The créatifs formerly known as artists

Zuman in Beaubourg
Vidéo envoyée par ZeroTV

Though rather long, this video reveals some interesting sentiments regarding the créatifs culturels and their role in making this joint a better place to inhabit.

It’s pretty much smooth going - rage against the capitalist machine, marre de la pub, artists can and should have their say in politics and global current events - and looks like a thoughtful initiative. Then, just before the termination of the interviews, in response to how he sees the future, an avuncular character makes an appearance and proclaims the end of work, money, and politicians. The video ends on this radical, but ultimately contradictory contribution.

“La disparition du travail,” he proffers as a prediction of the future as it could and should be. The disappearance of work. Huh.

To me, this type of inane flippancy is not only daft, it’s insulting. Here is a person living in a country whose employees have the right (legislated by those ephemeral politicians) to 5 weeks vacation minimum, where the work-week legally should not extend beyond 35 hours for a large segment of the working population, that heavily subsidizes its artists or “créatifs,” and this sentient being hopes that France’s future lies in a refusal to value work.

A few others in the interview seem to voice the same lazy opinion that "la compétition" is deleterious to... what? "...On est dans une société où on est toujours mis en compétition, où il faut réussir..." laments a smiling interviewee. And?

Vague complaints like these enervate me to no end. When have we not lived in a society where success is valued on some level? It's a shame that the concept of success is disturbing this artist's groove, but why should les créatifs culturels be exempt from the rules of human progress? More to the point, why do these folks feel entitled to a life devoid of having to sweat, labor, and create? I’ve yet to hear of a creator - artist or not - who makes any sort of relevant or meaningful contribution to the sphere of artists or the general public without having to work, nay slave over his or her passion.

Is this the Protestant ethic in me? Am I just being grumpy from a long week of work? Is poor Ayn Rand doing somersaults in her grave? And how does one say in French, "Here's a dime, tell someone who cares?"