Feed your face. Then, feed the people. Only when both of those are accomplished can you then feed your head.
What do you hear when someone tells you that their primary goal in life is to be an artist? Do you bask in the revelry of being in the presence of a dreamer? Are you fascinated by the potential for this person to inspire you? Do you feel inadequate, thinking of how you wish you were creative enough to pursue your artistic dreams like the visionary before you? I don't anymore.
After your primary education, all maturing adults are eventually dumped into the "real world," as it's so called, in which we are forced, on our own, to achieve subsistence. Once can marvel at the vast variety of career options that lie about. As spoiled citizens of a developed country, we almost unanimously begin our career decisions by looking at these options in terms of what we want to do-- we ask ourselves, "which occupation is for me?"
Although children are always asked, "what do you want to be when you grow up?" another necessary question to ask yourself is, "what will the populace need from me when I grow up?" Jobs, for the most part, don't exist because we simply want them to; they exist because there's a need for them. Finding an occupation that suits you is made vastly easier by the existence of a great variation in demanded skills, but these skills exist on the basis of public need, not the people's entitlement to do whatever they want to do.
So if jobs are in existence because of need, we must, then, address what people need in the world. Take a look at Maslow's hierarchy of needs; society's foundation doesn't rely on art. The most basic human needs include food, water, shelter and clothing. Once those are established, we can move on to utilities, security, transportation, infrastructure, fire protection, communications, and things that are viewed as needs in a developed society but considered luxuries to the very poor. But the last thing on our list of needs, though it is still considered a "need" is self-fulfillment. This category contains all the things we use to reach for personal happiness and satisfaction that don't really affect the world at large. These are the things we reach for in order to achieve nothing more than physical and mental stimulation. These are things like art.
The first thing we consider when choosing our profession is our own selfish personal preferences; we don't start by considering the care demanded by those in our communities and across the world, which is actually the basis for all viable professions everywhere. So, by this notion, a choice to specialize in a field less needed by actual people is a choice made out of selfishness. In fact, I perceive a sense of arrogance whenever another person tells me that he or she is destined or intent to embark on a career of artistic exploration. A decision to place art at the topmost ranking priority is a blatant disregard of the needs of others, or it is a failure to understand which, of the various needs of the public, are more important. And a failure to understand the hierarchy of needs almost always stems from an ignorance that arises when a person has lived his or her entire life without a worry that their basic needs might not be met. A person who experiences hunger knows the vital importance of maintaining access to food. A person who experiences poverty knows the vital importance of maintaining a steady income. A person who experiences significant pain knows the importance of avoiding the mistakes they made to create that level of pain. Only once it is granted that hunger, pain, poverty, violence, theft, disease, and other horrors are all being consistently avoided, we can begin to consider giving mind to the sharing of ideas, art, music, and contributions to the entertainment industry. And by that logic, a person who spends their entire life immersed in art, music, and other entertainment, is a spoiled soul, never having to worry about the loss of their most basic necessities. A life of artistic creation, in which your self-identity is shaped primarily by theory, entertainment, and dreams, comes as a massive privilege. While most of society is providing the tangible necessities that we all need, the lucky few get to live a life of intellectual luxury, stewing in the juices of their own dreams. And a person who holds the belief that he or she deserves this life of luxury is an arrogant, entitled one.
