Patrick Rahming's Response

to Day of Absence.A word here: Patrick wrote this response to the excerpt from the full post that was circulated, faulty dates and all (it's actually 42 years after Majority Rule and 36 years after Independence -- my bad), not the original post, which you can find down the page. So some of what he says doesn't relate to the full post. Still, I think he makes some interesting points. Check below the fold for the full exchange between Patrick and me.Pat's response:Now that the day is over and I won't be accused of trying to stop something, I will share my response to the Day of Absence. It is sad that we have reduced ourselves to behaving like a bunch of unionists. Jobs are NOT what being an artist is about. Noone owes any of us a living. If we are, as we claim, creative, we are in a better position than the rest of the community to make a living. The fact is that the reason most artists are broke (including me) is that there are other things in the world that are more important. As you noted, it is those things that will make the world of our grandchildren worth living. This constant suggestion that somehow the community should make it easier for artists to make a living is nonsense. It is the result of years of conditioning by governments that we should be taken care of. We are valuable. We must learn to make use of that value. The way to do that is not to beg (like we allow our children to do at intersections and outside businesshouses) but to use the creativity that manifests itself as painting, sculpture or poetry to create income-producing devices. I certainly don't want anyone top feel sorry for me because I didn't make the kind of money I could have. That would suggest that what I did do with my life (the music, poetry etc.) was less important than the money. It is not. I choose to do what I do. So do the rest of you. If expressing yourself in the forms you do does not reward you in the ways you wish, then perhaps you should do something else. The world would not stop if people who make their living in the arts did not show up. It would be a poorer world, for sure, but it would roll right on without you. I am an architect, and I must accept that while I might express myself creatively in that realm, the vast majority of this community finds my concerns of little interest. They are content with the crudest built environment they can have, as long as the price is the cheapest they can have. If I waited for the majority of the community to appreciate the creative efforts of architects, to reward me for being passionate about the way a porch works, I would never work. But I have no choice. This world is not mine. I hold it in trust for future generations of Bahamians. My income is not important in that picture. Si it is up to me to use the creativity with which I say I am gifted to create businesses, the unit of measure in the world of money. In any case, in this Information Age, the JOB is obsolete.Ironically, there is a play that uses the "day off" idea to show white people that they need black people. Bahamians don't "need" Pat Rahming. It would be the height of arrogance for me to threaten them with my withdrawal.Pat RahmingMy response:Thanks, Pat!May I post your response publicly? I’m sure it’ll engender some useful debate.Between us, though, (as usual) I think we’re talking at cross purposes.Clearly, you disagree with the method used by Day of Absence, which was taken straight from the Douglas Turner Ward play for the very purpose you object to. I don’t agree with you that the world would go on turning without artists and the arts; I believe that the creative urge is too fundamental and too human. Without it there is no human society, there is no human world. The fact that we have divided human activity into basic/ugly/functional and beautiful/frivolous is, I believe a nineteenth century error that we don’t need to perpetuate. I believe if the artists disappeared the human world would stop. I believe the world absolutely needs artists.But that’s just me.On the other hand, when you say“We are valuable. We must learn to make use of that value. The way to do that is not to beg (like we allow our children to do at intersections and outside businesshouses) but to use the creativity that manifests itself as painting, sculpture or poetry to create income-producing devices. I certainly don't want anyone top feel sorry for me because I didn't make the kind of money I could have. That would suggest that what I did do with my life (the music, poetry etc.) was less important than the money. It is not. I choose to do what I do. So do the rest of you.”you aren’t so different from us at all. The Day of Absence is not about withdrawal, about begging, about making money or getting jobs; it is about respect. On the one hand respect is earned. On the other hand, though, it comes from a deep appreciation of what it means to be human. We use the language of jobs and employment because it is the language that most of us understand.On the other hand, there is a very important economic aspect of the arts and culture that our society’s perpetual disrespect for arts, culture and artists (which is more profound in actuality than it is in most other societies) ignores. In the information age, the job is indeed obsolete. But culture and the arts are the information that makes up the Age. The fact that our society does not invest in any production of that at all will render us economically marginal in a very short time indeed.The full article about Day of Absence is here: http://nicobethel.net/blogworld/2009/01/30/day-of-absence-11th-february/You may want to append your comment in the discussion thread, because your response is predicated on what was circulated, not on the full article itself.  I think it’s clearer there that it’s not all about jobs or money.Pat's Response:NicoI am not going to get into any debate on this subject. The reason is not because I would not enjoy it. It is because there are too many issues it clouds. I did not say the world would get along without artists. I said it would get along without us. We both know that, money or no, respect or no, there will always be the crazy folk who create because they can do no better, and while we ALL may find them strange, they are the very ones we use for direction. Their work neitrher relies on money nor respect. It does, however, rely on a personal honesty. If they believe the politicians are mismanaging their country, those "crazies" say so, loud and clear. They DEMAND respect, although most often they get it too late for their own sanity. For example, it is difficult to respect a community that allows its government to ignore the preparation for Carifesta on the excuse that there is no money, then brag that we can afford a 3-million dollar ad during the Superbowl. Not a single (creative) voice was raised to help the community understand that that was indicative of misplaced priorities. The money would obviously been better spent, even for touristic reasons, on the reason anyone would want to visit this place. I might seem to be hard on the creative community, but my background suggests that music, poetry, drama etc. are weapons of mass influence, and if we are ineffective, it might mean that we are not using those weapons as they should be used. Artists are not just another political constituency that should lobby for influence, they are the makers of influence. Unfortunately, with that title comes responsibility, perhaps too much for most of us.I am reminded of the religious community, where the leaders have given up their power to pursue political prominence, perhaps because they envy the politician's stardom. The price they pay is the suspicion that their motives may be other than souls, and their message rendered ineffective at best. Artists have the same problem. Their "message" is not contained in any political package, but in the act of creation. An artist's union is an oxymoron.And that's it for me.PatPS You have my permission to share any of my thoughts, as long as you blame them on me.PAnd my final response:Pat, thanks, that clears up your position.I hear you, and I agree.However, conflating the idea of Day of Absence with calling for an artists’ union is mistaken. I was the person who thought of it and I didn’t think of it from the perspective of unionizing. Quite the opposite, in fact.I will post your posts and attribute them accordingly. I think this debate is important.I have deliberately stayed away from a discussion of CARIFESTA because I don’t want to sound like I’m chewing on sour grapes, which is perhaps the reason for you to stay away from it as well. But perhaps you’re right about calling attention to misplaced priorities, and I should raise it.Take careNico