Pickup a fucking crayon and draw your friends
This was discovered in the US shortly after the COVID-19 lockdown thanks to The Great Resignation when furloughed workers took to hobbies during lockdown and some of them found ones lucrative enough they decided to quit their (often toxic) jobs.
In fact, there's been a strong effort by both principal political parties and the ownership class to memory-hole what happened 2020-2022 in which ordinary people were given enough material support to define for themselves their societal role, rather than having it defined for them by major commercial interests (who want them as cheap labor).
This is also how an unconditional socialized or community-centered system would work. (We might even call them socialism or communism if those were not the worst of all slurs in the United States). People can couch-potato and binge-watch TV for about two weeks before cabin fever sets in and they either start fixing and building. Those of us (like me) who can couch potato for longer than that suffer from mental illness (and in my case, have been diagnosed since my early twenties). I stayed in bed for nine months, often without the capacity to literally lift a finger thanks to my avolition. No one wants to be that lazy.
No, the current system is a grift, a scam to force people to engage in menial labor for super-cheap while they suffer abuse by their superiors, hence the RTO mandates, and how crunching development teams in AAA game development is still a thing.
Yes, I'm bitter, but Trump's autocratic movement may be the last gasp of neoliberalism, and either we're going to see steps towards a new New Deal or we're going to see our Tech-Bro oligarch masters try to fascism all of the US and the reprisal will be even more revolutionary (and more violent).
Okay? What about all those billionaires destroying the world? Guess they must be the exceptions...
Well a small percentage of humans are psychopaths.
Small? Seems like at least 30%
An important parallel to this, especially for those of us who grew up in the US, is to remember that your hobbies and the things you build can be for your own enrichment. They do not need to be efficient or profitable. The effect of the process on your psyche is far more important than the new inanimate object you possess at the end. But that's not how our capitalist worker bee culture taught me to see it.
The way I've heard this put is that our potential (skills, will, interest, gumption, etc) has been financialized.
It's to the point where you'll just even be day dreaming about some fun idea, and a little subroutine in your head will kick off titled but how do I monetize this?
This is ofc in large part due to the fact that you need to earn a lot of money to survive comfortably, but even that is an artificial condition that we could collectively change if we wanted.
I'm convinced that this process of self and imposed financialization ultimately costs us more joy, wellbeing, peace, and even productivity, than if we simply identified and addressed needs democratically.
a little subroutine in your head will kick off titled but how do I monetize this?
Yep, that is exactly it.
I have finally been winning the battle against that subroutine, and I still stomp that shit into the ground any time it makes a peep.
I've given away some cool stuff to some excited people this summer!
A parallel to this issue that still irks the shit out of me is the "huh... smart!" reaction when somebody takes the most greedy path possible. It gets to the point where generosity is a character flaw because it makes you a sucker and not a winner.
I have finally been winning the battle against that subroutine, and I still stomp that shit into the ground any time it makes a peep.
That's great. I still hear it every now and then, and it never ends up making me feel better. It just starts turning whatever I'm doing into a job.
The only thing that's worked for me is separating the jobs I do just for money to survive into like their own category. And then thinking of everything else (even if it's actually very productive in non money ways) as a sort of "play" where anything is allowed, because I make the rules when I'm not on a job.
A parallel to this issue that still irks the shit out of me is the "huh... smart!" reaction when somebody takes the most greedy path possible. It gets to the point where generosity is a character flaw because it makes you a sucker and not a winner.
Omg yes, that's its own weird societal pathology. It's like we've assimilated the twisted values of the "clever" exec-sociopath type into our cultural script. That's also part of what I've come to understand falls under "financialization."
This is kind of how I treat hobbies. I don’t start learning Spanish to be able to speak Spanish for instance, like obviously you might get there. So for me it’s all about the journey and if I get bored and move on to something else that isn’t failure that’s chasing your curiosities and being open to try new things.
Also ADHD helps.
Everytime my German teacher says something like "one day if you're gonna be in Germany and say it as so and so....", I always wonder: "should I tell her I don't really care about pronunciation or stuff like that and am only learning this so I can better understand the memes that show up in my timeline?"
It's been a little over a year and the secret is still up.
As I Brit who joined a German instance on here I feel I should learn German for the same reason there are so many memes.
Haha, absolutely with the ADHD. I'm tempted to put a sign on all the shit I constructed this summer that says "the house that adderall built" or something like that, lol.
It also helps to have multiple projects going, as long as you keep it to a manageable number. Nothing like making progress on hobby project B to procrastinate on hobby project A because you aren't feeling that one today.
I don't know if it's art or just creation. Like, if I had infinite money I'd spend time on leatherworking and making little machines/programs. Both a form of creation.
Have I shown you my assorted lengths of wire?
Same.
Like.....exactly the same. Weird.
Yup. I'd probably dabble in blacksmithing, gardening, or coding apps.
also i can't help but say "look. there's much worse things for the fucking yuppy kids to do than make art. they could go into real estate, or military advancements. every lucky baby ducky making art about how fucked the world is is a tiny victory. they should do more to make room for the rest of us, but they literally have so much privilege they don't know how. don't make hating them your top priority in this global system of violence"
We were all really jazzed about that healthcare CEO getting killed, and then when they arrested Luigi my coworker was like, "He was quite privileged, you know," like we aren't allowed to like the guy anymore.
