The Value of Liberal Arts

The universe we currently live in is full of stuff. There are people that wish to define and explain this stuff, and these people are called scientists. Science's goal is to explain the unexplained, decrease the gray in between areas of human understanding. That sounds very lofty and pretentious, but it is ultimately true. But there is a literal universe of undefined and unexplained gray, and the scope of collective human focus cannot possibly dedicate its attention to anything more than an infinitesimally small fraction of that gray. So I am not here to insert any questions about the validity of their findings, but rather the motivation and choice of gray area to explore.

So what does this have to do with the liberal arts and their title-implied value? Great written, filmed, spoke, and otherwise broadcast to the general public works have played crucial roles in influencing what people know and what people want to know. This sounds very idealistic, and yes, I know that, but if you unwind the thread behind any business move within this capitalistic world you'll find consumers.  These consumers are not the experts on the field in which they are putting their hard-earned dollars towards, nor are they always the most thoughtful or conscious consumers. They buy what we sell -- we, as in the collective writers, advertisers and content-deliverers.

Pharmaceutics, computers, industrial tech, everything is reliant on advancements in science and engineering in order to progress. These are not cheap ventures, they require considerable amounts of capital in order to fund. Science may still be driven the that insatiable explorer's spirit on the lab-level, but when you increase the scale it is a business. The money still comes from big names like Monsanto, Exxon-Mobil, Pfizer, Intel, etc. The labs these scientists work in may still have these incredible minds working for them, but they are made to specialize and direct their brilliance in a direction of the money's choosing.

The Liberal Arts have that distinct ability to influence people. The books you read, the TV you watch, the newspaper you peruse, all have some impact on how you see the world. You might veer towards the organic section of a grocery store, because you heard that organic was better. You might purchase a new car that has less emissions, because you heard about emissions being linked to something called climate change. These things were made possible for you to purchase because of engineers and scientists, but you buy because you were informed or influenced. They produce because you buy, and thereby these engineers create.

Sustainability, green, organic, etc. are all buzzwords, and that's the way writers do their work. They focus on these buzzwords and then attempt to explain why they are important. The science is there, and those scientists will continue to do science, but interest and passion is incited not by their findings, but rather by the people that make it their goal to make you passionate. Science will progress where human-interest demands it to, and that will always, and inseparably be influenced by the media you consume -- the media that was produced by the Liberal Arts.

This was a nice rant, and I understand that my audience is insignificantly small, but if this made you think, or even see things in a slightly different shade of apathy, you see exactly what I'm talking about.

Being a Freelance Writer

I'm not that good at it. There are two things that freelancers need in order to survive in this new internet world: motivation and hubris. I have one of those two, and it ain't a business thing. I can talk about myself, and I can make myself sound like the perfect candidate for whatever writing project you might have in mind, but I get involved in one project and then devote myself completely to it. This is bad when you stare down a $40.00 payout after a weekend of work. Apparently the way to make money in this industry is to either split yourself between multiple projects, or to market yourself so well that clients are more than willing to throw 500 bucks at you for a single piece.

I can't do either of these things, at least not yet.

But there is a zany thing about this working from my own computer chair thing. I know, that in my heart-of-hearts, if I wanted to make some money today, I could. I could just log on to some freelance site and just market the living hello kitty out of myself and hopefully get some bites. Chances are, I'd find someone willing to pay me 5 cents a word for some article about "Health and Fitness in Your Basement!" or something equally mundane like eateries in the Midwest or something.

What I've found is that I cannot self-motivate worth a good golly darn. If I find something that I care about writing, or if I get that bug and I just want to put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard), then I can write, and the money is just a happy bonus that pays for my food and weekend habits. What I need is work ethic, and I have finally acknowledged this after every school teacher I have ever had has told me so. This is where I find myself, and how I am going to improve.

The biggest revelation I've had while freelance writing is that I can talk about utterly anything and sound remotely intelligent. I think a key point in writing for money in any field is that you give yourself this aloof sense of intellect, so that even if you have absolutely no clue exactly what you're talking about you can present it in a way that says "sure, it wasn't totally a bad idea to pay me to read stuff online and then write about it, nope, great idea,"

And I just nod and hope they don't see the sweat.