Statistics, Art, and the Grapes of Wrath

Author John Steinbeck

  Measurements have no value, except in human terms.  When the government claims its going to save a billion dollars, it means absolutely nothing: it’s only a number. 72 trillion, 64, −7: by themselves they mean nothing.  If there are 72 trillion stars in the sky, to humans, that means a lot. To a computer, it wouldn’t mean anything. 64 has no particular meaning, unless you sing a song called “When I’m 64” and talk about still loving each other as old people.  −7 has no meaning unless that’s the temperature, and you’re outside naked. Nothing has meaning, except in human terms.
  So if you’re searching for meaning, it can’t be measured objectively. Meaning can only be subjective, measured by yourself and by others around you.
  So meaning starts and ends with human awareness. Mindfulness, but subjective mindfulness - your world on your terms.
  Art gives us a means to share meaning.  Sometimes subjective meaning doesn’t translate, or isn’t shared, and art doesn’t work.  Art is often tied to culture - the physical experiences of the artist are too foreign sometimes.  We americans don’t get Indonesian gamelan music or whale song.
  Anyway, budget numbers being thrown out start to have meaning only when voters can assign a subjective experience to them.  It is said that there will be no revolution until people turn the faucet and no water comes out. I think that’s so.

  One of the jobs of activist writers is to tie human experiences and pain to the abstract numbers tossed around in political debate. It gives them meaning. The most effective writing will show how cuts will affect upper middle class taxpayers, because they are the prized "independent" voters.  Obama doesn't need me - I'm going to vote Kucinich in the primary and Obama in the general. Foregone conclusion.  It's the low-information voters that need convincing.
  For example, cuts to Medicare don’t just hurt grandma, they will force mom and dad to put grandma up in the basement or extra room. Taking her places and buying her stuff will take 5-10 extra hours a week that they don’t have. It takes 20 minutes to get her out of a car and into the doctor's waiting room.  Where you get to wait, too.  And play Angry Birds.  Grandpa will run out of prescription benefits and co-pay money and that will cost you.  Oh, and by the way, the house will smell.  Bad. All the time.

  I have lived through all of that. It’s real. It sucks. I’m proud to have taken good care of mom and dad. I could not have done it without Medicare. It would have ruined my plans for my kids and my self for 10-15 years and the stress would have killed me.
  So as the elections loom, progressive writers need to take every abstract number and bring it home to Joe SixPack and Jane WineBox.  Instead of indignantly using adjectives like immoral, inhumane, and uncaring, paint a picture of the pain it will cause to the average working family. Numbers have no meaning - describe physical sensations and emotions - describe the losses and depression.
  Compare these two:
1. In the 1930s, payroll job losses eventually passed 11% of the"labor-able" population
2. "...and in the eyes of the hungry there is a growing wrath. In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage."
  Oh and BTW - if I have to hear Barack Obama tell another story about “Real Americans” during a major speech, I’m gonna hurl. It’s one thing to poetically connect with the hearts of listeners, but when he does that bit about how a single mother needs job training or education money, it no longer sounds authentic - it sounds like a bit. You know - he will be rocking along in a speech, knocking em dead, doing his half-white MLK thing, and right when he should stop, or end with “mine eyes have seen the glory,” he launches into a description of Jenny Thudpucker sending her 9 year old off to school, and how she need mass transit.
  Mr President, please stop. You don't ride the subway, and Joe Biden on the train don't count. You’re not a community organizer now. We know you don’t spend time in the ghettos and trailer parks anymore. Shoot a Tomahawk missile at Wall Street and get us our damned money back.
  *One more Steinbeck quote, cos he’s great:
“Men do change, and change comes like a little wind that ruffles the curtains at dawn, and it comes like the stealthy perfume of wildflowers hidden in the grass.”

That tiny little hesitating smile, Mr President - that's all you need.  Don't turn your back on him.