I stumbled across a rant at a LiveJournal community about someone who decided to cut short her fanfic to devote her life to a nobel cause. Here is what was said:

And, in a last streak of authorial sadism, I'm not saying anything about how it would have ended or continued. Now I'm leaning towards hiatus, so I can't REALLY say...

-dodges projectile-

It's just...look at the world around you. I can't sit here and type HP fan fiction when there are people starving, dying, homeless. I mean, isn't that a bit of a caricature? I'm spending hours working on a pointless story, which I enjoyed writing---don't think that I didn't--- but it's still rather pointless, on my cushy Dell computer, while others work several hours a day, unable to support their families. It's ----- wrong. Nothing against hobbies or fanfiction or anything else; I've seen some things in the world that need changed, and I want to help with that.

So, I'm immersing myself in everything else. Politics, technology, stopping poverty...

Plus, my sister's been trying to guilt me into it for ages...

Which means: no time for fan fiction.

Especially with school (too many advanced classes, methinks) and clubs, and all that...Yeah...

So... -runs off-

I'm being completely serious, though.

Why are we all spending time on this, when there is so much more to be doing? Where we're not stuck to computers or popular culture. Where we can do something we'd be proud of, saying 'this made a difference'.

No offense.

But really-----I can't imagine spending hours reading and writing fan fiction anymore; it just seems so...the hours put into it, I could spend better doing something else.

Shouldn't the real world be more important?

So I'm off.

Thanks for reading and reviewing, especially those who have been with the story since the beginning. A year.

Wow.

So, I'm going to go do something in the world, and my best wishes to those who choose to do the same, or already do it!

*author's name witheld*

-------------

PS - Good gravy, you people are anti-doing something other than fanction!

As I never even read the fanfic in question, my issue is not with that. Rather, my issue is with the way she acts self-righteous and insults everyone who continues to persue an activity that she herself had persued until recently. To me, that kind of attitude is very contradictory to the values that she expouses. She should remember that "charity begins at home", metaphorically speaking. When you start being rude to all your friends and accusing them of being "selfish" or "lazy", this only serves to make your cause look bad - and it can be very self-defeating. I'm wondering if anybody here has ever encountered those kind of people. I would call this the "insufferable philanthropist syndrome" - but I'm wondering if there's already an official term for people who have a sudden epiphany to make this world world a better place, but acts self-righteous towards poeople who maybe aren't as much into their cause as they are.