Is creative work a basic human want?

No conservative denies that change is a constant, or that it is inevitable. But it is a brake on mindless change for change's sake. It tends to preserve order. Some other-than-conservative experiments fail as well: communes, anarchy, geodesic domes, polygamy, drug legalization, and the leisure suit. We will see whether trans women in college sports succeeds or fails. We conservatives are oddly aligned with traditional feminists in this regard.

Funny you mention the 1780s. The revolution of 1789 ultimately produced ... a monarch! There were even attempts to import the spirit of revolution into the UK. The point is that we can thank conservatism, Edmund Burke specifically, for the failure of that initiative.

Will the left ultimately destroy the monarchy? Probably. And that will be one unhappy, grey day.

 

So they were lucky enough to be the one in thousands who can actually earn a living from art.

Yeah, pointing to extreme rarities as support for an argument, doesn't help your argument.

 

Tell me how a person arrives at the decision that they are special enough to warrant being supported?

Are 'artists' excessively narcissistic and selfish do you think? I'm curious to know how you explain that to yourself. Given few of us have that kind of audacity.

 

What do you mean being supported? They are usually doing some side job to support themselves. That's what I was doing when I was a starving musician for a couple years. Some of the best times of my life. I wouldn't trade them for the world. I could fit everything I owned except my music equipment in a duffelbag. Hell, I may have even stuck with it if 9/11 hadn't happened and I went back in the military. I think everyone should try being a starving artist for a while at least. It is good for the soul.

 

If someone isn't making enough to support themselves - and many many 'artists' don't - then someone else (family, friends, the tax payer .. )is supporting them. Obviously.

 

Lol, then stop hating on artists and just say you hate people who can’t support themselves. “Starving artists” is a thing because they are supporting themselves and their art without being supported by others.

 

I don't 'hate' artists, I 'hate' people who choose not to support themselves and let others do that dirty work.

And your starving artists almost always end up leaning on others, or worse ... on the tax payer. Maybe not in year one of their 'career', or maybe not after year one .. but if they stay with art, the vast majority will at some point be a burden.

 

If they stay with art, it's because they think they have something valuable to offer. But if they are not successful, it means that they really don't, at least not right now. The signs of not being good enough emerge really early if one is honest enough to see and respect them. If not, the "artist" becomes embittered, hating himself and the world and making everyone around him miserable.

Maybe they are being enabled by some one who, blinded by love, continues to tell them that they are really good. There was a character like that in the Sopranos ... told her boyfriend he was really good. An agent told him, and her, that he was no good. Not "not good enough," but "no good." LOL. Brutal, but it needed to be said!

The lucky ones have a strong person like that to tell them how the cow ate the cabbage. Preferably before they misspend their youthful vitality. My own son in law wanted to be a singer songwriter. And he really is an okay guitar player. His dad, a former amateur guitar player, finally told him directly, to his face, "You aren't good enough." Just like that. Tough love. So he joined the Navy and went to med school. He has his guitars for the weekend to enjoy as an avocation. Is that word even in common parlance today? It should be.

 

Geodesic domes are not a leftist thing, polygamy has worked just fine in other cultures, many of them a lot holder than the west, drug legalization seems to be working where it is legal and leisure suits where created by capitalist companies trying to make money. Also, TERFS are not "traditional feminists".

On the bright side, we already destroyed the monarchy on our side of the pond and have been better for it!

 

I actually think domes are a good idea. I would oppose the legislation of meth and uncontrolled fentanyl even if I were the only one who did so.

Madness. National suicide.

 

That's the honourable response to finding out you're making yourself into a burden. Unfortunately not all 'artists' are that honourable, and many spend their entire working lives leaning on others. They continue to produce their 'art' for the duration, which in their mind means they're gainfully employed. I've been genetically associated with the music industry all my life, and I know only too well that a huge proportion of 'artists' do just that. Even those with considerable creative and performance success, can remain broke for their entire lives. Yes they're producing something that others enjoy - but like anything it's a paid service. They're not doing charitable works. And the fact they must lean on others to indulge their personal preference for exciting (to them) work, rather than accept the dull jobs the rest of us are honourable enough to do, makes them SO much worse.