Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about the phrase, “Capitalism breeds innovation.” While I do not necessarily disagree with this (because yes, it’s partly true: having to pay one’s bills lights a fire under the feet that gets shit popping — Dostoevsky is a great example of an artist that was under pressure to write and produced some of the world’s greatest literature as a result), the problem for me is how boring this “innovation” often is. I am not trying to sound like some kind of hipster or too cool for school fella when I say this, it’s just a feeling I have. It seems to me that, the way capitalism works a lot of the time, is by finding something that worked amazingly well on its own, co-opting it, and then completely ruining it or turning it into something entirely different than what it was originally.
I feel like at this stage in my life I’ve seen this same pattern happen several times. One example would be a guy like Louis CK, for example. In the late 2000s he was probably the best kept secret in the world of comedy. Pretty much every fucked up person on the internet knew about him: he was our guy, a cult comic. Just like how Patrice was our guy on the fringe (but never broke through to the mainstream, and never really wanted to), Louis was our guy and made fucked up appearances on Opie and Anthony all the time. His entrance into the mainstream was kind of never really supposed to happen, and that’s partly what made it so funny.
In 2010 his career reached incredible heights, with the premiere of Louie, one of the best shows ever made. That was capitalism working really well, IMO: FX wired him a bunch of money, gave him almost complete control, and left him the fuck alone. That is how it should be. It wasn’t long before pretty much every other comic in the game who had a deal was asking for the same thing, what became known as, “The Louie Deal.” The problem with this was, Louis CK was the only comic who seriously had a proper background in filmmaking and the right amount of intelligence and wherewithal to do it. He was the only comic who self-produced his own filmmaking years prior to asking for that kind of deal, and it made sense for him. When other shittier comics tried it, the idea soon collapsed on itself, and now pretty much no one has, “The Louie Deal.”
As he became even more well known (partly due to the success of Louie), it was funny to us internet weirdos, because we kinda saw it as us pulling a fast one on the system, so to speak. This was a guy who was not really supposed to be in the public eye, yet there he was. It even got to the point where he made it to SNL, and he snuck in bits on pedos. Stuff that would probably never make it on the air before actually got there. His stand-up never really faltered during this time, and he continued saying dark things. But soon enough, he got to his “mainstream” phase, and he was making talk show appearances in 2016 where he was discussing how great Hillary Clinton was. The same dark nightclub comic who literally talked about how much he fucking hated Hillary Clinton and couldn’t stand her on Opie and Anthony was now talking about how much he loved her on Conan. Because that’s what capitalism does; it adopts unique individuals who happen to be remarkably talented in a particular field, makes them rich, and then folds them into the system, like chocolate chips in pancake batter. The caveat being: they’re now rich, but they can’t do what they want. They’re still the same person, but not quite the same.
Fast forward to 2022, to post-cancellation Louis, and there’s no debate the man (the real man) is back. His last two specials are darker than ever before, and there is just no way this version of Louis would have produced these types of specials under “The System.” Don’t get me wrong: he was never not funny, but he was starting to become a watered down version of himself. The old Louis would never defend Hillary, and I don’t see this version of Louis shilling for another politician ever again, because he has nothing to gain from it. Now that the mainstream culture has mostly rejected him, he has no concern for his public reputation anymore and the gloves are, again, off.
Another example of what I am trying to describe here would be the rap supergroup Odd Future, but more specifically, Tyler the Creator. In 2010, I don’t think you could find a larger fan of his than me. The work was truly earth shatteringly good, and in my mind I think about that time as a really important moment in rap history. There is a clear and definite “before” and “after” Tyler’s appearance in the rap game, and it was never quite the same ever again. And then what happened? It didn’t take very long for Tyler to start rapping about, “kissing white boys” and change his public persona almost entirely. No one I know from that time period that was a fan of his remains a fan today, and for good reason: he’s simply not the same artist. The dude we fell in love with is just not our guy anymore, plain and simple. That is not a diss or knock on him, because I respect him very much, he inspired me a lot as a teenager, and I am just writing here, this is a philosophy website, stay with me. He’s still controversial, and of COURSE he’s not gonna be the same, because he made his earliest work as a teenager. But the guy who once rapped, “Rape a pregnant bitch and tell my friends I had a threesome,” has never come close to that level of incendiarism ever again IMHO.
