“Writers must oppose systems. It’s important to write against power, corporations, the state, and the whole system of consumption and of debilitating entertainments…I think writers, by nature, must oppose things, oppose whatever power tries to impose on us. You know, in America and in western Europe we live in very wealthy democracies, we can do virtually anything we want, I’m able to write whatever I want to write. But I can’t be part of this culture of simulation, in the sense of the culture’s absorbing of everything…If you’re a writer who, one way or another, comes to be seen as dangerous, you’ll wake up one morning and discover your face on a coffee mug or a t-shirt and you’ll have been neutralized.”
~ Don Delillo
R.M. ENGELHARDT 
By saying what writers MUST do, he’s imposing his own ideas on other writers who feel it’s equally or more important to write about the beauty of human compassion and friendship or a cute little story about an orphaned cat. When we limit writers by expecting them all to be against corporations as the fashionable evil of the day we leave no room for different points of view and we fall victim to whatever newest social/ political experiment is in vogue.
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I agree, both the writer, and with you as well.
My job as a writer is to present the different points of view with an open mind. It is, to use this blog to inspire others to write as well and to share their thoughts & opinions. One writer’s idealism is just that. What motivates them to write and to keep on writing. Love, anger and every and all emotions of the spectrum. That’s life … freedom. We live in an age and a time when we can share our ideas and thoughts. In some countries? This writer would have been locked up for his views.
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Fair enough. Though I wonder if it’s still true that in America you can really write about whatever you want. I’m reading The Gulag Archipelago at the moment–very frightening stuff. These days we can share more and more people can watch what we’re sharing.
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