I know an artist who was trained in the Soviet Union. Art school was crazy strict. He is very talented but got kicked out for political reasons (more of the petty squabbles of an art department instead of being truly subversive.) He had to work all sorts of weird jobs to support his family, and he never dreamed that he would be able to do art as a real full-time job. That only happened after he immigrated to the west. He makes his living here selling paintings, doing restorations, and other artisanal crafts. He teaches private lessons. He's even been commissioned to paint icons for orthodox churches. What's truly remarkable about his success is that he hasn't gotten a single government grant. Where I'm at, pretty much *all* of the "professional" artists are supported by the government. I bet you can tell the kind of paintings he's does -- and they're not the garbage you see in art school.
Everyone thinks that they can make $85,000 a year working 20 hours a week in a coffee shop. In reality, they'd make $20,000 a year working 85 hours a week in a copper mine.
The biggest delusions I see among people in regards to art, are from people who don't believe that art requires hard work and study and all their fantasies seem to spring from the idea that they can become famous without any effort on their own.
We live in a society of short-sighted narcissistic ingrates. This is the problem with victory; when you win so much and have so much prosperity, decadence and ingratitude become unavoidable. It's a cycle. Rome is falling. In two generations, kids will be in the streets fighting AGAINST our commie overlords for a return to freedom and Capitalistic trade.
True and the messed up part of the delusion of socialism being the solution for their lazy postmodernist art to get the type of public support they crave is the government would be having to force the people to consume their art. And they are actually okay with this Instead of facing the truth that their art sucks and no one wants it, they would rather have the government hold a gun to the people’s heads and force them to like it These people are sick and demented.
My cousin is a communist, when we were at uni I went along to one of her meetings. They were drinking craft beers (which I couldn't afford). Most of them thought they would be poets or musicians (the weren't very good). Almost all their fantasies revolved around either the assumption of false scarcity or an entitlement to other people s Labor (slavery by a different name)
Thanks. I (as an artist) had a more optimistic response to a bunch of math professors who thought it would be a great idea if the government paid artists to create art: the government would *have* to define what art is on paper to determine who would get the money. So all artistic innovation would basically be destroyed (or they'd end up paying con men for their urinal "art"). They weren't explicitly talking about communism, but I think your response really puts it in perspective.
The modern interpretation of the dictatorship of the proletariat is called Perpetual Limited Speed Purge Allowance (PLSPA). (One purge per person per year allowed no questions asked; the purge right is non-transferable; assistance to purge is a crime; purges can not be accumulated; nobody is excluded from being purged; self-defence rules apply when subjected to a purge attempt; all purge events must be logged in a public database; the purge can take place at any time and any place. ) After the first purge wave the society will become harmonious and peaceful. ... and it will cleanse itself. Those who want too much Power or Wealth will get purged for sure by those who don't want extreme Power or Wealth .... and the society will welcome it. Sufficient Suffering Spawns Socialism (SSSS) or Fascism , abundance creates Capitalism. Capitalism creates scarcity resulting in suffering which brings back the Socialism eventually. That is why in addition to the free market and all current laws we we need a law that implements The Real UBI (for perpetual re-distribution of sufficient Wealth) and the Perpetual Limited Speed Purge Allowance (PLSPA) which, together, implement the true meaning of 'Dictatorship of the Proletariat' without the need for any centralised power behind the 'Dictatorship of the Proletariat'. Genius. You can worship me now LOL Make me a statue.
USSR produced some of the best composers simply because of how rigorously strict their standards were in order to uphold the highest possible ideal of the state in the form of music. I am not defending them at all here, however, since that very system completely prevented smaller artists from ever being able, to, well, do anything.
There's a lot of it on Twitter. One actually said that under communism she would own a farm... um... doesn't she know anything? She shouldn't have written "my farm" she should have written "our farm" or being blunt "that state's farm."
The great artists of antiquity didn't paint fill cathedrals with exquisite Christian art because they necessarily loved Jesus. It's because that's what put bread on the table.
Excellent talk. I think this is the "paradox of the snob". In order to feel aesthetically or intellectually superior, they must have tastes and opinions which are not shared by the masses, which is justification of their belief in their own aesthetic/intellectual superiority. This inescapably means despising "populist" tastes and thus by definition most people won't like what they create. This grinds against their natural desire to be popular and famous. So they blame "capitalism" for the lowly inferior tastes of the masses and imagine a paradoxical future condition in which they are both exclusive *and* widely admired, famous etc.
Yeah I think that's a great angle. I mean this kind of underscores the concept of "literary fiction" - books which are by their definition not popular but are forced upon students under the pretenses of "importance" or "artistry."
Wasn't there a fable about the problem with that very mindset? The one about the chicken and her chicks doing the work of planting, growing, reaping and baking their food and those who chose not to help didn't get to eat it.
I live in a post-communist country and I've never understood how so well living people can advocate for such ideas. The system was a complete failure. We're living in generally best times humanity has ever experienced and that's mainly due capitalism and (actual) liberal ideas. My standard of living has skyrocketed since my childhood. It's incredible and wonderful.
Thank you for sharing, hearing a rational firsthand account of the experience of communism vs. capitalism lifts my spirits. Especially hearing an individual doing well for themselves. Salut.
