the passion economy is pure nonsense.

a few months ago we tackled richard florida's concept of the creative class and we demolished it we dismantled it well now it's time for a second round first round if you're new bonjour my name is alice so put on your critical thinking glasses friends and let's jump into the video that reflection is very bad so i'm not going to keep them but i trust you keep them on [Music] don't ask your tinder date what are their hobbies ask what is their side hustle and if they have known red flag micro thinking we don't want that jokes aside having a side hustle is generally perceived as cool we now used to see students creative launch their youtube channel start an instagram or tick tock page in doing so content creators directly or indirectly promote what is now called the passion economy a profoundly untie nine-to-five jobs approach of work the anti-95 propaganda has spread in several niches on social media from self-help to lifestyle content using negative words like wage slaves the rat race to define it instead trends like i don't dream of labor or the four-hour work week phenomenon half-gain momentum and it makes sense in a way giving away so much of your time for a boss you might not like and being surrounded with colleagues that you might hate must be awful and happens to be a reality for the majority of workers as an example i've seen more and more corporate workers starting youtube channels sharing what it's like to work at google or other fan companies to be a corporate lawyer while we could assume that the growing representation of corporate nine-to-five jobs on social media could challenge the overwhelming representation of creatives freelancers and other fervent 1995 advocates well the reality is that once they become successful the majority give up their traditional job full content creation ultimately following and promoting the same pattern of digital 9-5 for your passion job the shift from the traditional 9-5 to becoming your own boss isn't new yet the media coverage of that phenomenon has seriously increased in the past few years in his book titled the passion economy the new rules for thriving in the 21st century adam davidson aims at theorizing this cultural shift we're going through this book lays out the economics of how this change happened and how you can take advantage of it mobilizing a collection of stories from entrepreneurs and whatnot davidson's spirit is more of an attempt at manifesting a ideal of what work could become in the next decade than anything else really nevertheless davidsonsburg became quite popular in entrepreneurial spheres where the term passion economy kind of resonated with the self-help linger but critics quickly emerged i managed to find an interview where the interviewer dismantles davidson's entire argument in one of the first few questions he asked him does every individual in society and certainly in american society which is so divided does every individual really have the opportunity to um to pursue something that they're passionate about and and that's that's i i don't know that most people would um would automatically say yes the author fails to explain that what he describes as a new economy is only really popular in liberal urban spaces and even more in silicon valley because this is where the pmc the professional managerial class lives and works he conflated a few stories of successful individuals into a narrative a reality for us all in fact framing the passion economy as some sort of universal societal shift puts the blame on you for not jumping on the bandwagon embarking on this new economy what you haven't studied your online business yet you know in my mind i am not advocating something i'm just observing something and it's a thing that i feel good about for me [Music] we have a very bad tendency to envision everything as a binary i mean we live in a society where everything is like so polarized when it comes to work and the passion economy the binary is very clear you're either a nine-to-five wage slave or you are your own boss if you're sick of the 95 if you don't dream of labor well start your own youtube channel take back control over your life have you noticed that the people who are strong advocates of the passion economy are either people who are successful at their passion jobs or people who benefit from that economy someone like legion exemplified the second option legion is a venture capitalist who as she claims invest in the passion economy the new york times and more specifically taylor lawrence called her the investor guru for online creators and she answered that she's actually an activist in a way investing for me is a form of activism to create the world i want to see and i'm beyond honored that the new york times wanted to spotlight it her detractors call her socialist as she says that she was inspired by the ideas of marx is described as pro-worker being porker means you're a socialist now tough times and even created a podcast called the means of creation a play on mark's means of production the marxist venture capitalist also invests in crypto as a way to as she claims give back ownership to users legion's popularity will continue to grow as the combination of her progressive liberal values and her connection with neoliberal but also libertarian groups gives her and her business a large media coverage big content creators and the media establishment absolutely love her just as adam davidson i hope you didn't forget him already he's the guy who wrote the passion economy book well legion romanticizes the phenomenon called the gig economy the monetization of every single aspect of your life your hobbies your body now you can even earn cryptocurrencies by playing video games every single minute of your existence can be turned into a financial transaction and lee jin and her venture capitalist firm are largely investing in that now at some point in an interview i found on the passion economy lee jin was asked by a member of the audience the following question when i speak to these passionate folks are that they say i refrain something similar to i don't want to