Now, once again, I am not saying a person isn’t allowed to change and grow. I’m not complaining about an artist’s growth at all. That’s what all great artists do, system or no system. I for sure have enjoyed some of Tyler’s newer stuff (2SEATER is one of my absolute favourite songs to drive to, and SMUCKERS is a fucking goddamn classic). I myself have gotten pissed at people who insist that Absolute Anhedonia is my best novel and I’ve never written anything that good ever again. But there does seem to be this phenomenon that happens where a person or idea will become famous on a ground level first, become widely known, become noticed by “the establishment” lol, sign some kind of deal, and then…..never do the same type of work ever again. Not to sound conspiratorial here, but it’s almost like there are people watching who decide, “Let’s make this guy really successful. But on our terms.”
You have to wonder: is this what made Dave Chappelle dip to Africa? Is this why Lauryn Hill doesn’t make new music? All the abhorrent anti-semitism aside, is this what Kanye is trying to tell people? Why did the culture embrace him when he said what he did about George Bush, but rejected him when he visited Trump in the White House? Why must there always be this tension between art and commerce? To be clear here, I am not talking about the cliche phenomenon of one “selling out,” which I understand and would love to do myself, personally. I mean, who wouldn’t? We all need to eat, and we all wanna be rich. But more specifically, I am talking about this frustration I have with capitalism where it swallows everything up and makes it blander.
To put this another way, there was a meme going around earlier this year that exemplifies my point here: when the movie Doctor Strange came out, someone took a screen capture of the absurd amount of showtimes (it was 70 in total) their local theatre was having for one day. And someone commented something to the effect of, “This is what Scorsese was trying to warn us about.” In other words: if we only make room for what the system wants, there’s never any left for the ground level, non-corporate stuff. Once again, I don’t mean to come off like an old man here or contrarian, but it’s very annoying to me that capitalism’s “innovation” always inevitably leads to the same types of uniform things happening over and over. Maybe the pancake analogy was putting it lightly. In some ways, capitalism to me feels like a shark, and the talent are the lil fishies making the same mistakes over and over and over and fucking over. That’s what I was getting at in the previous post regarding being “out the game.” If I do anything creative, I want it to be on my terms and people like me. Fuck the suits, fuck Jerry Heller, fuck Ari Emanuel, and fuck Harley Pasternak😂.
Finally, to go off on a bit of a tangent here, I think this is what the appeal in guys like Trump (and now Ye) are. We all have someone to answer to, whether it be our boss, mother, father, wife, husband, or whoever. And to see someone clash against the system is almost unthinkable in this day and age. It is almost mind blowing to see someone say something that is truly on their mind, regardless of whether or not you agree with what is being said. It is proof that a human being cannot always be bought, and it’s refreshing in some ways. At first, I never really understood the appeal of a guy like Trump to all these goofy right wing dudes. Especially as a Muslim, I didn’t fuck with him and his Islamophobic rhetoric. But as a man living under capitalism? I can now see the appeal. Fuck capitalism, and fuck politics. Sometimes we really do get what we deserve, and it’s good to see a stick of dynamite thrown into the mix. I don’t like hatred or bigotry in the world, but I do enjoy seeing CNN reporters shit themselves and struggle with their loss of power in response to guys like Kanye refusing to apologize for something. Or a man like Elon Musk banning them from Twitter. It’s funny to me to see a news company (of all things, LOL) complain about “free speech.” Doesn’t feel so good when it’s happening to you, does it? Fuck you, Oliver Darcy.
So, in summation, no: capitalism does not breed innovation. It breeds your sweet, tight little ass with No Vaseline😂