It is sometimes hard to see the role of the 'creative outsider' without veering into romanticism or conspiracy theories. At times, I have read David Icke's writings which go off into the realms of conspiracy theories, including ideas of the Illuminati and many far out ideas of power and its abuse. The one issue which he does raise may be whether Pribcess Diana's death was a mere accident or something more..Sy Borg wrote: ↑February 27th, 2023, 3:54 pm Those feelings are familiar. I am an arty outsider too. I remember that feeling of being an outsider in a work or training group, thinking everyone disliked me. However, whenever these things progress, I'd find people becoming friendlier. They just find you weird at first but, once they get to know you, they realise that you're okay. The big thing when doing these courses is keeping a strong focus on the end goal and how these processes can help bring you there. Your job in this course is to learn, so be a sponge. Focus hard on the material, and you will then find yourself coming into alignment with others in the course.
Trying to find work can be damnably frustrating and does nothing for one's sense of self-worth. I'm grateful to be retired. I don't know how I would function n a workplace today.
As I said, I'm not much good for advice because I am better at analysing life than doing it, which may be why I am here so oftenIn hindsight, this has been the case right from day one. There was probably an ideal workplace niche for me, as they would be for you, but I never quite found it. I dreamed of retirement, when I could finally express myself creatively. I planned to make albums, write books and do cartoons. Trouble is, each of these fields has been superseded by multimedia and games. Everything I created was of zero interest. Irrelevant. Archaic. Further, the only way to get your work out there is via social networks, so if you're not very social, it doesn't matter how good or bad your art is, it won't be noticed.
We are just ageing anonymous little nobodies leading nobody lives because what we have to offer is no longer much in demand by the systems in which we live. There is a freedom in being an irrelevant wart on the bottom of an ever more disinterested society. It's not as though much is hinging on our actions. We can pretty well do what we feel like, and it won't make much difference to anything. Our contributions are not needed. The situations where we might be needed are either already under control, or fixing the problems does not suit powerful vested interests.
Your thoughts bring to mind Albert Camus's Myth of Sisyphusas he grappled with the problem of seeking meaning in an uncaring universe:
The Myth of Sisyphus is far from having a skeptical conclusion. In response to the lure of suicide, Camus counsels an intensely conscious and active non-resolution. Rejecting any hope of resolving the strain is also to reject despair. Indeed, it is possible, within and against these limits, to speak of happiness. “Happiness and the absurd are two sons of the same earth. They are inseparable” (MS, 122). It is not that discovering the absurd leads necessarily to happiness, but rather that acknowledging the absurd means also accepting human frailty, an awareness of our limitations, and the fact that we cannot help wishing to go beyond what is possible. These are all tokens of being fully alive. “The struggle itself toward the heights is enough to fill a man’s heart. One must imagine Sisyphus happy”
But, beyond all the tangents of plots and political tangents, there is the everyday person as a rebel or outsider. It touches on so much of the ideas of the existentialist perspective, or in the words of the beat poet, Jack Kerouac,
'The only people for me are the mad ones; the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who burn, burn, burn like yellow candles.'
In this respect, a key aspect may be about being our saviours rather than squatted and devoured like flies, and the ongoing quest of the rebel, outsider and the stand of the oppressed. The Existentialists looked at this and the challenge may be living with the quest for authenticity and freedom amidst the social and political restraints, which can be harsh, especially for those 'on the edge' in society and in which may be seen as the domain of bohemian thinking or the trash can of culture, according to biases and allegiances of values. The current time may not be the epoch of the artists or philosophers.
