Paul Cantrell
More context:
https://www.essence.com/news/money-career/howard-intern-spotify-wrapped/
Basically:
- Spotify Wrapped used to be a dull email
- Design intern proposed turning it into an ~~experience~~, demoed her idea
- They didn’t hire her, but the redesign looks a lot like what she proposed
- Spotify says “nuh-uh, and besides lots of people contributed to it.” OK.
https://hachyderm.io/@thomasfuchs/115741043600230762
Paul Cantrell
There’s a lot to be said about that story beyond just “Spotify sucks:” how internships can be exploitative, how creators in general do not receive (and historically long have not received) proper compensation for their own work, how orgs especially treat women and especially Black women as disposable free labor. Details left as an exercise for the reader.
2/
Paul Cantrell
I’ll just say this: For the very most part, the systems of our society do not reward creators. They reward people who have power over what is created.
A deep part of our society’s mythology is that we reward people with great ideas, people who make great things — and therefore those who are rewarded must somehow be great.
That is false. If you see someone rewarded, the most likely explanation is that they had power to reap rewards.
3/
Paul Cantrell
We desperately need to figure out how to flip this: how to lift up the creators of wonderful things, instead of rewarding whoever can acquire power over their creations.
I don’t think we know how to do this. There’s a vast spectrum of schemes for fixing this, ranging from capitalist versions of “intellectual property” to Marxist “just end capitalism” notions to various versions of “easy, society should just be different.” I find them all lacking, both in theory and in practice. This is a problem that’s existed for millennia, not decades, and I’m not convinced we have a clear solution.
4/
Paul Cantrell
The one thing that does seem clear to me is that this is deeply entangled with the ultra-concentration of wealth and power, something which is both a cause •and• an effect of creators not sharing properly in the rewards of their creations.
If you talk to me about antitrust law with teeth or ending regulatory capture or a wealth tax, well, I don’t know how we get there — but you have my attention.
/end
Suzanne Aldrich (she/her)
@inthehands I’ve been thinking about this a long time. Decades. What I came up with is we need a new social movement based on the arts. Basically an artistic revolution or renaissance.
Paul Cantrell
@brouhaha
I wouldn’t go as far as blocking, but yes, I am chronically suspicious of Golden Hammer thinking.
🇺🇦 haxadecimal 🚫👑
@inthehands
Anyone who says the solution to this problem is "just do x" can immediately be blocked for cluelessness. They have nothing remotely practical to contribute to the discussion.
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