Society has historically undervalued and exploited artists, treating them as powerless figures whose creative output is consumed while their creators are often left impoverished and unrecognized, a pattern that persists despite evolving economic and technological landscapes.
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[Music]
Society has always hated artists this
hatred is not the way you think hatred
really expresses itself I mean artists
aren't being burnt in mass or being
beaten up on the road in fact on the
surface people love to consume art they
binge TV shows they blast music hang
paintings on their walls in fact people
seem to love art but the people who
create the art you love Society has
spent centuries making sure that these
people stay powerless
Winston mang one of the most famous
painters of all time just sold one
painting while he was alive think about
that just one he died penniless alone
and convinced that he was a failure
today his work sell for like hundreds of
millions of dollars or whatever but none
of that goes to him nor did he ever see
any of this wealth France Kafka a
pioneer of existential thought was so
disillusioned with what his work had
brought him in his lifetime that he
instructed his best friend to burn all
his work after he was dead his friend
disobeyed him and Kafka went on to
become one of the most celebrated
thinkers and writers of the 20th century
and even when artists do succeed in the
lifetimes they're often met with
hostility Nina Simone one of the
greatest musicians of the 20th century
was blacklisted by the US government for
a work in civil rights activism she was
monitored by the FBI driven into Exile
and spent years struggling financially
despite her massive influence this isn't
just all bad luck it is a pattern and
this is a pattern that's been repeating
for a long time and let me show this to
you in this video One history repeats
itself throughout history artists have
always been controlled by the powerful
during the Renaissance the only way to
survive being an artist was by getting a
patron I'm going to make him an off can
refuse a king a noble or the church that
meant your creativity or your output
wasn't totally yours Michelangelo didn't
paint the 16 Chapel because he wanted to
the pope wanted him to paint it Le Da
Vinci one of the greatest artists of all
time spent most of his time designing
war machines not because he loved
destruction but because he needed the
money from the Duke of Milan his genius
was at the mercy of those who funded him
fast forward to the 19th century and we
had Romanticism and the idea of the
starving artist the belief that
suffering is necessary for great art
that if you really love what you do you
should be willing to suffer for it but
in a way this was never a romantic idea
it was just a way to justify underpaying
the artist who lived in that time period
all under the guise of Romanticism let's
go over some more Charles bodair one of
the most influential Poets of all time
dies in poverty Edgar aleno the father
of modern horror lived in financial ruin
his entire life even Freda Caro now
considered a feminist icon spent much of
her career struggling to be taken
seriously and I don't know why but this
mindset exists solely for artists and
creative thinkers no one tells doctors
to work for exposure you'll be laughed
out of the room no one tells Engineers
that their passion should be the reward
for their work but to make suffering a
part of someone's identity is pretty
unique to artists and intellectuals and
it's something that most of us have emed
and maybe even embod that without pain
there is no success why I want to ask
why do you the customer value the most
poyant works of art as almost being
valueless and why do you as a creator of
it accept that pain is a part of the
process it's a sadistic relationship I
think that Society has with its thinkers
this myth keeps artists desperate and
desperate people are easy people to
exploit this is why and an artist
willing to sign away work which is
potentially worth millions for pennies
is a patron or an Investor's dream
infinite value for minimal investment
and if you thought this would have ended
a while ago the 20th century arrived
corporates took over the places of kings
and Emperors Hollywood locked actors
into brutal contracts for example Judy
Garland while working on the visit of o
was made to take amphetamine so that she
could keep working insane hours record
labels have always taken majority of the
royalties while the artist keeps scraps
and it's basically a choke hold whether
you listen to them or you're faced with
failure Prince had to change his name to
a symbol just so that he could get Fair
compensation painters were told that
their work had no value unless a gallery
owner decided otherwise Jean Michael Bas
at one of the greats of her time whose
paintings now sell for over $100 million
was seen as a street kid and never
respected while he was alive and today
streaming platforms play musicians
pennies gigs are lowering costs everyone
is trying to squeeze the artist in 2025
while the CEOs of these companies are
richer than any musician to have ever
lived social media buries post unless
artists pay for promotion AI models
still work to create AI generated art
without ever crediting the artists who
work they have scraped their data from
the game has always stayed the same just
the tools have changed two the system
keeps artists poor on purpose there's a
phrase that people love to say if you
love what you do you'll never work for
another day in your life but I believe
only a person with a great love of pain
or a sadus could have coined this term
it sounds nice but in reality it's just
