Has greed become the sign of our times?
Posted Dec. 23, 2008 by Gabriel Hurley
Last week my work raffled off a big screen HDTV in the process of closing up shop for, in some ways, the very last time. I was in charge of that raffle.
Despite the sadness that people felt; despite the importance of the closing; despite the inordinate amount of work that had to be done, over and over I heard a chorus of "when are you raffling the TV? What about the TV? Let's exclude so-and-so from entering."
It made me truly sad. On the flip side, the generosity of April, our boss, to simply say "we're giving this away" was wonderful.
Since then I've been seeing it everywhere. Everyone obsessed with what they can get. It seems so much worse than previous years. Maybe it's because people are scared of what's ahead.
And then today Eric questioned me on why I was trying to get involved in Artist Management when it was soundly a losing investment right now. In the end, it's because all I want to give artists a chance that they haven't been getting for a decade. And you know what? I haven't figured out how that benefits me yet. But I'm working on it as I go, and I'd love it if it did.
The hard part is maintaining that core vision of doing the good and ethical work in the face of a pragmatic and self-interested world. It gets me down and I feel overwhelmed sometimes. I lost sight of that core in writing a draft of this management contract. I'm glad someone reminded me.
And of course there is charity, and it is being recognized more than ever. But somehow, it seems too polarized. What happened to the middle ground of simply living a good life and doing ethical work with honor?
We don't need the extremes of take take take or give give give. We just need more balance.
Nice writing style. I look forward to reading more in the future.
I kind of know where you're coming from in wanting to to do good, and do something not for me but for someone else, and it frustrates me to no end.
I just want to make things better for everybody, including me. Not just me, and not just other people. EVERYBODY.