Why would we like him less? Being privileged and throwing that away means he had more to lose and allegedly did it anyway.
Except for the part where he is innocent
He’s definitely innocent. Sorry, thought I had an “allegedly” in there. Gonna edit my comment to add one now, thanks for calling that out
don't make hating them your top priority
So much this. I grew up fairly less affluent than most. I was once accused of being secretly rich because “no one would dress that poor on purpose”. And I’ve had a few less than stellar altercations with kids from rich families. Suffice it to say, I resented the fuck out of people with money/privilege; I still do. It’s a toxic mindset, and it drags you down and through the mud with no benefit. That old adage of “comparison is the thief of joy” really is true. Don’t let anyone steal your joy; especially yourself.
I have long thought that a UBI would generate a new renaissance.
In the early 90's, myself and every single computing geek I knew thought the Internet would usher in a Renaissance of intellect.
It was humbling to be so sure and so wrong. While I hope the same as you do, I am not so sure of anything anymore.
You weren't wrong across the board though. I know it's hard to focus on the positives these days, and we are constantly bombarded with depressing and inane content, but we can't lose sight of them.
It's hard to overstate how much the internet has made scientific research and collaboration easier for instance. The sheer amount of research being done has exploded, and it's far from being all slop. Publishers try their best to paywall the articles but they're still available nonetheless.
And what about all the art that is shared online by people who would never, in a million years, have been able to show their creations to the world before the internet. Not to mention the people who don't share it but can make it because of freely available information.
I know it's not as idyllic as you probably foresaw it (yeah, understatement of the century, I know), but it did happen, even though unfortunately it also led to a gigantic pile of shit. Both can be true simultaneously.
Good point about science, eg mRNA Covid vaccine development. However because of social media emboldening cookers, the Western public is increasingly anti-science. Even the number of Flat-Earthers is on the increase.
Acrual law is online and yet delusional Sovereign Citizens make up their own law and have become deadly terrorists.
As for the arts I disagree even though I personally embraced the technology.
I was inspired by techno in the mid 90's using daisy chained old Roland gear. Each person could afford one and together they were complete. It was punk ethos.
I then formed perhaps the first laptop electronic band in the world to take ot to the next level. Three of uswho already had computers banded together because each 80486 computer was not powerful enough on its own. The next generation of computers saw us splinter to go solo because we could.
Now I jam and record weekly with custom software over the Internet — me in Australia and other guy in Switzerland. But this space age workaround is out of necessity because locals in Sydney are unavailable. I would prefer to be in the same room for the vibe and have made a callout in local forums.
Respondents supposedly liked my music enough but nothing ever came from it once I revealed that there are no upcoming gigs and I am not interested in chasing gigs either. Youngsters seek fame (as always) while the older ones seek paying gigs to afford their rent. They don't have time for creative collaboration for its own sake.
From a community standpoint, it was better pre-computer. Even night club DJ's performed a different role as collectors and curators. Spotify has killed that. It is the enshittification of music.
Also Anna's archive is what I always wanted. That and piracy sites mean that most of the movies, TV, and whatnot are easy to get noatter what
The problem is we don't.live in a democracy
RIP Aaron Swartz. RIP Reddit.
In the early ’90s*
True. My way would be correct if it was pronounced nine zeroes (which it isn't).
It would improve society in so many ways. The only people it wouldn't benefit are the ruling class, and by harming the ruling class to benefit society, you benefit society. There are literally no downsides to it.
I so want a UBI. Time to help my community, make open source contributions in ways I deem meaningful and beneficial to society rather than driven by corporate profit, make art, and have as much time as I want with my family? Sign me up.
But we wouldn't want to prove that people don't need the fear of homelessness and starvation to be productive now would we?
Don't wait for your country. How much do you want it? Are you willing to find all the other people who want it? Once enough people want it you can move into one place and pool parts of your income to create it.
Yes, some sort of commune is definitely not out of the question, on a personal level. That does not help the vast majority of people who stand to benefit from it (more so than me) though.
That's wait I want
The correct terminology is people want to be able to express themselves and explore the world without being judged. Finding a purpose in what they want to do in and with their life. After all, no one was chosen to be born.
I defy the system by making art anyway.
Never let them take it from you.
the money also gets them famous
We'll never have that privlige so long as the ruling class remains.
It seems to me like being able to choose to be an artist when rent is due IS what being Privileged means. Yeah, a lot more people probably would choose to express themselves over being a wage slave.
I'm not even sure what this post is trying to convey. Is there a definition of Privilege that doesn't include having opportunities that a lot of other people don't have?
I think what this alludes to is the reality that the time and resources to self-actualize are still largely the domain of the owner class.
And many to most still seem to just chase a bigger hoard rather than do that.
If Republicans actually gave a shit about small businesses, they would pass Medicare for All yesterday. Healthcare being tied to employment (with orgs that offer health insurance as part of compensation) is one of the biggest barriers to entrepreneurship in the United States.
I think you need only look to countries with free healthcare to see that isn't the case.
Lack of healthcare is one of the biggest reasons I’ve never gone freelance for my programming work.
People tweeting stuff. We allow tweets from anyone.
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