I first found this quote from Ursula Le Guin when doing research for an essay I published a few 
years back called The Commodification of Art. I recently came across her quote again and thought it was worthy of sharing once more:
“Right now we need writers who know the difference between the production a market commodity and the practice of an art…Developing written material to suit sales strategies in order to maximize corporate profit and advertising is not quite the same thing as responsible book publishing or authorship…Letting commodity profiteers sell us like deodorant and tell us what to publish and what to write…the profit motive is often in conflict with the aims of art.
We live in capitalism, its power seems inescapable, (but) so did the divine right of kings. Any human power can be resisted and changed by human beings. Resistance and change often begin in art, and very often in our art; the art of words…the name of our beautiful reward is not profit, it is freedom”
It’s a pretty great quote, to me anyways. My commentary at the forefront is to say I’m not looking to judge anyone that has done things purely for money and attention. I certainly have in some situations. And I get it, people have desires and rationalizations to prop up the worth of those desires.
Wisdom over the ages has had a lot to say about desire and wanting something that isn’t presently here. Often making the present moment miserable when a desire isn’t fulfilled. Time that could be otherwise spent in joy is spent in suffering because of desire. The Buddha had a pretty good rap on the whole deal.
But it seems at present many are being browbeaten by algorithms that mold how we say things and the type of writing we do in order to get what we desire. And if you haven’t noticed somehow, attention culture is ubiquitous. Fostering a Brave New World of inauthenticity manifest in spam writing that comes down to thinking that one just needs to find the right combination of words in order to get a reward and they (or AI) are willing to write whatever necessary, usually within reason, to get that reward.
In that state the words are obviously not coming from something true within us, rather what will win us that reward that we seek; the high of getting attention and maybe money too. It’s the total commodification of ourselves to be marketable, one that’s algorithm approved, also ultimately translating to government and corporation approved.
I also appreciate Le Guin challenging the held belief in the public that radical change isn’t possible. As if we are incapable of coming to a new understanding, choosing something different, and do it. You can see how scared ruling power is of our words. They do everything thing they can to suppress dissent rising to the surface or if it does they will grind up the message into some scapegoat narrative making the non-conformist ideas unappetizing by associating them with an amalgam of negative cultural mental imagery like a cultist, terrorist, drug dealer, anti-vaxxer, utopian minded, backwoods, hippie dippy, commie, sex pervert type of labeling.
So anyone who disagrees with what algorithms, corporate news and government PR are feeding you can easily be dismissed as “one of those people.” And one of those people style of thinking is always reducing and dehumanizing people by making them cultural objects, as defined by the wealthy and powerful.
It’s up to us to diffuse these tricks long been played by power. To speak what’s true over what’s expected.
