Divorce Your Dreams From Capitalism

I need to begin this blog by mentioning Tricia Hersey and her work in The Nap Ministry. You can follow her on instagram @thenapministry, or visit her website: thenapministry.com. Hersey has a new book coming out, and I already pre-ordered mine and sight-unseen I encourage you to do the same.

I mention Tricia Hersey because she is a prophetic voice that I continue to learn from. She repeats herself often because she knows that we need to hear the same word over and over until we get it. And then we need to hear it more until we get it more. This has been my experience, a continual revelation by her repeated and consistent message: rest is resistance. She speaks candidly about the inherent racism embedded in our current capitalist economy. Our economy is not a benign capitalism, it is founded on racism, competition, and injustice. As long as we continue to serve it, we will not be free. No one will. Hersey is obviously the better voice to listen to when trying to understand her message, so I encourage you to go to her site and follow her to learn more.

In the meantime, I want to share a revelation that Hersey’s message offered me: in order to be free and happy, you must divorce your dreams from capitalism. She’s been saying it a thousand times and it finally hit home to me in a concrete way – a light bulb moment – and I want to share because we all need this freedom (and we all need to offer it).

Allow me to explain: I keep seeing all of these motivational posts on social media that echo the lines of the famous quote that goes something like this- “your calling in life is where your greatest joy meets the world’s greatest need.” This quote or some variation of it has been attributed to Aristotle, Frederick Buechner, or Albert Schweitzer, but was most likely said first in a speech to high school students by Dr. Marcus Bach. Honestly, it doesn’t really matter who said it, because the point remains that it’s a lovely sentiment and we repeat it to people searching for their way.

I won’t pick the original quote apart, but I am going to criticize what we do next: we mix the word calling with job. We make them synonymous. This leads to our immediate derailment into despair. And I’m not even being dramatic. This is truth.

You may have heard it said that to make your art your livelihood will kill your art. This is sort of the opposite of the previous quote and we try to make them both stand somehow. Or we say: don’t lose your love for your art in some way of cautioning folks to have good boundaries around their passion as they pursue them in their jobs. Sort of a burn-out prevention mission. I used to think that the caution against making art your livelihood was sort of a way of excusing or lamenting the fact that you can’t actually make a living with your art. And part of this is true. 1- it is extremely difficult to make a living as an artist of any kind. 2- if you start making brownies for money, eventually it does feel a little bit like you hate brownies.

Where we go wrong is that we blame the creator. We say: you need time, space, boundaries, self-care, security, ego-work, shadow-work, money-mindset work. And while all of those things are inherently true, they are not the problem (or solution) to why making art your money source often ends in defeat. Artists- my loves- hear me please: do not try to be an outlier. You are fighting the wrong fucking battle.

The real battle is capitalism. The SECOND we enter our dreams/art/passion into the Hunger Games that is American (and other nations’) capitalism, they WILL suffer. Likely die. When you enter that arena, winning means you’re Katniss who has become a spokesperson for the evil empire (it’s been a minute since I read the books, so forgive me). To be even more blatant: there is no winning with capitalism as it stands. It preys on the lives of humans for the benefit of few (and my God, these billionaires may be comfortable but they don’t seem happy). Does money buy happiness? A little. But can your soul run on money? Not for long.

Here’s my advice: make your artistic entry into capitalism a low-stakes entry. Don’t give it your best because it churns your best. I chews it up and spits it out into the heap of un-appreciated beauty that is up for cheap consumption. NO. Don’t give your beauty to the belly of consumption.

We have juxtaposed “calling” and “career” for generations of people who have been told they have something special to offer the world. And they are all miserable thanks to this. (I know- NOT EVERYONE- blahblahblah.) We grew up believing that we should enjoy what we do. And this is quite a fair assumption. In fact what we’re assuming is that we should be treated as humans, be given a living wage, and not drown in despair every day at the expense of an invisible and ever-moving bottom line. We started with the highest hopes of “never working a day in your life” because you love what you do and all that jazz. Now we are just hoping to not be miserable.

What we have done with this unhappy realization is told the lie that it is not the system that is broken: it’s us. We didn’t get the right job. We didn’t go to the right school, get the right degree. This can go on opposite ends of the spectrum: did you follow your heart and get a degree in philosophy and go to seminary? (me) Then of course you aren’t making millions, you chose poorly! You made your bed, now lie in it. On the other end: Did you follow your brain and get a degree in business and a masters in marketing? No wonder your life feels soul-sucking, you didn’t follow your dreams! Do you see what happened there? It didn’t matter which path you chose, you still got misery. We see-saw between extremes of “work smart/hard, play hard” and “follow your dreams and everything will work out.” None of this matters in the context of capitalism because the system is broken. No, not broken, devious. It’s sinful. It makes you think that no matter what you do/did, if you aren’t making millions, you did it wrong. And if you are making millions, you won! But you could make MORE. You could do MORE. You can SELL MORE. Do you see what I’m getting at? Do you see the trap we’ve been in? No one wins in this system. No matter what the outcome, you feel duped.

Our current mental health crises is in part (not in whole- hear me on that) a result of folks thinking if/when they reach a certain milestone they will be happy. Either the milestone keeps moving or they achieve it and it feels like nothing. Or they don’t have a milestone that they want to do that has been valued ($$) by capitalism, and they despair. Check out this recent grad speech about this kid’s regrets for being a valedictorian. He “achieved” the goal and realized it was all bullshit. He missed out on life.

Y’all. We need a divorce from the bullshit.

Of course, guess who benefits the most from our capitalistic system? Straight White Men. Obviously there are exceptions and outliers. But the system is built by and for rich white straight men. That’s not a dig on RWSM- it’s literally just a matter of fact. It’s like being 6 feet tall and entering the “can you reach the top of this 6 ft ladder” contest. It’s not your fault you’re 6 ft tall. And someone short is definitely going to get crafty because survivors are crafty AF. But it is very clear that this competition favors folks like you. If the competition is for entertainment, then I guess it’s no harm. If it’s for survival, we have problems.

America, we have problems.

Here’s why: we have made the fatal mistake of asking people (including ourselves) to place their beloved passion, interests, calling, purpose, joy, into the straightjacket and deadening system of capitalism. No one wins in capitalism. Even those that win don’t win. This isn’t to say that you can’t enjoy how you make your living, or even that your art and passion cannot make you a living. No, what it means is that the minute you enter the race/game/competition, the rules change and you have to be realistic about this. Your worth, your art, your passion, they are measured in coins. Capitalism WILL do this, not might, WILL. Your job is to divorce your dreams from capitalism. You can make money any old stupid way, and you may get lucky or not. You might struggle or you might thrive, most of this (and truly MOST of this) is not your fault or even in your control. The system at large is FAR more powerful than you are. BUT- YOU are far more valuable than the system. Let me say that again: YOU MATTER MORE. So don’t pour all your eggs and love into the Hunger Games. Don’t throw your pearls to the swine. They don’t deserve you.

Divorce your dreams from capitalism. When you invest in capitalism, do it with your coins, not your heart. Make money, then make love on your own terms.