I've been watching expat channels and keep constantly hearing that former socialist/communist countries are all skyrocketing into prosperity right now due to capitalism, and the fact that there is no more left wing elite there trying to push far left ideas as the general populace already has lived experience of those systems so they are extremely unpopular. So they describe these countries as like a getaway from the problems of the modern west and as a bastion of capitalism and free markets.
@@ichoffski4707 Just a bit north. Romania. But I do find that things have slowly and gradually been improving the three decades since the revolution (granted I am too young to have experienced that time myself). I do think however that 40 years of soviet socialism have granted us (eastern europeans) some resistance to the lefty cancer our western friends suffer from. Like free speech being somewhat of a principle between people.
It is amazing how so many very smart people proclaiming themselves to be above a superstitious belief in God put so much blind faith in Marxist dialectic -- thesis-antithesis-synthesis -- three words that mean everything and nothing.
@@waderoberts3701 I actually prefer reading physical copies to audiobooks as a general rule, but I have been interested in his writing for a while. I will keep that book recommendation in mind.
I discovered you through your 5,5,5 leveling guide for oblivion. This video shows me that there is hope that the world won't fall too socialism/communism. Your a very well rounded person and I truly respect you.
Seconded. As my interests develop and I change what types of channels I’m subbed to, David’s channel always stays. Haven’t found any other channels that covers such a wide range of interesting subjects. David is the kind of guy I would enjoy having as a neighbor.
I have a colleague who goes on about how a communist revolution would be great. I asked her what would happen on day 1, after the revolution, her answer: "there is no way to possibly know that". Oh great, so no plan then.
sounds about right. I would say If it does ever happen I pray we are lucky a a Napoleon type usurps it. God help us all if we go the way of the soviets.
Same BS happened with Lenine, his revolution was such a spectacular failure that Staline rose to power through violence and mass murder in the own ranks of Lenine´s own party a few years after.
@@kinggundragon3728 Fair enough, but at least Lenin and Trotsky didnt conspire against their own party like Stalin did, sure they are mass murderers, but Stalin was a even more successful mass murderer and a backstabber on top, again Lenine and Trotsky enabled this to happen, I´m very sure that if they could read the future, they would´ve put down Stalin before he could become a problem
You couldn't be more correct in the beginning. Somehow, everyone's going to be in charge, or doing what they want to all day. Ironically, choosing your own career is something made possible only by a free market. There is no such choice under a heavily-centralized government system where individual choice MUST necessarily be scarified for the "greater good" and every last decision made by a small cadre of leaders. I've met ONE person in my life who advocated for Socialism/Communism and was realistic about it: "You would be a pollical cartoonist or full-time musician," he told me, "and I'd be digging ditches."
So socialist artist simply wants the power to force others to appreciate their art the way they think it should be. That actually makes sense. It makes even more sense when you re-interpret major Socialists and Communists in history as "artists" who see humanity as their canvas.
Thanks for that, I checked out Milton Babbit and now my ears hurt. What a load of tosh. He did with music notes what Pollock did with paint, just throw it randomly at the paper.
Thats right, in communist/socialist Countries all arts were just work that had to be done. Its similar to the midage when e.g. the catholic church payd artists for their paintings.
Most people with this perspective are young adults who work at jobs they hate. In their perspectives, they don't want to be rich, they just want to pursue their hobbies without having to worry about buying food or paying rent. That's why they think in a socialism economy with no wealth and no currency, they state would provide all their basic needs and they would be free to add value to society through their art instead. Regarding the problem of "who's gonna make shoes and scrub the toilets?" I've heard all kinds of weird explanations, from rotating jobs, to "timed labour currency" and even advanced computer AI assigning jobs.
My socialist professors got around this by claiming everyone should have "Scandinavian socialism." I got tired of pointing out that those countries aren't socialist.
What is funny is that a leftist sci fi author, Ursula LeGuin, has already answered on that topic in her novel "The Dispossessed". If you have not read it, give it a go, it is a great novel regardless (or maybe because) of its politics.
Their experience of "socialism" (and total government control over everything isn't socialism, but random people on the internet don't let that stop them from looking dumb) is their parents, high school teachers, and humanities teachers at college. All of whom reach down and arbitrarily stifle some and provide largess for others. That's usually how they describe capitalism too, successful people have been given what they have as if by some higher power, even if that doesn't make sense and contradicts their other points on other topics. They kind of imagine socialism as this top-down arbitrary power structure that they think the world is, where specifically they get rewarded for being far-leftists and perhaps also for immutable traits (gender, race, sexual orientation kind of, gender identity kind of).
I'm from a communist country that actually filters artists and uses their work to get money into the country. They have artists creating subversive work and selling it to foreigners but what the regular people consume is very censored and filtered. However, I have to say, artists from my country are mostly truly talented because getting into art school is extremely hard and those who teach themselves is with the limitations and extreme lack of resources and art supplies.
