Writers and Our Society
It's always bothered me that if you're seen as a struggling artist, you have no credibility to the world around you.
Friends, family and the state in particular regards you as some kind of pariah.
If you leave school and don't immediately get a job you're seen as a waster - what we call a bludger down here in the US of Oz.
Okay so there are lots of people who don't want to work these days.
Plus we have a welfare system in most countries that allows us to live without working, at least for a while, just.
And while I don't condone sponging off the state, I do support those who want to create books, film and music for no initial reward in the hope of hitting the big time.
After all, not wanting to waste 40 to 60 hours a week to make a living is to me a sign of complete rationality.
I'm just surprised there aren't more people out there who don't rage against a system that requires them to work in jobs they loathe and for bosses they despise...
But I'm not a Marxist. I know that the system would collapse without at least 80% of us wanting to do the right thing and work for a living.
It just amazes me that the vast majority are okay with that.
To me, creativity is the reason for existence.
And all the time I worked in offices and factories - admittedly not for very long - I felt as though my very lifeblood - my creativity - was being horribly stifled, causing me no end of stress, self hate, heartache and consequent broken relationships with loved ones because I just couldn't do it!
Maybe I'm just weird.
But I can completely understand someone who would rather spend their time writing books or screenplays or composing symphonies, if that's what they want to do.
In France, you can register for unemployment as a poet.
You can't do that in the US, England or Australia. Why is that?
Why is having an artistic temperament seen as an aberration - especially given that, as I argued last week, the whole economic structure of society would fall apart without artists to provide vision, new ideas and new worlds to aspire to?
I can only assume it's because artists are seen as freaks.
The irony being, of course, that when a particular waster does hit the big time, they're held aloft as inspirational - a veritable model of drive, focus, talent and vision!
When their art is applauded, all their foibles are forgiven, their past accorded with new insight - and they are promptly absorbed into the system as demigods, more than worthy of our complete adulation.
I'm not the first person to notice this phenomenon.
Colin Wilson wrote The Outsider in 1956 about this very issue.
He lived in the woods and wrote in the British Museum (to keep warm) for a while after leaving school, shunning a society that to him seemed irrational - only to write a book about it and yes, by doing so, becoming a pillar of the establishment - as his own book predicted he might!
I guess we all have to find our way in the world.
If you want to work, if that's what makes you happy and keeps you fulfilled, do it.
But if there's something else you want, something that burns inside you to be expressed, do that instead.
Ignore the fear.
The universe - and our society - seems to have a way, a need almost - to eventually incorporate your special talents into its fabric.
Capitalism works on the principle that there's a need for every type of person - and that everyone can and does specialize in their own uniquely individual way.
Those that would have you compromise and accept their reality are quite simply wrong to talk you out of following your heart.
If writing is more important to you than work, love and play, then do it.
Do it now and tomorrow and for the rest of your life.
If writing to you is play, a luxury or an indulgence, then do it.
Do it now and continue doing it.
If there's anything in your life you don't like, then stop doing it!
The world doesn't need another martyr, hiding away, struggling with inner demons.
The world needs you to be yourself: to dream - to ignore the 'state of the economy', and to wholeheartedly reject the pre-conditions of the previous generation.
You have a right to be happy and fulfilled.
To do what you want.
That's how the universe works.
Everything and everyone has a place, a purpose and a set of intentions that need expression.
We now know that even on a quantum level, atomic particles have an innate Intention built invisibly into their structure.
It's there for a reason.
Because without the expression of intention, nothing comes into existence.
By extension, you can never truly be yourself unless you LISTEN to your intuition, your gut in other words, and just do what in your heart and mind you know is true and right for you.
There are no prizes available for self sacrifice - and only destruction can come from denial.
Sooner or later you will come to this realization, as you're supposed to, and know that your dreams are there within you to inspire you into action.
Be what you want to be.
Do anything you want to do.
Yeah!
Keep Writing.
THIS WEEK'S WRITER'S QUOTE:
"I have always believed helping your fellow man is profitable in every sense, personally and bottom line." Mario Puzo
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