Just like most things. No not everyone is a creative or able to be happy doing creative things. And when you start talking about groups in the tens or hundreds of millions even small percentages become significant.
this post was submitted on 04 Sep 2025
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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).
Didn't all the government payments also kick off a bunch of inflation? Seems like a downside.
Come on. Apply some critical thinking here. That inflation surge was in the middle of the epochal Covid-induced supply chain shocks. Moreover, there isn't some fixed quantity of widgets we can produce. It's easy to avoid inflation when implementing major income redistribution. You just do it gradually. The problem with Covid stimulus was that it had to be delivered all at once. But if implemented gradually, production can simply be scaled up to meet increased demand.
Only because they fotgave every loan to businesses. The handouts mostly went the owners.
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.
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.
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?
It is creation. Humans have a knack for creating things using the gifts given from nature, as long as said humans have their basic needs met.
Creation can easily be art as well though. A lot of creative endeavors require you to be artistic on some level. I don't think the two things are as easily separable as people think.
I think even the manner in which you go about creating things could be the way you express yourself artistically in some cases.
Same.
Like.....exactly the same. Weird.
Yup. I'd probably dabble in blacksmithing, gardening, or coding apps.
I'm an artist and rent is due. If I focus on one I end up homeless (again). If I focus on the other I'll want to kill myself because my life would have no more meaning.
the money also gets them famous
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 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.
In the early ’90s*
True. My way would be correct if it was pronounced nine zeroes (which it isn't).
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.
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.
That's wait I want
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.
Grow it. If people benefit they will join.
3 minutes of Brian Eno talking on this very topic and undermining the concept of the genius.
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