I find a lot of great artists out of the Eastern block. Most Western artists spend 7 years at a 4-year art school and still can't draw at the end of it.
very well said David. I don't know why, however, but i started off on another tangent as you presentedt the case for this topic....i started rememebering portraits of the past and my curiosity as to why back then average life span for women was a drastically lower figure than what from, at least what we grew up with...and, furthemore, it seemingly concerns women from those then upper classes more (thus their portratsbeing painted). of course, there must many reasons, variables, and dependants such as time and place creating many fluctuations so, trying to unravel this knot would..(ha)..require a few lifetimes(?). not that many low class women didn't have it bad, with the need for giving birth to so many children back in the day, being one of certainly many other factors. I suppose it is because of the Catch-22 effect evident in your reasoning about those believing they are going to escape to something better through socialism---->reflecting a similarity in that (most?)women of or entering into high class did not necessarilly have it any better than those of the low class...perhaps even worse? As would be the case for these would be post socialistic revolution future heroes. So naturally also started wondering just when the saying we've been hearing since young children, "well, it's a given that women live a few years longer than men", actually solidified. thanks for another cool vid my friend
To all the people who think living in the world of Star Trek style socialism would be great, remember, not everyone gets to be the starship captain. There are a lot more people cleaning toilets back at Starfleet Academy.
Sonic Imperium, worse part is that if you are a tech guy, you are expected to work smarter than everyone else, only to be rewarded the same as everyone else at the end of the month
Speaking from an East-German Pov i can asure you that Artists are much worse of in a socialist System. See also: "Bitterfeder Weg" and "Kahlschlag Plenum"
Going back to your roots sounds so hard in an era where the youngest generation was raised on technology that is all computer based. Delivery drivers have those apps to choose from which boost whether you will have work based on the companies who have signed on to use the service. Depending on the activity for UberEats, DoorDash, or another service, you can do your part by participating in a service that requires you to own a car and know the city you are covering. Bike messengers would have a reason to exist again if we gather our resources into boosting this new economy.
@@Kamfrenchie Poorly paid is a subjective term. It won't get you the same amount of money as a professional sports player, but you should be able to live on what you make. Although some use delivery jobs as a supplemental income, the skills required to maintain such a high stress should be someone's full time job.
@@MissPopuri from what i've heard, given the minimum wage level in the US, and the fact amzon delivery workers have to pee in bottles for example, it does sound like they're barely making ends meet
@@Kamfrenchie Peeing in bottles doesn't correlate to "barely making ends meet". It is either sensationalist propaganda to try to rally people behind a union or making a company look worse than it is. There were stories about Amazon employees having to account for "time off task" which is how employers keep track of an employee's pay.
This fantasy reminds me of the film Dr. Zhivago in the sense that everyone wanted the revolution, but when it took over it didn't turn out to be what they expected.
"The state does not need 1000 artists, musicians, psychologists and social workers. The state requires labour. The state decrees you are now a labourer." "You disagree and don't want to labour for the state?" "Fine. We need compost for the farms as well"
The Ironic part is that we already lean towards communism in a lot of ways and they don't see it, like they're oblivious to what Communism is or something. Neither Communism or Capitalism are beneficial in their extreme form and in fact become hard to differentiate, ironically, lol. Oh, interested in weighing in on the onlyfans situation? I'm sure you have some insight on that.
This was the most brutal take-down of communism I've ever seen! So absolutely effortless! I think to your point about making art that you believe in: there's no shame in that. Honestly. If people want to make post-modern garbage, please do. Capitalistic societies have the power to have some really shit people, making some really shitty things. And that is great. I think all we need from these types of people is what you expressed quite admirably: Respect the system and the people that empower you to do the work that you do. The people who keep the drains clear and the lights on - and the million other demands that a free-market economy fills under the hood with challenging/rough jobs on a regular basis and without which society would grind to a snail's pace in a heart beat.
Thank you for this video. I heard the same conversations. I saw the same bad art. Only with my school, the students were far more disgruntled than the faculty.
I was just distracted by the first five seconds. I'm very interested in the topic, as an artist and a musician. But the title "Prophet of the Godseed" piqued my interest. The notion of "the seed of God" is very near and dear to me. I also love science fiction and it would be interesting to see such ideas fleshed out in such worlds.
100% accurate, you had to be extremely talented to be allowed to do "your thing" (with lots of limitations, of course) as an artistic person in the USSR. Many were so awesomely talented they could actually slip their alternative messages through in a work that on the surface checked all the right boxes. That's why Russians still love plenty of Soviet music, movies and paintings. I don't argue for socialism in particular, but these days you have to look for rare diamonds in piles of commercial garbage made with money that could have been utilized for better purposes.
I just listened to some of Milton's "music" and yep it sucks pretty bad. I guess I need to think of a scheme to make terrible "art" and get paid for it.
@@DVSPress You're not incorrect, but the big issue I see with discussions of 'socialism' is that it can mean anything from Communism to a viewpoint that is left of center (i.e.. "Obama the socialist".). I enjoy your viewpoints.
Let's say for the argument that socialist utopia, without the authoritarian drift, is in place. Everybody have the right and duty to work in decent conditions. As a result weekly working hours are reduced and people have more free time. So now everybody can be an artist, and nobody's an Artist. In the sense that there will be jobs for artists but doing your own art will only be a side thing. A hobby that much more people can now delve into. So even in socialist utopia, there's no place for those "bougeois artists" as you describe :p I would be fine with doing 6H of factory work a day then working on my art. Doesn't change much from capitalism, but the pay and work conditions might be a bit better.
