Notes

Dear Diary:  The New Victimology

There are five possible conflicts in stories:  man v. man, man v. self, man v. society, man v. nature and man v. technology.  Man is considered the protagonist and what he is fighting against is the antagonist.

But something has changed and recognizing this change may help make sense of the crazy world we live in.  Now the antagonists seem to have switched with the protagonists much like earth’s magnetic poles are in the process of switching.  Man is no longer the hero, but the victim.  I offer these new conflicts:

Society v. man  The stand your ground cases, the belittling of police where the exception proves the rule and the various national marches for whatever all seem to condemn the individual by the many.

Nature v. man  The POV isn’t really what man is doing to nature, but the fear of what nature may do to man - who is too stupid to understand..

Technology v. man  The POV here is that the individual is being replaced by computers and A1.  Technology like autonomous driving vehicles will save us from ourselves.

In a world where man can no longer be anything but a puny victim, the question is can literature itself survive if there are no heroes.  All we have left is a "gotcha" mentality. 

I know this isn't poetry, but . . .