talking sh*t

October 19, 2003

We all want and need to be liked, to some extent. When we create work, we try to do our best, and hope that people like it. But one of my biggest hurdles of recent is getting over that need. I've had to remind myself that people liking you has nothing to do with you.

A lot of the people I admired and looked up to growing up were not liked in their time, or even their lifetimes. Muhammad Ali, Van Gogh, Malcolm X, Jimi Hendrix, and many others took strong political or artistic stances that we admire today, but in their time, were widely unliked.

Wanting to be liked can become a trap. Everything has suffered for this need for acceptance… music, movies, politics. No one says the unpopular thing in fear that they will not be liked. No one takes the risk of being themselves, in fear that their truth is too 'ugly' for mass consumption.

Not many people like the truth. Fewer still might like yours! And so what? The question is would you like yourself (and your work) if no one else did?

It's your imperfections that make you perfect. It’s the things that you do wrong that give you character. If every one likes what you do it's probably a piece of s***. Don’t believe me…think of all the stuff out there that everyone likes.
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10/11/03
We have every option open to us. We can do anything. But we’re trained to look for a quick and easy solution that will let us go back to our ordinary lives, and it doesn’t work that way. If you want to do something, you’re going to have to be dedicated and committed. You have to keep at it, day after day. We all know what needs to be done: it’s educational programs; it’s organizing; it’s activism. That’s the way things change. You want a magic fix that will enable you to go back to watching television tomorrow? It’s not there.
–Noam Chomsky


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