Update for readers, Kennedy, plastics, hiatus

Hey everyone, I have decided to take a break from Substack for the duration of the 2024 RFK Jr. presidential campaign. I had intended to keep writing, in order to exercise the parts of my brain that aren’t, ahem, appropriate for the political realm, and to say things that I believe need to be said but which I cannot convey through the agency of a political candidate and political organization. Actually I probably still will do that, from time to time. Thing is, some of you, a couple percent, are paid subscribers, and I just don’t feel justified in continuing to accept your money when I’m not producing regular output. I feel a kind of pressure that’s uncomfortable.

Now that I mention it, I have always felt uncomfortable about that. Before Substack I didn’t worry about subscriptions – I just had a donation button on my website, where I published my own essays. Maybe I should go back to that. In any event, I am going to pause all the paid subscriptions. Then I’ll feel better about publishing sporadically.

Of course, it could be that as soon as I make this move, I’ll have a flurry of ideas and start posting even more than before. Who knows. But I need to take the pressure off.

Speaking of the Kennedy campaign, I am deep in it again, despite my passionate and ongoing disagreement with the candidate about Israel and Palestine. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I am appalled and horrified by the slaughter in Gaza. But I fail to see how leaving the campaign would help anyone there. And there are so many other issues on which Kennedy is by far the best candidate in the race. I believe that if either of the other two viable candidates, Trump or Biden, win a second term, it will be a catastrophe for this country and, by extension, for the world.

A quick example: a friend just called from the UN Plastics Treaty negotiations. It is a shit show. Basically, the United States is sabotaging any meaningful agreement. This is the kind of thing that would change completely under a Kennedy administration. There are hundreds of things like this.

Furthermore, even if my influence on the candidate and the campaign is modest, still, it is far from zero. I believe it is my responsibility to represent the ideas I have worked with for my whole life, and keep them in the candidate’s field of awareness and infuse them into messaging and policy, as best as I am able.

There are six months to go before the election. So, I’m planning to suspend paid subscriptions till then. After that, win or lose, I will probably return to writing. I have no interest whatever in working in government.

I’ll probably continue to post something here now and again. Mostly small things.

I want to thank those of you who have stayed paid subscribers even through my reduced output. Your generosity is touching.

I’ll let you all know if and when anything changes. I really miss exploring the reaches of thought beyond the political. I can’t stay away from it forever. But I will try for another few months. I hope that part of my brain doesn’t atrophy.

Charles