Inside the Outside, May 2023

My second full month on Substack saw me take an untimely, but needed, break.?

More on that later.?

I am still trying to work out this new venture - being an old journo, I’m used to just doing the raw copy and letting others do the rest. Now, to survive, I need to work ‘the rest’ out.?

I’m trying different ways to build an audience because I believe what I have to say and my angle on various issues have value.?

But, I hear crickets a lot and struggling a little with FOMO as everyone else on substack seems to be powering on and getting subs etc.?

So, please do take a look at my stuff and give me your feedback, which, as I still have L plates on here, is probably more important than subs right now.?

So, this month I started on April 7 with a think piece on democracy and why it is broken.?

I hooked the piece to on-going pro-democracy protests in Israel, where I was at the time, and to what I see as a widespread dissatisfaction with the nominally democratic, liberal, state-based and globalised structures that now dominate our lives.?

In it, I highlighted a number of structural weaknesses that today’s democracy faces, contrasting with earlier versions of the concept during which such threats did not really exist.?

Next, on April 20, after a break of 2 weeks (a no-no when you’re starting something like this apparently) I explained why I disappeared.?

A mental health crash had me unable to function for a while, let alone work.

I didn’t and don’t need to, go into details on what was - and still is - going on - but it’s a few lifelong issues that keep resurfacing and which I am being compelled to face head on.?

Scary stuff.?

It’s encouraging that this was my most read piece to date, so I will try and take that on board for future content.?

I’m on firmer ground now, but the issue itself is still there and needs my attention. Daily. Hourly. Right now in fact. Doing my best…..

As I struggled to get my head above water, I dropped a few missives on the site’s new Twitter-like platform, Notes.?

My favourite, on April 23, was about a dream I had in which I was shocked by an event within the dream. I wondered then, as now, how can I be surprised in a story I’m supposed to be telling myself? Whose is that ‘other’ voice in our head?

In mid-April, I found myself in Cyprus and discovered it was the birthplace of the philosopher Zeno - he of Zeno’s Arrow and Zeno’s Paradox.?

On April 23, I wrote a short piece on how part of mental health challenges are around repeating patterns of the past and so Zeno’s take on linear time and about the validity of The Now, seemed apt and pressing on me as I sat on the beach in Larnaca.?

On April 30, I knocked up an essay on the increasing permanence of organised state violence - aka war - hooked to a piece in The Economist - and tried to show that the problem cannot just be isolated to a few causes.?

It is, I argue, systemic.?

Finally, on May 5, I dropped an extract of my 2022 novel Game.

With the FIFA Women’s World Cup not far away in Australia, this ‘factional’ take on the politics and big business of the world game is timely and relevant.?

I believe a better world cup - for a better world - is actually possible.?

Thanks to all those who have read and supported my substack journey so far.

The LinkedIn newsletter has been particularly well supported, so please know I am very grateful for that and please don’t stop now…..

Until next month, that’s Inside the Outside for another month.?

Thanks again!

#newsletter #currentaffairs #news #globaldev #womensworldcup #democracy #israel #cyprus #philosophy #mentalhealth #mentalhealthawareness