a way to get people to accept low wages
imagine telling a lawyer you should be
grateful that you get to defend people
in court and uphold the law you don't
need money you are defending people you
are a good man go Mr lawyer defend
people out of the goodness of your heart
the lawyer laugh in your face man but
musicians hear this every day so do
artists writers actors anyone in the
creative field hears this every day you
should be so grateful that you do what
you love for a living and I do think
this is politics of Envy just because
you feel that it must be so much fun to
make music or art as your profession and
you don't love your job so it's only
obvious that you get paid while the
artist struggles it's so obvious rather
than questioning yourself that why the
hell hell are you doing a job that you
don't love your reasoning goes to
because I do a job I don't love so a
person who loves a job must suffer it's
a self-hating argument in my opinion and
I think you should really ask yourself
why you spend most of your day doing
something you don't want to at all and
when artists do try to make money they
run into the next problem which is The
Gatekeepers record labels decide which
musicians get funding streaming
algorithms decide who gets heard Gallery
owners decide which art gets exposure
Publishers decide which books get
published and in our current system this
funding is like a giant choke hold
around your neck do what I the patron or
the corporate or the label wants or we
cut your work off this is the template
of what we want and if you don't fit in
goodbye see you thank you for coming
next please that's why most mainstream
art sounds and feels just like a
McDonald's meal a great investment but a
bad burger and as artists we aren't
competing with each other we're
competing with the people who own the
system and 2025 is showing us the
endgame of these corporates make artists
replaceable AI can now generate music
write books make paintings in mere
seconds if art is cheap artists are
worthless and that's the game point
three Society needs art but refuses to
Value it every major movement ever was
fueled by Art music fueled protests Bob
Dylan songs became Anthems for the Civil
Rights Movement film shaped public
opinion Charlie chaplain's The Great
Dictator mocked Hitler openly while the
rest of the world was silent literature
sparked revolutionary ideas George O's
1984 exposed
authoritarianism decades before it
became a warning sign artists don't just
make things that are pretty and play in
the background and keep your mood Pepe
they are The Originators of the ideas of
tomorrow they change minds they
challenge power they expose corruption
these are ideas which dream up a reality
that doesn't exist right now and may be
implemented years
these are the ideas that matter that's
why every authoritarian regime censors
artists first do you want to know if
you're living under an authoritarian
regime just see if your government
sensors art straightway sign the more
repressive a system is the more it fears
art and in Democratic societies they
don't ban artists they just make sure
they can't survive government SL funding
for the arts school remove music and
painting from the school curriculums
companies refuse to pay Fair wages for
Creative Works done for them and then
they tell us the artists that we're not
hustling hard enough or we have our head
in the clouds but here's the thing
without art Society collapses without
music art architecture there is no
culture without writers there's no
history without painters there's no
Beauty when people look back at 2025 200
years from now they're not going to be
going over your auditing books they're
not going to be studying your financial
statements they're not going to be see
whether your company had a successful
quarter what will be remembered will be
what did your buildings look like like
how did people live what were the
writers thinking of what did the song
sound like that's what they will refer
to as being the culture of this time
period not the over inflated piece of
real estate you just invested in number
four the only way forward the truth is
the system isn't going to change on its
own artists enjoyed in retrospect more
than in real time we don't really see
artists as human beings we see them as
characters so we're never really close
to one and we wouldn't want to be but
there are ways to fight back for us
artists and Hope that terrible
double-edged sword keeps pushing us
through even when probability isn't on
our side but that's what it is the
internet age may have buried us under so
much content that we literally don't
know what to see anymore but underneath
this Avalanche there is a ray of light
for the first time in history you can
literally do anything you want to and
find someone on this planet who connects
with you on the same subject direct
communication with people who want to
hear your voice is possible for the
first time in human history and as
artists thinkers creative people maybe
that's all we need to do keep talking
and find the people who listen
crowdfunding patreon band cam direct
sales patronage from the people who
actually want to consume your art and
not from the powers who want to mold it
because let's be honest large
corporations and big money own
everything and the only way forward for
people like us is to communicate and
build a relationship with the people who
care about what we do that that's it
anyway I love my work and I love making
music and this is a song that I'm really
proud of having made if you liked it
please leave a comment and let me know
thank you and I'd love to connect with you
you [Music]
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