Post #81086 by Bwana Tiki on Mon, Mar 15, 2004 9:31 PM

“Respectfully I must say the artists here on Tiki Central are not idiots, and each artist here can decide for themselves whether or not the prize money offered is worth the effort. I can't see how any artist who agreed to try it would be exploited.

~Hanford”

First off I guess I’ll go out on a limb on this one, I don’t know Hanford and for all I know I could be banned for life if I sass back at him, so again I’ll try and be nice about this but…I never said or implied that the artists here on Tiki Central are idiots, far from it, that being said I must point that I myself am an artist, am on TC and am indeed an Idiot, I can’t believe that I’m alone on this one. But it was never my intention to call anyone else an idiot, I believe idiots self identify sooner or later, I simply do it sooner, (other coconuts feel free to jump it on this). Indeed each artist can and will decide for themselves if they want to be party to this sort of thing. I’m simply voicing the opinion that by doing so they undermine the value of artists in this forum. Artists have a long history of being exploited and many times they are willing victims of this exploitation. It is often the case that the exploited go along willingly. Here is a simple example I’m reminded of by a Randy Newman song, (yes about real true events). Slave traders did not always chase down Africans, sometimes they could simply sweet talk them into coming to America, the unsuspecting African would willingly board the ship and sail away to become Americans, in the end they would arrive only to be sold into slavery. But hey they agreed to it so I guess they are not being exploited. Again I refer back to the example of actors, if they did not stand together producers would not pay a living wage to anyone, instead they would find those who could be sweet talked into doing it for free in order to get that big break. Competition becomes cut throat and everyone looses except the producers/ exploiters. So just being a willing victim does not mean there is no exploitation, ask any teen prostitute who accepted help at the Los Angeles greyhound station. It seems to me Hanford that you have spent a good deal of time and energy setting up a community, and the artists here form a strong subculture, not every artist in this community is savvy to scams like this, some are relatively new to the art world, it may never occur to them that participating in this sort of thing undermines their fellow artists. That hardly makes them an idiot, just a bit short on info on a particular subject. The only reason I went off on a tirade was because I do respect the artists here and felt most people on TC were too polite to confront this issue head on, Well I may be a lot of things, but polite ain’t one of them. So Hanford knock it off with the strong implication that I regard the artists here as idiots, I never said that or implied that. respectfully my eye.