Mozart was a servant. He was ranked below the cooks. He had to make music his patreons wanted to hear. At least they had good taste. The idea of the free artist arrived with romanticism. I believe Beethoven was the first composer that wasn't somebody's employee. Stalin instructed authors how to write. Those who didn't obey were sent into internal exile, at least they weren't allowed to live in Moscow. Stalin took art very seriously. So seriously that he instructred artists what to produce. The making of the Soviet national anthem in 1943 is a good example of this practise.
i believe a quote attributed to stalin is "the artist is the engineer of the soul", or something to that effect. i would argue that haydn was the first major musical figure to make a name for himself and break away from being solely dependent on patronage from the church or the nobility. beethoven was a similar case, but managed to ride the wave of rising nationalist sentiments of the time.
As someone who was born in USSR, I disagree. You don't know that art's popularity has CLOSE TO ZERO correlation with art quality (sic). It was nailed by Nassim Taleb, the most famous probability specialist. Yes, you are popular with no correlation with what you write. And, as weird as it sounds, artist were free to do what they wanted in Soviet Union (outside of politics) and be popular because there were not so many educated people to produce art. They were getting like tons of money for writing uninteresting stuff. So, as always, interesting talking with zero correlation with reality...
One yeah, and they were a "Small Club", it´s easy to have more prestige, work value and rewards when you have the privilege of working in the USSR´s propaganda department (very much likely on Nepotism than actual skill), rather than being working hard in the Gulag, when it´s just a few people doing the art.
I understand why you've put "socialism" in the title. However, socialism has become a substitute for communism. This video is about communism, not socialism. What's weird is we already have socialism. It's everywhere in the US. We are arguably have crossed the rebicon into social communism. The only thing we now lack is the central planning.
you may have corporate socialism, but not really socialism in any other sense. Have you been or looked at many of the western countries who are much more leftist economicly ?
socialism isn't when the state replaces the factory owner. Socialism is when the workers control the means of production. A worker coop business is real socialism. Not a socialist or communist gouverment. That's why socialism has never been done on a country wide level.
Market socialism my guy, the government isn't assigning anyone a job. You'd still have to appeal to people to make it a living, but labor would have more money to buy your art, and they have more free time with more bargaining power. Saying "socialism" while you're referring to a soviet system is so uneducated, for fucks sake
Mmm...though I agree that "socialism" is quite ambiguous, at least I can say that your envisioned future doesn't agree with Marx's collectivism or communism exposed in his critique of the Gotha Programme. The idea of giving to the workers more money so they can sustain a group of individuals that live of what was produced by the workers is clearly reactionary and bourgeois.
They are this deluded? This seems too unbelievable that people are leaving the education system thinking this. Imagine the horror of when they realize the choice they made.
I know an artist who was trained in the Soviet Union. Art school was crazy strict. He is very talented but got kicked out for political reasons (more of the petty squabbles of an art department instead of being truly subversive.)
He had to work all sorts of weird jobs to support his family, and he never dreamed that he would be able to do art as a real full-time job.
That only happened after he immigrated to the west. He makes his living here selling paintings, doing restorations, and other artisanal crafts. He teaches private lessons. He's even been commissioned to paint icons for orthodox churches.
What's truly remarkable about his success is that he hasn't gotten a single government grant. Where I'm at, pretty much *all* of the "professional" artists are supported by the government.
I bet you can tell the kind of paintings he's does -- and they're not the garbage you see in art school.
Everyone thinks that they can make $85,000 a year working 20 hours a week in a coffee shop. In reality, they'd make $20,000 a year working 85 hours a week in a copper mine.
*mind blown*
The biggest delusions I see among people in regards to art, are from people who don't believe that art requires hard work and study and all their fantasies seem to spring from the idea that they can become famous without any effort on their own.
We live in a society of short-sighted narcissistic ingrates. This is the problem with victory; when you win so much and have so much prosperity, decadence and ingratitude become unavoidable. It's a cycle. Rome is falling. In two generations, kids will be in the streets fighting AGAINST our commie overlords for a return to freedom and Capitalistic trade.
True and the messed up part of the delusion of socialism being the solution for their lazy postmodernist art to get the type of public support they crave is the government would be having to force the people to consume their art. And they are actually okay with this
Instead of facing the truth that their art sucks and no one wants it, they would rather have the government hold a gun to the people’s heads and force them to like it
These people are sick and demented.
@@StratumPress
Instant Gratification is also an issue.
@@lucascoval828 Narcissists insist on instant gratification.
@@StratumPress Yea I’m 38, and the *Tumblr/Twitter* generation seem like the worst human beings that I’ve ever seen.
My cousin is a communist, when we were at uni I went along to one of her meetings. They were drinking craft beers (which I couldn't afford).
Most of them thought they would be poets or musicians (the weren't very good).
Almost all their fantasies revolved around either the assumption of false scarcity or an entitlement to other people s Labor (slavery by a different name)
How did you survive this cringe?
@@xelldincht8149 I treated it as a live documentary.
@@dudsummon3803 heheheh
Well played sir
Thanks. I (as an artist) had a more optimistic response to a bunch of math professors who thought it would be a great idea if the government paid artists to create art: the government would *have* to define what art is on paper to determine who would get the money. So all artistic innovation would basically be destroyed (or they'd end up paying con men for their urinal "art").
They weren't explicitly talking about communism, but I think your response really puts it in perspective.
