What Good Would Writing Do?

A friend of mine is planning to go to a grad school in the UK. I'm hoping he would come to the US, to California, but it's not the point of this entry. He aims to major in International Development, Conflict Resolution, or something similar because he's been interested in removing the inequality in the world.

We are never equal, he says. Because we cannot chose where to be born. We were born in a developed country just by chance. We need to remove the inequality to make a better world. That's our mission.

I was impressed. It made me wonder about what I'm doing. I write, because I was born in a country where I could learn how to read and write. There were books in my life even before I learned how to read. I could enjoy different kinds of art. I could go to university and study English so that I could write in it. I write in English now because I was born and raised in this environment.

But what good would literature do if you don't read? If you never have an opportunity to learn how to read? If you don't have time to care about art or books or anything other than surviving? Would you read when you are starving? Would you read when your baby is dying?

Some writers say they don't like to be political. I don't like to be political in my stories either, but I am political, meaning I care about the society, the world, the situations people are in. I believe in changing the world for better. I like to think I can contribute to changing the world by writing. I like to think creativity and imagination can make a better world.

But what good would writing do to people who are forced to survive through life?

I want to be hopeful, but sometimes I feel helpless because I can't find the answer. I don't want to believe writing is a mere self-satisfying masturbation after all---but is it?