Although we could very well argue that any proper stance adopted by the general public is either too late or for the wrong reasons, we could still take notice when it happens and what it fails to acknowledge, and as blaming capitalism for all the sins of humanity has become normalized it is awfully clear that what we blame a certain class for we tolerate when self inflicted.
We could also argue that anything self inflicted is a choice and shouldn’t be considered on equal standing with what historically certain classes have inflicted on others. This is a swiss cheese argument. Most people still disagree with suicide. Most people also disagree on capitalism itself explaining its deeds by the illusion of choice. If we could explain away immigration and low paying jobs with the illusion of choice, inflicted by a system that benefits from certain outcomes, then this should apply to all arguments and all choices rather than the ones the zeitgeist tolerates.
Our society is managed through financial incentives and dire repercussions for those who do not flock as told so. Subsidies, loans, grants, scholarships and every other institutionally managed achievement ladder has its ways of herding the masses towards certain choices.
If one chooses to deliver food as an immigrant in a western society, labour we hear often no one wants to undertake, this choice is often dismissed as a non-choice, the illusion of a choice between survival and starvation. Yet there is a group within society that has always been immune to such empathy and understanding, the creative class, what we call the artists.
This class could be considered on of the most overworked and underpaid. The years spent, and later discarded for a real career, chasing perfection and beauty whatever one may think of it, and for those who manage to make a living through sweat and pain, the effort is downplayed and minimized, the pleasure of being an artist is expected in itself to be worth all the effort put into becoming one. No empathy is shared with those who made it, equally so with those who never do, whose pasts become a memory that rarely see the light of day.
The main way this disregard spreads is through the simple explanation of personal choices. One chooses to become the poor artist type rather than following a more secure career path. One could always repent and build a better life. One is to blame for one’s choices. A society that has excluded art and beauty from its present and foreseeable future, trading it all for commodities equally fueled by those same capitalist tendencies is somehow no longer the favoured explanation of why the creative class gets left behind once again. It is considered a self inflicted wound.
The barista that rather pursue the beauty of this world through what we call simple or basic employment, allowing time for discovery and the pursuit of the intangible shouldn’t be ridiculed for improper life choices. Somehow we all come to promote the hustle over the discovery while blaming capitalism for things we dislike about our societies. To a certain extent there seems to be a factor of jealousy intertwined with the enviousness of many towards the bohemian lifestyle of those who may seem liberated compared to those who are in the eternal race of financial gains. Thus they must be punished for the good they seek in life rather than undertaking labour that would be beneficial to the class passing on the judgement. We would rather have our baristas deliver us food after their shifts than spend the evening painting, this way they could also earn our empathy, this way we could blame capitalism for their dire circumstances and unhappy lives.