I am excited for your whole book, Joe! I admire your generosity and openness in publishing it through weekly installments on Medium. You did an excellent job of building the concepts in this introduction and in Chapter 1. I quite liked the vegan analogy of trying to find a term and a clear standard that incite effective action. “One guiding principle to fight climate change, redistribute wealth, and live happily.” Now that is one compelling subtitle!
This book is something you could easily feel justified in making some modest money through, as well. These concepts help people waste fewer dollars on things they don’t need so they can live with greater ease, while also funneling more funds towards charitable causes. You combine self-help with altruism here. Perhaps after you release every chapter in this collaborative process, you'll be able to refresh the book in another form that gains additional readers.
Like greenom suggested, knowing your writing we can expect to ponder intersections around other issues, including religion which I still want to read your other writings about and ponder more.
Your response to Wei’s comment I also loved. The Mean Wage Movement is about “moving towards,” and so is your effort in writing this book. Even if you only inspire a handful of people to live more responsibly and/or adopt this particular term, it doesn't really matter which official "movement" takes off as long as the core objectives get accomplished. You are contributing to that greater goal, and that's what matters. That being said, of course you can learn from people who have advocated similar ideas, as you might then be able to come up with an even stronger or up-to-date iteration of the earlier ideas. Or you could figure out how to network with like-minded advocates to achieve even more collaboratively than you each did independently. Who knows where this will lead. I just love the way you are approaching it.
I guess if I could influence this book in any way as a reader, it would for me to ask how concern for the wellbeing of nonhuman individuals factors in. I highlighted as I was reading Chapter 1 your explanation of why climate change is arguably the top threat to address. My understanding is similar, which makes me want to become a better-informed citizen and to join you as a climate activist. However, my worldview is different from most people because my sense of “we” includes all sentient animals, as I believe it should. If we humans can prolong Homo sapiens (and other life on Earth) by combatting climate change, I hope we not only work to help members of our own species be happy and protected, but also minimize the harm we cause to other animals and seek to proactively improve their conditions. The problem of senseless suffering in life predates and goes way beyond our own species, but we human are the only ones with the power to address such larger issues.
“My target audience is people who are empathetic to the suffering going on around the world, and concerned about climate change, but who have a hard time conceptualizing what a meaningful change might look like on their part. People who want to help but are also used to a certain standard of living, and can't understand how they could minimize that and still be comfortable, secure, and happy.”
You really nailed the target audience. Thank you again for organizing your writing efforts into something so important as this book. 💖