The world needs you-- but the world needs particular things from you. The world doesn't need art; it needs care. The world has, first and foremost, needs that you may have never considered because you went your entire life without even considering the possibility of their absence. The world is like a baby crying, and a hungry baby won't be calming down anytime soon if all you do is show it a pretty picture. Give it nourishment, warmth, peace, and a place to sleep. Perhaps the greatest irony is when entitled snobs from high society look down on the people who give us the necessities we require most. We look down on the people who grow our food, take it to market, build our homes, pave our roads, and assemble our clothes. We scorn them, pity them, and call them "rednecks" and "foreigners." But these are the very people who breathe life into us. They don't tend to be the most intelligent. They don't tend to have the most informed political opinions. But they work for us in ways that the self-entitled, self-proclaimed "artist" never will. They suffer pain and hardship every single day, braving unsafe conditions and lackluster sleep schedules-- things that artistic spoiled brats couldn't even imagine as they sit on their laptop blogging (like I am now--yes, I am self-aware) sipping their Starbucks latte in the warm confines of their plush, comfortable furniture, away from the elements. Making fun of the people who provide the most basic necessities is so commonplace, yet their will to comply with doing the dirtier jobs is the very thing that even allows us to sit pretty and dream about frivolous things like our artistic creative visions-- and do they get any respect for it? Do we look at the "rednecks" and "hillbillies" of the world through eyes of admiration and reverence, knowing that their persistence and self-sacrifice are what grant us the privilege of living comfortably? Or do we dwell on how uneducated they are, calling them stupid, when, in reality, they are more in touch with the basic needs of humanity then we are? Relative to the practical efforts made by these hard workers, the concerns of an idealist or artist are, to put it bluntly, a waste of time.
My goal in exploring this topic is to ensure that we are keeping our priorities straight. Thinking and creating are great things to do, but we can't even begin to do that when we haven't taken care of our basic needs like food, water, shelter, security, and health. And if you intend to live a life in which you never have to maintain access to these basic needs for yourself and for others, you're going to struggle with your own self-entitlement. In reality, you are not entitled to these basic needs-- you need to seek them out yourself, unless you never plan on becoming self-sufficient. And seeking out these basic needs will mandate that you drop your connections to your internal artistic dream world. Depending on your natural attraction toward dreams and theory, your integration into society and understanding of the real steps necessary for supporting yourself may prove very difficult. But the sooner you shift to a more practical ideology, the sooner you will be able to achieve self-sufficiency, comfort, and, dare I say it, happiness. Because happiness isn't just a state of mind-- it's also affected by physical pleasure, and by the peace of mind that comes from knowing you have all of your practical needs in check. Confidence in your own ability to cover your own basic needs leads to a peace of mind at a level that's otherwise unattainable. And in any case, no one, no matter how they feel, is entitled to a life where all one thinks about is art, because no one is entitled to a life where all of one's basic needs are maintained for them. As you know, if you're an adult, it's no one else's job to take care of you. You need employment, and employers only pay people who provide skills that are needed. The skills that are needed, for the most part, are in industries oriented toward practical needs, unlike art. In conclusion, take it to heart that you probably won't be able to survive on the pittance you'll earn going into an art profession, because people don't need art like they need real, tangible support.
And even though artsy-types like hipsters aim to create a guise of philanthropy and caring for the world, there is nothing more selfish than choosing a life of artistic immersion. You can't call yourself a caring person if you don't know the first thing about caring about people, and that is: you have to give people what they need. Art is inherently something you feel like giving, rather than a response to the actual needs of others--no one involves themselves in art and music because they feel like they "have to." Don't give people what you feel like giving; you have to cater to their needs. No one wants to hear your alternative screamo-power-metal ballad that you taped in your studio apartment and defecated onto a CD. No lives are going to be spared because of the acoustic guitar song you wrote about Darfur, and no mouths are going to be fed thanks to your painting of the school in rural China; no power lines are going to be installed by posting on Facebook about your electric company, and no better shelters are going to be constructed for the people of the Amazon when you photograph a rural Brazilian shantytown. The people who really do good in this world aren't the people who sit around merely talking of what to do. The people who change this world are the ones who act. Let's take real action to create security, stop violence, feed children, build homes, provide utilities, and equip everyone with the real needs instead of doing what you feel like doing and mistakenly calling it "generosity".
And I know I'm not the most prolific provider of realistic goods and services for people, but at least I don't create drawings and things for the sake of my own catharsis and call it a productive career that I wish to engage in for the betterment of society. If you're a self-proclaimed artist, meaning that you mistakenly feel entitled to a life of doing whatever you want, you aren't fooling me. You're selfish, or else you have no grasp on what personal hardships need mitigation first because you're life was too darn easy. Let's take a look at the true harshness of reality. And let's pour our energy and compassion into the more practically responsible goals, shall we?
No comments:
Post a Comment