Mules Who Dream of Becoming Lions: Thoughts on Creativity in a Capitalistic Society

We are told that creatives must work as if they are lions: in great spurts of energy and intense focus when struck with inspiration. The rest of our time is to be spent on rest and reflection.

While this sounds logical and fitting for the irregularity of (divine) inspiration, I also wonder how much of this way of thinking about creative work is meant to keep a person from feeling terribly awful about themselves during the long periods in which they are producing nothing original.

I question this because aren’t we all having original thoughts every single day? And, if so, why can’t we write or create something pertaining to those thoughts every single day?

Is it because we don’t have enough time to create on a daily basis? And, if so, is our time being consumed by the habits and priorities we’ve been taught to idealize in a our capitalistic culture of nonstop work in order to attain visible signs of success in the way of monetary gain?

Following this line of thought, it makes sense that our superiors do not tell us to embody the work ethic of lions in our mundane jobs, that only applies to our personal creativity. With them, all of our energy is used to flip as many hamburgers as possible and sell tacky clothing to hurried, ill-mannered customers until we are left with no time or willpower to do anything meaningful when we return home each day. The people–CEOs, shareholders, etc.–at the top of companies, businesses, whatever, get our all so that we are left with nothing but a desire to sleep before starting over the next day. And the days after that. They profit off of us, and we know it, but we become too tired to fight it, to break the cycle, and become our own person.

So, realistically, we can’t be lions. We must be mules who make slow but steady progress–in our creative pursuits–until we have the luxury of behaving like lions.