Why Sacrifice Your Integrity?
...as a CREATIVE BEING?!
Like a starstruck ingénue, I was floored during COVID (the epic scandal of the 21st century) by the silence from artists everywhere.
Oh, I remember!—the off-the-charts virtue signally. And the kaleidoscope of red-carpet face coverings at awards shows. And like any stargazer, how will I ever forget the shocking headlines—of Tom Hanks and his wife,
“First Celebrity Couple to Test Positive!”
—Flatten the Curve world premiere, March 12th, 2020
I remember Hollywood and Bollywood and The Lion King cartoon ad, all playing their part in selling the greatest mass worldwide vaccination campaign in known history.
And I just stumbled on this gem:
We love them for their shiny hair and expressive faces and commitment to showing us every possible outcome of getting back together with your ex. But the least they could do is set aside some time to promote the lifesaving, free vaccine that’s been made available to all Americans as the national death toll from COVID continues to rise past 600,000. Celebrities who got the vaccine have an obligation to talk about it to their giant fanbases.
-Glamour (August 17, 2021)
Don’t you love it?—such dressed-to-the-nines propaganda: “600,000”, “The lifesaving, free vaccine.”
The reality is that my naiveté was utterly chart-busting:
I was groomed to believe that ALL artists were compelled, by their very nature, to always fight back against authority. I was constantly babbling on about when those “ten writers and directors were [supposedly] cited for contempt of Congress for refusing to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee.” You know, the Hollywood blacklist?
But now, after the corona spotlight has blinded me, history—for me—is just a fabulous work of fiction. His-story is the title of some black-and-white foreign flick cranked forth from the typewriter of some ghost-writer screenwriter with the best connections money can buy.
But this is not about money.
Or even fame.
It is about agency—yes.
Yours.
It’s about NOT getting an agent.
In other words, I’m not talking to actors, filmmakers, musicians, poets, and the like.
I’m talking to you.
To all of us.
The ultimate Creative Workforce.
We were put to the test in 2020. And the majority of us failed. But now that the jig is up…
Don’t ever sacrifice your integrity—again.
If you are an influencer, a TikTok celebrity, if you’ve got 100,000+ followers and are worried about offending your fan base, this message is NOT for you.
This is not about Hollywood. (Though it is about influence.)
And it is not about virtue-signaling hashtags either.
Yet it is about avatars and self-branding.
It’s a warning from the mists of forgotten sensibility…
The ultimate mindf*ck comes from you polishing and foisting into the jet stream some phony representation of yourself.
In other words, pause before committing yourself.
Because creativity is the fundamental flow from which we surface. It’s the juice that drives the life.
To brand yourself—to make yourself into a product—is to channel that flow into a fixed state, a rubber stamp, if you will.
And I’m not sure how to express any of this without screwing it up. Because it’s the kind of discussion that lends itself too easily to trite, stupid memes. But once and a while, someone needs to say it out loud:
YOU are a dynamo. You take the current, and you generate the life. And whenever your creative channel is clogged with self-doubt, you suffer.
Perhaps a more precise way to put it is this:
The extent to which you clog your creative freedom is the extent to which it negatively impacts the flow of your essential Life Force.
My concern is that people in high places—and maybe they’re not even people—powerful things?—wannabe gods?—Sleestaks?—my fear is that WHOEVER THEY ARE (or whoever they think they are), they already know this great secret. Which, of course, they are hiding from us.
But they already know about this power.
They know about the power that can be generated through the manipulation, direction, and misdirection of our creative minds. And they are actively hijacking mankind’s creativity en masse to create outcomes that benefit mainly them.
They hijack us through stories.
By getting us to believe their emotional stories, by getting us to focus our hearts and minds, they generate wondrous things—for themselves.
They live.
The signs are everywhere!
Everything is a wake-up call waiting to happen.
And maybe They have always been here.
But lately, you’ve gotta admit, if you’re awake?—you sure as hell don’t want to fall back asleep. And I know They know this.
And not just them—them over there too: those so-called good guys, those freedom-fighting-doctors-fighting-The-Cabal guys:
“Yeah, I’m a good guy/girl. And I’m just (mis)channeling your beliefs a little into my… okay, perfect: Please!—buy my vitamin stack! And look into my eyes. Stay hypnotized by my latest guest spot on so-and-so’s Zoom podcast. And buy tickets (here) to my upcoming appearance at The Ultimate Good-Doctors Freedom Rally in…”
Integrity is defined in the dictionary as
(1.) adherence to moral and ethical principles; soundness of moral character; honesty.
(2.) the state of being whole, entire, or undiminished
I know that for this article, (1.) sounds like the winner. But I’m actually leaning towards (2.):
Stay integrated.
Don’t diminish yourself.
Do not brand yourself for the masses.
Do not sacrifice your integrity for anything.
And be wary of anyone who does.
Integrity is an individual process. Yet integration is being sold as some sort of group thing. But that’s just smog and misdirection.
This is not about Hollywood.
It is about creativity!
And if it isn’t obvious by now, I’ll just say it:
Creativity can be hijacked.
And, yes, it can be sacrificed too.
And, of course, it can be Incorporated (into something else).
And I’m sure none of this counts as sound financial advice. This is not some webinar on how to work the algorithms. In today’s online world, it might even be downright illegal—to coach people on how to minimize their followers.
So I’ll end it with this:
Before you turn yourself into something, make sure that something remains forever loyally true to its free-to-create-whatever-it-needs-to origins. Because the self-betrayal downstream might rip it to shreds.