The World Won’t End if you Trust your Readers

In an age where people are constantly at war with each other and there is very little trust among people in charge what’s the point of continuing to write? This is, of course, assuming that one primary purpose of writing is to create some kind of change in the world.

So, this is in the context of Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot. Here, the characters do nothing but wait for this man who never shows up. When we thought about why, we figured that it was the hope that Godot might show up that kept them waiting day after day. This is similar to what people these days are doing.

They seem to have some kind of belief and trust in the people in this world - the ones who have the power to create mass destruction. This reminds me of something I heard in Jurassic World: Rebirth. One of the characters mentioned that humans are the only creatures in the world who have managed to create weapons that can lead to their own destruction. We can destroy humanity hundreds of times over. This is a scary thought. Isn’t it?

Coming back to my first point about the purpose of writing, Beckett wrote this play during World War II, when people’s trust in humanity was fading. However, the fact that Beckett wrote this play says otherwise.

For what’s the point in writing if you don’t believe your writing has a purpose? What’s the point in there being a purpose to writing if you don’t believe in humanity? Authors have to have some trust in their readers when they write.

On a side note, this is also a reason why you shouldn’t give your readers too much information, but let them connect the dots themselves. They are capable, and you should trust them to read the purpose of your writing.

Back to the main point here, writers write to help the world in some way. To do that, you have to trust that there is humanity left in the world and that those in charge of weapons of mass destruction aren’t going to olbiterate human civilization.