Monetisation: A Question of Requirement

 Greetings,

I have previously discussed the question of what my time is worth, and also a post about whether or not my time at university was a waste of time. I have been happy cruising along with my payments from Services Australia, under the auspices of the Department of Social Services. Yes, regardless of their re-branding, change of logo, or whatever, they are still the Department of Social Services, or DSS in Australia. However, more recently, there have been comments about what advantages I have, what privileges I have, and quite frankly with the way that the government has been managing the country, I have been feeling the squeeze on the more social/comfort parts of my life.

The result of all of this consideration? 

There needs to be a little background before I get to that. I write four blogs at the moment, this one, "A Fencer's Ramblings" my fencing blog where I discuss fencing and training in fencing, and all of the details that go along with that pursuit; "A Life with Fibromyalgia" where I discuss some of my medical history, and how I deal with my chronic illnesses, primarily fibromyalgia; and "Olde Wordes: An Examination of Elizabethan English" which began as a foundation for writing the Elizabethan portion of one of my books, which I published, His Practice in Modern and Elizabethan English. This was the second book that I have published, the first one was a book version of a series of my fencing blog articles, plus some extras added in, entitled Un-Blogged: A Fencer's Ramblings.

I write a lot most of my writing does not see the light of day, unless I find that the articles are of particular interest to a particular group. You can find a profile of me on academia.edu with more of my articles; these are more of a scholarly bend to them, though at least one of them is a bit of fun. The point here being that I have written a lot and seen very little in the way of financial recompense for the hours of work and the thousands and thousands of words I have written.

I have begun a profile on Patreon. I will be putting my more considered and researched articles on this site where people can pay me for the effort that has gone into producing the articles. I will not be removing articles from sites where they are already held, unless I do updates or improvements. In this case the newer versions will appear on the Patreon site for access to those people willing to pay me for my time and expertise.

I have no doubt that there will be some who will scoff at these efforts and who will make comment about the monetisation of my writing. To these people, I will say that I am simply expecting to be paid for the work that I am putting in, for the information that I am supplying, for the expertise that I am supplying in the process. If that is not sufficient explanation, then they can simply go elsewhere, as they are not my concern.

I will still put articles on my various blogs, but they will not be of the same size or quality that they used to be, they will be shorter, and likely pointing to more significant articles on the Patreon site. If you want someone to blame for all of this, you can blame the government; all the rich individuals who don't want to pay their taxes; and all those who still believe that people with disabilities choose not to work, and choose to allow their disabilities to impact their lives so much that the government keeps disability payments low, so low that they are under the taxable threshold, while the prices of basic food and accommodation rises.

Cheers,

Henry.

A Wasted Time?

 Greetings,

Supposedly I wasted years of my life doing a History degree and Honours because it is useless in today's society. It is not worth anything because we have too many historians out there already. The fact that I finished my Degree and Honours in 2002 is beside the point.

First, I could've studied something more suited to "the market" but I decided to study something which aligned with my passion. Something that was my goal in life, rather than something that was "fiscally sensible". Can you claim to have done the same?

Secondly, there is a quote from Winston Churchill and it is certainly as relevant today as it was when it was first said, "Those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it." I would prefer to learn from history than repeat it, or at least point it out to people so they understand that we have been here before and we still have not learnt our lesson.

Thirdly, to all the historical reenactors and budding historians, I simply ask you, where do you think all that wonderful information that you are using as "evidence" for your "arguments" came from in the first place? It did not simply pop out of the ground, it was discovered, researched and interrogated by trained historians for its veracity before being placed in the same sources that you use. 

Fourthly, "History offers the best training for those who are to take part in public affairs" from Polybius in his Histories. Evidence can be found for this in many a statesman who studied history, including John F. Kennedy, Joe Biden, and Winston Churchill. I would never put myself among those people, but maybe if more leaders had studied history then they would know where they are going and where not to go.

Fifthly, only through a study of history do you have the tools to interrogate history, to discover what is hidden behind the history, to discover the what, the wherefore, the true meaning of the events. Such can not only be applied to events of the past, but can also be applied to events of the present, with a knowledge of the past. "Not to know what happened before one was born is to remain a child." Cicero: De Oratore XXXIV

With these five points in mind, and likely more that I could raise, no I don't think I did waste my time studying history, and I don't think I waste my time studying history. I believe it gives me a better understanding of the world around me, a better understanding than those who have not studied history, or those who have given it a cursory glance. I believe that my years of training in history puts me ahead of those amateurs who study history, for I already know how to interrogate sources, I already know how to write an argument, I already know how to sort the relevant from the irrelevant when examining my sources, because I was trained to do so.

Cheers,

Henry.