The only thing that authoritarian left and libertarian right agree on is “ no work no food”
Believe me, in my country communism bred incredibly lazy people that would constantly gain the system. It was a paradise for people who hate work.
@@genelearnsenglish4242 The gopniks?
The modern interpretation of the dictatorship of the proletariat is called Perpetual Limited Speed Purge Allowance (PLSPA). (One purge per person per year allowed no questions asked; the purge right is non-transferable; assistance to purge is a crime; purges can not be accumulated; nobody is excluded from being purged; self-defence rules apply when subjected to a purge attempt; all purge events must be logged in a public database; the purge can take place at any time and any place. )
After the first purge wave the society will become harmonious and peaceful. ... and it will cleanse itself.
Those who want too much Power or Wealth will get purged for sure by those who don't want extreme Power or Wealth .... and the society will welcome it.
Sufficient Suffering Spawns Socialism (SSSS) or Fascism , abundance creates Capitalism. Capitalism creates scarcity resulting in suffering which brings back the Socialism eventually.
That is why in addition to the free market and all current laws we we need a law that implements The Real UBI (for perpetual re-distribution of sufficient Wealth) and the Perpetual Limited Speed Purge Allowance (PLSPA) which, together, implement the true meaning of 'Dictatorship of the Proletariat' without the need for any centralised power behind the 'Dictatorship of the Proletariat'.
Genius. You can worship me now LOL Make me a statue.
even in the USSR you still need to be to produce good art to be allowed to do it professionally.
USSR produced some of the best composers simply because of how rigorously strict their standards were in order to uphold the highest possible ideal of the state in the form of music. I am not defending them at all here, however, since that very system completely prevented smaller artists from ever being able, to, well, do anything.
Great thrashing of the bourgeois art scene, bro! Nobody deserves scorn more than them
Agreed. These are miserable, contemptible people.
There's a lot of it on Twitter. One actually said that under communism she would own a farm... um... doesn't she know anything? She shouldn't have written "my farm" she should have written "our farm" or being blunt "that state's farm."
The great artists of antiquity didn't paint fill cathedrals with exquisite Christian art because they necessarily loved Jesus. It's because that's what put bread on the table.
Excellent talk.
I think this is the "paradox of the snob". In order to feel aesthetically or intellectually superior, they must have tastes and opinions which are not shared by the masses, which is justification of their belief in their own aesthetic/intellectual superiority. This inescapably means despising "populist" tastes and thus by definition most people won't like what they create. This grinds against their natural desire to be popular and famous. So they blame "capitalism" for the lowly inferior tastes of the masses and imagine a paradoxical future condition in which they are both exclusive *and* widely admired, famous etc.
Yeah I think that's a great angle. I mean this kind of underscores the concept of "literary fiction" - books which are by their definition not popular but are forced upon students under the pretenses of "importance" or "artistry."
That idea that "someone else will do that, not I" working in the factories or on the farms is so delusional
Silly! All the red state rubes will be off to kolhosp, not party members of course. 🙃
Wasn't there a fable about the problem with that very mindset? The one about the chicken and her chicks doing the work of planting, growing, reaping and baking their food and those who chose not to help didn't get to eat it.
I live in a post-communist country and I've never understood how so well living people can advocate for such ideas. The system was a complete failure. We're living in generally best times humanity has ever experienced and that's mainly due capitalism and (actual) liberal ideas. My standard of living has skyrocketed since my childhood. It's incredible and wonderful.
Thank you for sharing, hearing a rational firsthand account of the experience of communism vs. capitalism lifts my spirits. Especially hearing an individual doing well for themselves. Salut.
I've been watching expat channels and keep constantly hearing that former socialist/communist countries are all skyrocketing into prosperity right now due to capitalism, and the fact that there is no more left wing elite there trying to push far left ideas as the general populace already has lived experience of those systems so they are extremely unpopular. So they describe these countries as like a getaway from the problems of the modern west and as a bastion of capitalism and free markets.
Same. It's because they did not.
What country are you from? In Bulgaria it's been getting worse since the 90s.
@@ichoffski4707 Just a bit north. Romania. But I do find that things have slowly and gradually been improving the three decades since the revolution (granted I am too young to have experienced that time myself).
I do think however that 40 years of soviet socialism have granted us (eastern europeans) some resistance to the lefty cancer our western friends suffer from.
Like free speech being somewhat of a principle between people.
It is amazing how so many very smart people proclaiming themselves to be above a superstitious belief in God put so much blind faith in Marxist dialectic -- thesis-antithesis-synthesis -- three words that mean everything and nothing.
Spot on. We had a Czech doctor at our hospital who had only left his country because his son was banned from being a doctor too in his home country.
I really enjoyed the audiobook. This was the first of your stories I have experienced, and I can't wait to read more of your works.
Listen to his Eyes in the Walls audio book. I loved it so much that I bought the paperback.
@@waderoberts3701 I actually prefer reading physical copies to audiobooks as a general rule, but I have been interested in his writing for a while. I will keep that book recommendation in mind.
I discovered you through your 5,5,5 leveling guide for oblivion. This video shows me that there is hope that the world won't fall too socialism/communism. Your a very well rounded person and I truly respect you.
