I was watching a video on the recent achievements in the Tetris community, and my mom came up and watched over my shoulder for a bit. There was a moment in the video where the narrator was talking about the moment Blue Scuti reached the game's killscreen for the first time. Years of effort, countless hours of practice, chasing something that people thought was literally impossible for decades, and then he fucking does it. This is a seriously cool and inspiring story, right?
"Does he get paid for that? You can't spend that much time on something if you're not getting paid."
Are you telling me you literally can't imagine wanting to do something just to do it? That you can only imagine spending effort if it's to chase a cash prize or a wage? That you can't imagine the desire to just... be the best at something, or achieve something before anyone else? I love that woman but a lifetime of being in the system has burned out a critical part of her brain - she can't imagine having a job and not spending all of your free time sucking up to management for a promotion, she is exactly the person all of the "hustle grindset" bullshit influencers and motivational speakers try to turn you into, and i swear to god if she hadn't worked for the government her whole life she would have gotten in on the ground floor of an MLM and made a shitzillion dollars.
It's so fucking depressing.
I've tried to sell art stuff I make to bring in money for more supplies and it's always been very depressing. Something that takes me hours or days to make can be stamped out instantly in a factory and unless someone thinks that "hand made" adds intangible value to a piece there's no way I can "compete" with mass production stuff. I really gave up when Etsy opened the doors to mass production stuff. The things I make always proved a little too weird to sell at art fairs, it's mostly quasi-medieval larp accessories and the market for that isn't huge (and a lot of people who participate are dirt ass poor so their money goes in to essential equipment, travel, and camping fees instead of fancy pieces). idk. Sucks. There should be more beautiful things in the world made for the sake of beauty.
The societal focus on monetizing this stuff feels oppressively omnipresent. I tried doing art school at the local community college, and the coursework was centered around developing a marketable body of work. I make pretty, functional, or tasty things for friends and family, and they think I'm an idiot for not making that stuff professionally, even though they have no comprehension of the materials, time, or market.
I just want the pretty, functional, or tasty things to just be pretty, functional, or tasty. Why can't that be enough?
✨capitalism✨