turn my hobby into work and i wonder if you've heard that phrase before later another person asked should we focus on building the next middleman for passion economy or should we actually explore something along the way of helping people become a better creative person or or something else as an investor are you looking to invest in platforms or you also look to invest into the businesses that are part of the passion economy that are actually scalable i think primarily we're interested in the platforms these questions reveal the limits of the passion economy or what is also called the ownership economy first what happens when you turn your passion into a source of income is it still a passion a hobby why should we have to monetize every single hobby second passion implies subjectivity but subjectivity doesn't necessarily mean urgency if they are middlemen between you and your income well you're gonna have to make those middlemen happy among legion's venture firm investments you'll find a bunch of middlemen startups that also talk about community empowerment ownership but also want to share your passion job revenue you are never fully your own boss that's the big lie the passion economy advocates try to sell [Music] now let's go back to you me us because ultimately the popular appeal for the passion economy is a search for meaning and in turn the promotion of the passion economy fits that meaning crisis your job sucks society tells you that your job sucks and you see people on the internet doing their passion and earning as much if not more money than you and you ask yourself what's wrong with me what am i doing with my life i want to be creative too i don't want to be an object to my boss i want to be subject active simon de beauvoir thoughts and wrote extensively on this object subject dichotomy in the context of the search for meaning she recognized that uncomfortable state those external forces your boss your manager trying to take away your subjectivity especially as a woman but she refused to accept that dichotomy as it was established she insisted that you cannot be pure objectivity or pure subjectivity you'll always be a mix of the two that is the ambiguity of existence one cannot be pure subjectivity because we evolve in a social political and economic framework to which we are subjected but at the same time one cannot be pure objectivity because unless you live under an authoritarian regime you have a set of rights and liberties that you can utilize the only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your existence is an act of rebellion i can picture so many leaders activists saying those words the message to bouvoir sends is in fact a message of hope objectification doesn't have to mean passivity in 2021 eve livingstone released her book make bosses pay why we need unions if livingstone first joined a union when she was 22 she believes unions should be an essential part of a worker's life just as much as rush hour commutes hour long's meetings and bad coffee she passionately explains that a union then is solidarity it is representation protection advocacy it is higher wages equal pay health and safety and sick leave it is mobilizing and organizing it is picket lines and negotiations and marches and meetings it is thinking and talking and building and planning it is hope and optimism fury and justice it is as strong as its members and as weak as its members it is base building ideology forming class consciousness raising it is local and national and global a union is the workers and the workers are the union so eve livingstone's approach of work is very coherent with what we explained earlier eve refuses to see individuals in our case workers as passive as wedge slaves she wants workers to reaffirm their subjectivity their urgency and to magnify it through the collective through trade unions now discussions around trade unions can sound a bit nostalgic leftists tend to romanticize the former glory of trade unions especially in the uk when 1980 thatcherism completely dismantled them the thing is that the more we romanticize trade unions the less we make it something of the present that's the feeling eve had when she went to the union induction session at her workplace after a five-minute presentation about the union one rep spent double that time winning my fellow inductees both largely disinterested in white men older than me before remarking that i probably wouldn't be interested in union membership my baptism into the trade union movement is still illustrative of many of its enduring problems and the stereotypes that continue to deter young workers from joining today unions are for shouty old white men nevertheless eve argues that we need unions as much as they need us the development of the passion economy so the gig economy individualizes workers and prevent them from organizing on the other hand if advocates for collectivism in the workplace to fight for higher pay equal pay shorter hours sick leaves benefits in doing so workers demand for recognition of their value not just as workers but as human beings being poor worker isn't socialism it should be a basic requirement of every single company that wants to make sure that their workers work and bystantial lives are meaningful simone de beauvoir eve livingstone and many activists scholars before and after them have encouraged individuals to never fully give up their subjectivity to a bus an organization a state and sure it's easier said than done and there's a lot of work to do but having that mind shift is the first step of the process and i hope this video um motivated you to do so thank you to my patrons for their support a special thanks to jachelle perry pearson benjamin ben oswald and carla said it it was starting to smell like something was burning it's actually the plant over there i put some candles underneath i can't i don't know if you can see it but it was literally burning the plant oh well

Channel: Alice Cappelle

Views: 111,778

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Id: 2wVqXW_18NY

Length: 12min 19sec (739 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 28 2022