WHERE DO NOVELISTS & MUSICIANS FIT IN?
Where do novelists and musicians and other similar creative people fit in an egalitarian society? A Facebook friend (a novelist) asked me this question and this was my reply:
Good question. I will answer it totally on the basis of the articles on my website, specifically "What Is Egalitarianism?" and the articles it in turn links to. For "novelist" one can substitute in the following any other creative endeavor.
The novelist (allow me to assume it is a "he" for ease of writing, ok?) would have the following possible ways of fitting in an egalitarian society.
1. He could be a member in good standing of the sharing economy on the basis of writing novels, as specified in a way that the Local Assembly of Egalitarians and the novelist mutually agree.* Note that there is no guarantee such a mutual agreement can be arrived at.
2. He could decide not to be a member in good standing of the sharing economy but rather just write novels and use his writings to barter with other individuals or economic enterprises as he wishes. The Local Assembly of Egalitarians in this case would give him, to the extent it is possible, whatever "means of production" he will personally (no hired or slave labor!) use, such as a computer to write his novels.
3. He could decide to be a member in good standing of the sharing economy on the basis of contributing reasonably according to ability in some way that is different from novel-writing, and do his novel writing "on the side" as a "hobby," so to speak.
How do YOU think a novelist should fit in?
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* Note that, as described in my article here, there may be a "Novelists Association" that he would join. If the Novelists Association is, itself, a member in good standing of the sharing economy then all of its members are automatically members in good standing of the sharing economy unless a particular person is denied this good standing by a decision of the Local Assembly of Egalitarians. In order to remain a member of the Novelists Association he would have to satisfy it that he was not endangering its reputation for contributing reasonably (at least!) good novels, given the number of members of the association.