But, Aren't We the Movers and Shakers?

What's happened to us? The writers and artists of the world?

I understand that we don't want to be poor and indigent, but...come on!
What's that...what am I talking about? I'm talking about the changing purpose of writing and art. You hear me bangin' on about it, but it's true.

We've been corrupted! Well, not all of us, but a good number of us. Corrupted by the MTV/Gangsta/International Idol-ness of the modern plasma-net era into believing there are more important things than impinging upon the human conscious with art. Just the other day, I was talking to this guy and he said he really wants to become a writer because it would provide him with a passive income and allow him more 'down time'...you know, 'me time'.

I looked at him and I think my acknowledgement was more of a raised eyebrow than a really understanding gesticulation. But, it was appropriate - I thought what he said was nuts. He wanted to write books to get rich. Stuff the content, he'd write what people most wanted to listen to, even if he thought it was garbage.
If this was an isolated incident, I'd be fine with it. But, I talk to a lot of writers and it's becoming more prevalent. This idea of becoming an artist for the purpose of making money is one that would make the struggling trail-blazers of eras before us turn in their graves (or upon the posts they were burned upon; art used to be dangerous stuff). They didn't do what was 'accepted', they cut and hacked their own dangerous path through the jungle of society and civilisation.

See, we artists now may not think this unprivileged life is not necessary. Life's pretty cruisy in the 21st Century, and besides, we need to buy a house, a car, and purchase an investment property, do some negative gearing and maybe even get another...

Whoa! Man, you wanna do that, you need to get a real job!
(I can hear you all collectively groan...) Now, don't get me wrong - I'm not living in a cardboard box. But, I haven't forgotten the purpose of my craft - that's to make people think, question the 'usual' and 'normal' ways of life and show them another perspective to it. One Arthur O'Shaughnessy said about artists: 'We are the movers and shakers'. We don't walk the straight and narrow; we work long hours, write, paint or make music a helluva a lot while never neglecting our responsibilities of family and work. We move and we shake things - as artists, that's what we do. Work, then, is a necessary part of the writer's life, it's a part of life in general. It would make sense, then, if one is writing about life that they should be living it, too.

So, no, an artist's life will not be a cruisy one. Money will not be your motivation because it is not the return given for our work that we find most valuable. Money keeps a roof over our heads, the lights on and food on our plates; but what we receive in return for our craft it the shock, awe, sighs, relief, grief, cheerfulness etc., that comes when people see, hear or read our work. That is our exchange; that is what we swap for our craft. Not money.

Don't believe the modern 'get rich or die trying' motto; this is a mockery of what we're doing. Don't accept being poor, but don't tailor your work so you can become rich by altering your responsibility as an artist.

That said, I think I should get off my high-horse now that I've ridden it to near death.

Anthony.