The Pipe Dream Of Content Creation

A fantastic but vain hope (from fantasies induced by the opium pipe).

AMERICAN HERITAGE DICTIONARY DEFINITION FOR "PIPE DREAM"

Content creators are having a tougher time making money online as a bigger slice of the revenue pie goes to those at the top of the creator economy.

The percentage of Bank of America customers earning income as content creators has continued to decline and is now 0.20%, the bank said in a note Thursday.

In fact, the share has now fallen three years in a row after peaking in 2021, when it was 0.25%. Back then, the pandemic had helped fuel a surge in content creators as lockdowns kept people at home looking for recommendations on what stuff to buy. In 2019, the share of people making money as content creators was just a tick above 0.10%.

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At the same time, the average monthly income for content creators, excluding possible paid partnerships, is just 20% of the average monthly income for a typical, full-time US employee, the note added.

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“And only once in the past five years has the average monthly income of a content creator been higher than the average weekly income of a typical full-time worker, suggesting that very few people earn a living from content creation, let alone get rich from it,” BofA said.

More people are dropping out of the creator economy as those at the top get a bigger share of brand deals

https://archive.is/51Bdt#selection-867.0-876.0

The internet has followed book publishing, movie making, the music business, and television in becoming a lottery where the very few earn the big money while everyone else wastes their lives chasing a dream that will never become reality. The dream is that you can give up your day job and make a living from home making content for the internet and even become rich in the process. The people who actually pursue the dream are deluded fools. My hope is that this is a wake up call for them.

There is no harm in making podcasts, YouTube videos, and blog posts. Just don't give up your day job. This includes the unlikely event you "make it" as a content creator. Even those who make it earn less than what they would do on a real job. You can read those statistics for yourself in the cited article above.

I have never been successful as a blogger, and I know that I never will. This is why I don't waste my time with search engine optimization, clickbait titles, and trying to promote my content on social media. This amounts to trying to increase your luck with the lottery.

The fundamental dream of being a successful content creator is finding an escape from working for a living. The irony is that the successful content creators work pretty hard at it. Writing blog posts is relatively easy compared to editing audio and video. Most content creators film themselves doing real work.

I think content creation is great as a side gig and supplement to your real work. It amounts to free advertising for what you do. Many of the YouTubers I follow run real world businesses, and their videos help to promote those businesses. Those folks are the models for how to approach content creation. Content should be the catalyst for real work.

Most people are never going to win the lottery. Likewise, most people are never going to win the lottery of the content creation game. Treat it like most blue collar workers treat playing the lottery. Buy your ticket, dream a bit, and keep on working. Luck takes care of itself. Let that luck find you working.

Pay, Pray, And The Little Way

Pay, pray, and obey.

THE RECYCLED MANTRA OF THE CHURCH OF CEASELESS ACTIVITY

Once upon a time, "pay, pray, and obey" was good advice for pewsitters who could reasonably expect good things from the hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church. This was before the Vatican II dumpster fire got lit. Today, there is little demand for prayers and obedience to Church teachings but plenty of demands to give "time, talent, and treasure" in blind obedience to modernists, sodomites, and their semi-modernist enablers. The works of mercy are not the works of Marxism. What is a faithful Catholic to do?

The first and most obvious thing to do is to stop going along with this garbage. A lot of evil can be prevented if you just stop paying for it. Instead, dupes in the pews pay and even engage in raising money without asking any questions about how these funds will be spent. And, if you do not participate, you are targeted with the Catholic Guilt Ray that sears hair and flesh until your priest, bishop, and parish Karens get the blind obedience and cash they demand. They can take that Guilt Ray and cram it as far up their posteriors as they can get it.

The second and less obvious thing to do is find a way to do the good you can. I do not believe in the Church of Zero Activity. What I believe in is the Church of Small Things. Inspired by Saint Francis de Sales and Saint Therese of Lisieux, I recommend doing the Little Way of giving, praying, and showing charity and mercy. Here is what that looks like.

PAY

Stop giving to organizations and start giving to individuals. Organizations supposedly help individuals, but they usually just help an administrative staff and Marxism. It would be better to bypass the "middle man" and give to people you know who are going through hard times or could use the help. These are people the Church never helps and never will help, but they will have the stones to ask these people for their time, talent, and treasure. The results are Catholic working families trying to make ends meet while paying to ship in cheap illegal immigrant labor to take their jobs. It is truly sickening to behold.

Once upon a time, the Church provided education and healthcare for these Catholic families from the donations of the faithful. Today, we have Obamacare, the public school system, and parochial schools that are as bad as the public schools. The Roman Catholic Church has abdicated these missions to the secular world. They won't even criticize the world.

PRAY

People say they pray, but I don't believe it. The only prayers I hear are those dreadful prayers of the people at Mass that sound like a litany of ambiguous social justice garbage and climate change nonsense. The better way is to pray the Rosary for true intentions. This would require actually praying the Rosary each night with your family. If you do this, you will discover the true power of the Rosary. These prayers do more good than you know.

