So...To Work.

So, it’s something I’ve written about before.

Whatever you do in the arts, no matter how much you think it’s all just a scam, and how people get promoted because identity, and who they know, and all merit is B.S., the only thing you’re doing with all that energy is taking energy away from the art you claim is damaged by other people’s advantages.

It’s not that there aren’t scammers, and relationships propelling some people forward, and people riding the political waves.

That’s life.

I cannot even begin to tell you how hard it is holding my tongue in the face of people who actively undermined me years ago coming up to tell me how much they always loved and supported my work.

Dude, you got me bumped from one project after another.

So, whatever.

You love me now.

Yay.

But everything in life is zero sum, no matter what people say, because everyone’s life ends.

The ultimate zero sum game is your mortality.

Even if you don’t find material success in the arts, and you see people you don’t like making a bundle, the time and energy you take away from your art damages only one person’s art: yours.

You can fight for justice however you think it’s most effective, but if you’re bemoaning the fact that other people have art success and you don’t, sit down and calculate how much energy you’re putting into other things.

Get a notebook at the dollar store. It’s cheap.

Write it all down.

Then calculate how much real time and energy you put into art.

Not how much you think about it. How much real work time you produce.

Be honest.

Look at the one tally and compare to the other.

You probably won’t like the result.

You have time for social media, binge watching, going to conventions, hanging out, doom scrolling, and resentment Olympics activities, and I bet these things far outweigh the time you have for art.

If this post doesn’t apply to you, then it’s not about you, so move on.

But I’ll bet real cash money it applies to many.

Way more people than would care to admit.

And if your arguments devalue merit, there is absolutely no reason for anyone to consider hiring you because if you don’t believe merit is a thing, then you don’t believe you possess it, either, and I only work with people who value merit.

If merit doesn’t exist, then your art has no merit.

And you probably don’t work very hard at it.

So people will work with someone else.

Make art with the end goal of making yourself an artist and the art will get better in time.

Moaning about other people prioritizing their art and getting farther with it than you did helps absolutely no one.

Least of all you.

That’s all.