Seconded. As my interests develop and I change what types of channels I’m subbed to, David’s channel always stays. Haven’t found any other channels that covers such a wide range of interesting subjects. David is the kind of guy I would enjoy having as a neighbor.
I have a colleague who goes on about how a communist revolution would be great. I asked her what would happen on day 1, after the revolution, her answer: "there is no way to possibly know that". Oh great, so no plan then.
sounds about right. I would say If it does ever happen I pray we are lucky a a Napoleon type usurps it. God help us all if we go the way of the soviets.
Same BS happened with Lenine, his revolution was such a spectacular failure that Staline rose to power through violence and mass murder in the own ranks of Lenine´s own party a few years after.
@@sebas8225 Vladimir Lenin was also a mass murder along with Trotsky. Stalin was the reward to the communist for what they did.
@@kinggundragon3728 Fair enough, but at least Lenin and Trotsky didnt conspire against their own party like Stalin did, sure they are mass murderers, but Stalin was a even more successful mass murderer and a backstabber on top, again Lenine and Trotsky enabled this to happen, I´m very sure that if they could read the future, they would´ve put down Stalin before he could become a problem
Of course they don't what socialism is, It's not Harry Potter so they didn't read it
You couldn't be more correct in the beginning. Somehow, everyone's going to be in charge, or doing what they want to all day.
Ironically, choosing your own career is something made possible only by a free market. There is no such choice under a heavily-centralized government system where individual choice MUST necessarily be scarified for the "greater good" and every last decision made by a small cadre of leaders.
I've met ONE person in my life who advocated for Socialism/Communism and was realistic about it: "You would be a pollical cartoonist or full-time musician," he told me, "and I'd be digging ditches."
So socialist artist simply wants the power to force others to appreciate their art the way they think it should be. That actually makes sense. It makes even more sense when you re-interpret major Socialists and Communists in history as "artists" who see humanity as their canvas.
Strange thing this. An argument that makes me as a diehard anti-marxist and anti-communist, almost wish to scream 'bring forth the worker revolution'.
Agreed, it's a case of projection at it's most blatant. There are none so greedy as those that wish to "share" that which belongs to someone else.
Thanks for that, I checked out Milton Babbit and now my ears hurt. What a load of tosh. He did with music notes what Pollock did with paint, just throw it randomly at the paper.
Great take on people blaming others for their failings/circumstances. It's so frustrating..
Thats right, in communist/socialist Countries all arts were just work that had to be done. Its similar to the midage when e.g. the catholic church payd artists for their paintings.
You: "Somebody has to grow the food"
Me: *laughs in Stalinist holodomor*
Most people with this perspective are young adults who work at jobs they hate. In their perspectives, they don't want to be rich, they just want to pursue their hobbies without having to worry about buying food or paying rent. That's why they think in a socialism economy with no wealth and no currency, they state would provide all their basic needs and they would be free to add value to society through their art instead.
Regarding the problem of "who's gonna make shoes and scrub the toilets?" I've heard all kinds of weird explanations, from rotating jobs, to "timed labour currency" and even advanced computer AI assigning jobs.
People of art have no place in politics.
They do have a place... in the Propaganda department, but it´s a very small department and odds are the majority wont be in it.
The best way to have politics in your art is asking questions, instead preaching answers, that may be incorrect or age terribly.
My socialist professors got around this by claiming everyone should have "Scandinavian socialism." I got tired of pointing out that those countries aren't socialist.
Commissar Bubba.
That's a great username, i'm stealing it.
"Y'all gonna LEARN to share, got it?!"
@@OlStinky1 "You gon GIT now, GIT....!!!!
What is funny is that a leftist sci fi author, Ursula LeGuin, has already answered on that topic in her novel "The Dispossessed". If you have not read it, give it a go, it is a great novel regardless (or maybe because) of its politics.
I liked the image of Commissar Bubba
Their experience of "socialism" (and total government control over everything isn't socialism, but random people on the internet don't let that stop them from looking dumb) is their parents, high school teachers, and humanities teachers at college. All of whom reach down and arbitrarily stifle some and provide largess for others. That's usually how they describe capitalism too, successful people have been given what they have as if by some higher power, even if that doesn't make sense and contradicts their other points on other topics. They kind of imagine socialism as this top-down arbitrary power structure that they think the world is, where specifically they get rewarded for being far-leftists and perhaps also for immutable traits (gender, race, sexual orientation kind of, gender identity kind of).
I'm from a communist country that actually filters artists and uses their work to get money into the country. They have artists creating subversive work and selling it to foreigners but what the regular people consume is very censored and filtered. However, I have to say, artists from my country are mostly truly talented because getting into art school is extremely hard and those who teach themselves is with the limitations and extreme lack of resources and art supplies.
I find a lot of great artists out of the Eastern block. Most Western artists spend 7 years at a 4-year art school and still can't draw at the end of it.
Yup brace for 80 million professional twitch streamers. Nobody cleaning the sewers or washing dishes
very well said David.
I don't know why, however, but i started off on another tangent as you presentedt the case for this topic....i started rememebering portraits of the past and my curiosity as to why back then average life span for women was a drastically lower figure than what from, at least what we grew up with...and, furthemore, it seemingly concerns women from those then upper classes more (thus their portratsbeing painted).
of course, there must many reasons, variables, and dependants such as time and place creating many fluctuations so, trying to unravel this knot would..(ha)..require a few lifetimes(?).
not that many low class women didn't have it bad, with the need for giving birth to so many children back in the day, being one of certainly many other factors.
