a worker’s council, but to no avail since he regards balanced jobs as beneath his dignity – except that all jobs are balanced for desirability and empowerment. Fast forward twenty years: Mel finally reforms his ways, in day-to-day action if not in intent.
Story Idea Two: A fictionalized depiction of the transformation of the world from a market-strewn hellscape to a worldwide participatory economy, written like a grand detailed history spanning decades or centuries. It starts with the small-scale writings of a few diehard adherents, at first ignored and dismissed. Early attempts to put the ideas into practice are small-scale and with little support are doomed to fail, even among sympathizers. But years and decades pass, and with a newer generation hungry for new suggestions and familiar with the old ideas, take up the mantle to further spread the ideas and implementing them into wide practice. The equivalent of a “red scare” then takes hold, as the powers-that-be are fearful of losing power in this brave new world. The resulting war of ideas becomes a war of weapons, and the participatory economy advocates are defeated. This whole saga repeats itself three, four, five times, until a new world is finally won. Moral: Fights can take longer than you expect.
What other ideas do others have? What story or stories are folks interested in writing?
