The Hollywood Writer’s Strike: Blood, Slaughter and Despair vs. Brains, Laughter and What’s Fair

by NDK Creative Artist

This is part five of the Hollywood Writer’s Strike series. You can start from the beginning by clicking here. - Joel Falconer, Editor-in-Chief

Oh, how short-sighted this human race can be that it invest vast sums in those who destroy life, limb, and property in a greed-infused bloody hunt for toxic resources and their control. Toxic resources that kill us all and strangle our planet’s life, when the best of all resource are found in those of their neighbors minds, who peacefully seek the way to live in harmony, and by their thinking and through their communication open minds to far greater designs on life than blood and slaughter.

We, whose missiles, bombs and bullets, adorn only pages of ink, bit-and-byte, and sometimes celluloid reproductions, and illustrations.

We, whose strokes are not with bloody blade but with brush, natural oils and pigments of the earth upon the canvas of our lives.

We, whose ear plucks note from finger-hammered and plucked gut to fill the silence with the sound of life and all its passion to soothe the savage breast of man and woman, or inspire the sensation of being touched by the divine.

We must suffer for our art, and for the gifts we are blessed with.

Here is an injustice, writ loud, with words that thunder in appeal to reason long shorn by dumb cathode tube into apathetic submission and suspicion.

Why should any of us feed the many-headed and tentacled corporate beast [Warning: Large Diagram at this link] that would betray us, consume all we can give and not pay us what we are worth in life and in death, but rather cheat us at every opportunity?

Yes, I can get right up there into high dudgeon with the best of them if I wish to, and upon occasion, when the moment calls for it, so will I do. The language of past ages, still has a good and eloquent purpose to serve, and I will not give up my right to express my profound indignation at the foolishness of my fellow man and his most expensive follies, even as I love and admire the glory to which he aspire and is capable of.

Why should we, in this so-called free society be told that everybody else can do what they love “except you artsy-fartsy guys, who must never give up your day jobs.” Note the language of discrimination against those who are creative. The development of pejoratives that diminish our role and our gifts is too often overlooked, disparaged and used to stereotype and diminish us while so-called civilized society supports with its tax dollars those who wage war at your expense, rather than those who seek the advance of civilization through the exercise of man’s greatest intellectual gifts–imagination and creativity!

In the First Renaissance (12th - 17th Centuries) mankind employed artists to develop war machines for the elite–that was the only way artists could survive apart from when their services were spent creating large commercials for the greatest story ever told, so that it could overwhelm others with the glory of the invisible man. In more than SIX HUNDRED YEARS since then, we have not advanced one iota with respect of the humanities.

As my good friend, Gordon Jackman, accomplished archaeologist, PhD., activist, writer, painter and songwriter - Renaissance Man, has said, “We can go to the moon, but we haven’t got out of our nappies as a civilization.”

He is right. This society of ours is as immature as a bullying baby crawling around in the sandpit busting up the sandcastles of our hopes and ideals, for no other reason than the domination of others and the destruction of that which they are incapable of creating themselves. And if they cannot create it, then they will control it by any means possible. That’s where we’re at today.

The human race is stupid.

(Watch that video, it’s uncouth, but it’s full of truth - and Carlin says what I’m saying but you’ll have a lot more laughs.)

George Carlin is not a comedian - he’s forced to be a comedian because that’s the only way this society will let this remarkable social philosopher purvey truth and serve humanity. George Carlin is a great man. He says it the way it is:

“Our DNA has not changed substantially in a hundred thousand years…now we like to think we’ve evolved and advanced because we can build a computer, fly an airplane, travel underwater, we can write a sonnet, paint a painting, compose an opera, but you know something; we’re barely out of the jungle on this planet. What we are is semi-civilized beasts with baseball caps and automatic weapons. And this civilization of ours that we’re so proud of, this civilization of ours, this civilization with its so-called civilized behavior; you ever stop and realize how fragile all this is? How easy it is to break it right down, just break it right down? Wouldn’t take much, probably it would happen in less than two years, wouldn’t take much. Wouldn’t take much to throw us right back into barbaric times. All you’d have to do would be eliminate electricity.” - George Carlin, The Fantastic Uncouth Truthspeaker (watch the rest of this monologue here)

The swearing is how Carlin gets you to listen. Stupid humans won’t listen to truth in any other package unless it’s couched in terms they can easily dismiss… with a laugh. Up to a point that’s fine; humor is good for us. But not when serious subjects are ignored and nothing more than “a laugh.”

The Path of ‘Progress’

Well, Mankind, we’ve tried this path, and it doesn’t work. As everything we have achieved as a race hurtles towards the abyss of life under an hermetically sealed bubble to protect us from the environment we have made toxic, we need to acknowledge and face the fact that the ideas we have followed in the past, did not and do not work.