I suppose it is because of the Catch-22 effect evident in your reasoning about those believing they are going to escape to something better through socialism---->reflecting a similarity in that (most?)women of or entering into high class did not necessarilly have it any better than those of the low class...perhaps even worse? As would be the case for these would be post socialistic revolution future heroes.
So naturally also started wondering just when the saying we've been hearing since young children, "well, it's a given that women live a few years longer than men", actually solidified.
thanks for another cool vid my friend
"Wait, you thought communism would let you stay at home all day and make bad Soundcloud rap? HAHAHA! Face wall now, comrade!"
To all the people who think living in the world of Star Trek style socialism would be great, remember, not everyone gets to be the starship captain. There are a lot more people cleaning toilets back at Starfleet Academy.
There is also no explanation how you get a place to live. Who get the apt with views of both bridges in SF ?
Below Decks is superb, I highly recommend it.
Sonic Imperium, worse part is that if you are a tech guy, you are expected to work smarter than everyone else, only to be rewarded the same as everyone else at the end of the month
Wouldn't they have robots doing that ? But anyways, even the toilet cleaner would have great living condition, healthcare, etc most likely
@@Kamfrenchie Just like... Cuba! 👍🏻
Speaking from an East-German Pov i can asure you that Artists are much worse of in a socialist System. See also: "Bitterfeder Weg" and "Kahlschlag Plenum"
We had a lot of people who got govt money last year and they showed jack shit in terms of creative endeavors
After the communist revolution, I'm going to be in heaven.
Because I died during said revolution.
Going back to your roots sounds so hard in an era where the youngest generation was raised on technology that is all computer based. Delivery drivers have those apps to choose from which boost whether you will have work based on the companies who have signed on to use the service. Depending on the activity for UberEats, DoorDash, or another service, you can do your part by participating in a service that requires you to own a car and know the city you are covering. Bike messengers would have a reason to exist again if we gather our resources into boosting this new economy.
delivery jobs are pretty poorly paid though aren't they?
@@Kamfrenchie Poorly paid is a subjective term. It won't get you the same amount of money as a professional sports player, but you should be able to live on what you make. Although some use delivery jobs as a supplemental income, the skills required to maintain such a high stress should be someone's full time job.
@@MissPopuri
from what i've heard, given the minimum wage level in the US, and the fact amzon delivery workers have to pee in bottles for example, it does sound like they're barely making ends meet
@@Kamfrenchie Peeing in bottles doesn't correlate to "barely making ends meet". It is either sensationalist propaganda to try to rally people behind a union or making a company look worse than it is. There were stories about Amazon employees having to account for "time off task" which is how employers keep track of an employee's pay.
@@MissPopuri
No, all of this is well documented. Amazon has plenty of shady practices
Another thing I constantly hear dissed is consumerism. And I dont understand how they turned it into a negative.
You sir are always very insightful
This fantasy reminds me of the film Dr. Zhivago in the sense that everyone wanted the revolution, but when it took over it didn't turn out to be what they expected.
Case nobody wants to pay or accept the costs of the revolution afterwards they are screwed
The artists David Stewart talks about in this video can't make music half as good as Lara's Theme.
@@otomicans6580 Totally agree.
I really enjoy your "rant" videos and would like to see more... js
"The state does not need 1000 artists, musicians, psychologists and social workers. The state requires labour. The state decrees you are now a labourer."
"You disagree and don't want to labour for the state?"
"Fine. We need compost for the farms as well"
Btw, Karl Marx hated socialists. He thought of them as hypocrites who would use socialism to join the bourgeoisie.
The Ironic part is that we already lean towards communism in a lot of ways and they don't see it, like they're oblivious to what Communism is or something. Neither Communism or Capitalism are beneficial in their extreme form and in fact become hard to differentiate, ironically, lol.
Oh, interested in weighing in on the onlyfans situation? I'm sure you have some insight on that.
This was the most brutal take-down of communism I've ever seen! So absolutely effortless!
I think to your point about making art that you believe in: there's no shame in that. Honestly. If people want to make post-modern garbage, please do. Capitalistic societies have the power to have some really shit people, making some really shitty things. And that is great. I think all we need from these types of people is what you expressed quite admirably: Respect the system and the people that empower you to do the work that you do. The people who keep the drains clear and the lights on - and the million other demands that a free-market economy fills under the hood with challenging/rough jobs on a regular basis and without which society would grind to a snail's pace in a heart beat.
Thank you for this video. I heard the same conversations. I saw the same bad art. Only with my school, the students were far more disgruntled than the faculty.
Yeah, I'll take Gustav Mahler over Charles Ives any day of the week.
Fake Communist: "I like to do organic gardening."
Real Communist: "I like to do organic gardening too... you see that shovel? Start to dig hole..."
I was just distracted by the first five seconds. I'm very interested in the topic, as an artist and a musician. But the title "Prophet of the Godseed" piqued my interest. The notion of "the seed of God" is very near and dear to me. I also love science fiction and it would be interesting to see such ideas fleshed out in such worlds.
100% accurate, you had to be extremely talented to be allowed to do "your thing" (with lots of limitations, of course) as an artistic person in the USSR. Many were so awesomely talented they could actually slip their alternative messages through in a work that on the surface checked all the right boxes. That's why Russians still love plenty of Soviet music, movies and paintings. I don't argue for socialism in particular, but these days you have to look for rare diamonds in piles of commercial garbage made with money that could have been utilized for better purposes.
I just listened to some of Milton's "music" and yep it sucks pretty bad. I guess I need to think of a scheme to make terrible "art" and get paid for it.
I like how the big takeaway of this video is that Milton Babbitt's music sucks lol
Can't believe anyone can think up such fantasies which fall apart literally at the base of this terrible idea they believe in
Bu bu bu bu but it's not true Communism!
i mean it was Socialism.
If I ask 10 people to define socialism, I might receive 12 different answers. Dave's definition in this video seems to be very close to communism.
The communists themselves defined their system as socialism - "communism" was the end state: a classless, stateless society.
@@DVSPress You're not incorrect, but the big issue I see with discussions of 'socialism' is that it can mean anything from Communism to a viewpoint that is left of center (i.e.. "Obama the socialist".). I enjoy your viewpoints.
@@dank6514 So they are simping for Relativism, makes sense since objectively speaking Communism is a failed experiment from decades ago
Let's say for the argument that socialist utopia, without the authoritarian drift, is in place. Everybody have the right and duty to work in decent conditions. As a result weekly working hours are reduced and people have more free time.
So now everybody can be an artist, and nobody's an Artist. In the sense that there will be jobs for artists but doing your own art will only be a side thing. A hobby that much more people can now delve into. So even in socialist utopia, there's no place for those "bougeois artists" as you describe :p
I would be fine with doing 6H of factory work a day then working on my art. Doesn't change much from capitalism, but the pay and work conditions might be a bit better.
Commissar Bubba...
what you said is irrelevant if you accept both national socialism (for us) and slavery (for them). just that the later part is supposed to be silence.
Mozart was a servant. He was ranked below the cooks. He had to make music his patreons wanted to hear. At least they had good taste. The idea of the free artist arrived with romanticism. I believe Beethoven was the first composer that wasn't somebody's employee. Stalin instructed authors how to write. Those who didn't obey were sent into internal exile, at least they weren't allowed to live in Moscow. Stalin took art very seriously. So seriously that he instructred artists what to produce. The making of the Soviet national anthem in 1943 is a good example of this practise.
He was also a genius.
i believe a quote attributed to stalin is "the artist is the engineer of the soul", or something to that effect. i would argue that haydn was the first major musical figure to make a name for himself and break away from being solely dependent on patronage from the church or the nobility. beethoven was a similar case, but managed to ride the wave of rising nationalist sentiments of the time.
As someone who was born in USSR, I disagree. You don't know that art's popularity has CLOSE TO ZERO correlation with art quality (sic). It was nailed by Nassim Taleb, the most famous probability specialist. Yes, you are popular with no correlation with what you write. And, as weird as it sounds, artist were free to do what they wanted in Soviet Union (outside of politics) and be popular because there were not so many educated people to produce art. They were getting like tons of money for writing uninteresting stuff. So, as always, interesting talking with zero correlation with reality...
Might that have been late-stage USSR?
One yeah, and they were a "Small Club", it´s easy to have more prestige, work value and rewards when you have the privilege of working in the USSR´s propaganda department (very much likely on Nepotism than actual skill), rather than being working hard in the Gulag, when it´s just a few people doing the art.
Now you mention it...yea, it's really unbelievably naive & ignorant.
I understand why you've put "socialism" in the title. However, socialism has become a substitute for communism. This video is about communism, not socialism.
What's weird is we already have socialism. It's everywhere in the US. We are arguably have crossed the rebicon into social communism. The only thing we now lack is the central planning.
>The only thing we now lack is the central planning.
Yes, the final stage of socialist failure.
Yeah case people would migrate out of the US if that was attempted, California´s attempt to Tax the rich worked great too!
you may have corporate socialism, but not really socialism in any other sense. Have you been or looked at many of the western countries who are much more leftist economicly ?
socialism isn't when the state replaces the factory owner. Socialism is when the workers control the means of production. A worker coop business is real socialism. Not a socialist or communist gouverment. That's why socialism has never been done on a country wide level.
Market socialism my guy, the government isn't assigning anyone a job. You'd still have to appeal to people to make it a living, but labor would have more money to buy your art, and they have more free time with more bargaining power.
Saying "socialism" while you're referring to a soviet system is so uneducated, for fucks sake
Cope harder commie. Your boutique socialism is just as much of a pipe dream as the rest.
Literally the “not real socialism” argument lmao
Union of Soviet SOCIALIST Republics.
Mmm...though I agree that "socialism" is quite ambiguous, at least I can say that your envisioned future doesn't agree with Marx's collectivism or communism exposed in his critique of the Gotha Programme. The idea of giving to the workers more money so they can sustain a group of individuals that live of what was produced by the workers is clearly reactionary and bourgeois.
Cringe apologist spotted in chat. Did his critique hit a little too close to home?
They are this deluded? This seems too unbelievable that people are leaving the education system thinking this. Imagine the horror of when they realize the choice they made.