A big part of America’s massive economic power and might, is not derived by the size of the country or of its resources, vast though they are. I’ve read other governments’ analyses and the reports of ministers, and it is American creativity - on which they have to date held a global monopoly - that is chief among their exports and global earning power. But I put to you, creativity is not a national service or commodity but an international service to humanity, for art serves all men, all women and all life.

Creative Artists serve humanity not nations, and it is humanity we have in mind when we lift brush to canvas, pen to paper, and lend ear to the vibration of a string to find the perfect note with which to communicate and create the most profound and positive effects on life.

So, that writer staying up late at night, pounding keys surreptitiously and as quietly as she can, should simply be helped to ply the craft she loves and is deeply committed to. Helped to become a published writer, and that does not mean hovering over her shoulder, but letting her, or him, get on with the task they are already managing and deeply committed to because of their passion to communicate and visualize is as powerful as the force of the heart that drives blood through their veins for 70 years or more.

This same thought goes for the fellow who is sitting quietly working out chords and creating songs, investing in equipment that provides no nourishment of blood and sinew, but which feeds the soul and lifts the beat of life to far greater heights than it may ever fly in jet, or spaceship. He changes Human Nature, by stating it how it is, for he knows its condition well, and does not our experience of the adult world not prove to us his conclusion.

The painter, preparing her canvas, digital or archival, needs the time, space and environment that is conducive to doing the work she does so well. When she has it, she will create works that stun and amaze and raise the standards of culture that have been so degraded by the mediocrity of a lack of skill and talent.

Passion, Dedication and Love of Humanity vs. the Love of Money

The passion of such individuals is the sign of their calling. It drives them “to throw caution to the winds” (though not unintelligently) and to embrace life on the edge with a dedication that is a privilege and a marvel to behold.

To these people money is unimportant. You should mark that well. To these people money is unimportant. These are the people we should trust. Not these others to whom the amassing of fortunes they cannot possibly spend in a lifetime is the only thing that is important. I’m not saying that money is valueless. I’m just saying that the love of money being the root of all evil, well…the people who are screwing things up, they love the money. These other people…the artists…they don’t love the money. They don’t have a love of money that supersedes every decent impulse in them, including their love of humanity. They do not have a love of money that has them chasing after bling, and their fifth fabulous mansion, twenty-fifth fossil fuel burner. The artists would like some money, but not all of it. Just what’s fair and what fairly recompenses them for the wealth that would not otherwise be possible to create without them.

Do you get that?

That dedication is a sign that says you should invest in the future success of that particular creative individual, because it is going to happen.

When you see creative individuals putting the most precious thing they have in life - their time, their very life itself - for no reward, other than the sheer pleasure of doing the job, regardless of all the risks, ridicule and discouragement heaped upon them, realize something: they know where they’re going, and though they may not know the details of how they’ll get there, nothing is going to dissuade them, so you had better get behind them, and push them forward.

For an idea of how the producers and executives work check out this article from Deadline Hollywood’s Nickki Finke who has been providing some excellent coverage of the Hollywood Writers Strike that is shutting down shows. http://www.deadlinehollywooddaily.com/toldja/

“You can only protect your liberties in this world by protecting the other man’s freedom. You can only be free if I am free.” - Clarence S. Darrow- (1857-1938)

Some years ago, writers fought in court in America to have their work, once again misappropriated by publishers, compensated for. They attempted to use the legal system to play by the rules and won their case, at least that’s what they thought. Recently, this case was over-turned and the thieves—corporations, are no longer subject to the payment of residuals as originally ordered. In other words, the legal system has upheld the theft of intellectual property without compensation.

It is interesting that the courts should choose this moment in time, when the writers are on strike in Hollywood, to shock writers everywhere at this reversal of fortune, which for years writers have been lead to believe would be coming to them. This smacks so much of the economic shock tactics described in Naomi Klein’s book Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism, that I’m simply flabbergasted at the accuracy of the philosophy she has described.

Even as writers and staff in the industry are coming to the realization that the industry is as fickle as Jay Leno’s promises. To be fair, following the PR debacle this caused him, he has retrenched, but in the immediate aftermath of the initial announcement the appellate court overturned the compensation part of the writers’ earlier victory over corporate America’s publishing.

Where do we go now?

If you can't wait for more, explore the archives sorted by month via the links in the right-hand sidebar, or use the Category links in the same place.

If you'd rather we did all the hard work, you're in luck. Here's a list of articles that are related to this one:

• George Carlin Gone but Never Forgotten
• The Hollywood Writer’s Strike: Why do I want it to go on longer?
• The Hollywood Writer’s Strike: The Renaissance that Fizzled
• Shall we Shovel the Last bit of Dirt into the Traditional Music Industry’s Grave?
• So, who or what is a creative artist?