THE LITTLE WAY

The Boy Scouts used to teach the scouts to perform one good deed per day. This was usually something like helping a little old lady cross the street. Marxists and social justice types scoff at these small acts of service because it gives them no opportunities to make a job for themselves and "administrate." Yet, these tiny acts of charity actually make the world a better place much more than any government agency or NGO.

Saint Therese of Lisieux shows us the way on this. She lamented that she could not do great acts of service, but she could do small acts of service with great love. I have been the recipient of such small acts, and I have never forgotten them. They inspire me to do my own small acts. In time, you will see the many opportunities you have overlooked. The Little Way will change your life.

The Church of Small Things seems insignificant to the Church of Ceaseless Activity. But what good is the Church of Ceaseless Activity accomplishing? A small act that is good beats large acts that are bad. I will now end with a Father Jerk story.

Father Jerk lamented in a homily that parishioners were engaging in "sacrament shopping." I am clueless as to what he meant by that quip. He claimed that parishioners were visiting other parishes that didn't demand anything of them. I will fill in the blank by guessing that he was talking about the Traditional Latin Mass. The appeal of the TLM is it lets "lazy" parishioners get out of being Hannibal Lectors and Extraordinary Monsters. I don't know of any Novus Ordo parish that doesn't demand that people do this crap.

Father Jerk should know that I am not doing any of this no matter where I get my sacraments. I will happily bear the calumny of being one of those lazy parishioners. Patiently enduring these insults is also a work of mercy. I offer it all up to the Lord.

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Recycled from the Smoke of Satan blog

https://smokeofsatan.wordpress.com/2024/03/17/pay-pray-and-the-little-way/

Prayer And Activity

I am the vine: you the branches: he that abideth in me, and I in him, the same beareth much fruit: for without me you can do nothing.

JOHN 15:5 DOUAY-RHEIMS

This post and this particular verse has been in my mind for over a month, so hearing it in the readings for this Sunday seems like a kick in the pants to get it done. Whenever someone says "thoughts and prayers," the eyes of worldly types roll in cynical disbelief. Praying in the view of the world amounts to a gigantic waste of time. What we need is ACTION. Action is what gets it done. As a former atheist, I believed this at one time in my life. I don't believe in it anymore. If you're not praying, you are wasting your time.

I didn't get this message from the homily that accompanied this reading from the Gospel. Somehow, it turned into a sales pitch for the Church of Ceaseless Activity. The Gentle Reader may wonder where I got the Ceaseless Activity nickname, but it comes from Saint Paul's admonition in 1 Thessalonians 5:17 to "pray without ceasing." We are to be a Church of Ceaseless Prayer not Ceaseless Activity.

This may seem to be a call from Yours Truly to be passive, but the question is not a matter of passivity or activity but futility. Without prayer, you will achieve nothing and do nothing. It doesn't matter what you do or don't do. Without prayer, you are wasting your time, money, and energy.

Bergoglio has taken to giving a hard time to contemplative nuns. Those nuns just sit around praying and doing nothing. They are a waste of time and resources especially when they are occupying choice real estate that can be sold to fund all sorts of material evil. In a similar fashion, the Church of Ceaseless Activity demands "time, talent, and treasure." They never demand our prayers. This is the point in the blog post where the Gentle Reader needs to pause and reflect upon this irony.

Prayer is the difference between the Church and an NGO. Ceaseless activity seeks the material and not the supernatural. It wants to turn your parish into the Rotary Club. The result is a decline in both the supernatural and the material.

Once upon a time, I visited a parish down in Florida. This particular parish was booming. They had it all with high attendance and numerous activities. I wondered what the secret was, and I found it. Each week, a handful of parishioners would meet in a little used building on the back of the church grounds. They belonged to the Legion of Mary. The Legion does a lot of activities, but their principal activity is praying. I will candidly admit that I am not up to this level of prayer. In comparison, my Knights of Columbus parish council would do an Our Father and a Hail Mary before getting down to the real business of pancake breakfasts, Tootsie Roll drives, and rummage sales. That council ceased functioning years ago.

The implosion of that group is why I refuse to participate in the Church of Ceaseless Activity now. I spend my time praying for our priest and our deacon and our fellow parishioners. Mrs. Columbo and I pray the Rosary every night. We both agree that it is the best thing we do. It is better than anything that I ever did in the Knights of Columbus.

Satan doesn't want you praying. He doesn't want those contemplative nuns praying. If he can busy you and everyone else with ceaseless activity, he will win. He will beat you into the ground. But when you pray, you beat the Devil. Praying the Auxilium Christianorum each night has taught me that lesson.

My nature is to be a workaholic. I work first and pray later. That strategy hasn't done me much good. It hasn't done our parish much good either. My traumatic brain injury has forced me to pray more than I have ever prayed in my life. I am utterly dependent upon God. I am in this weird place where I can't do anything, yet everything gets done.

Electrical appliances work best when they are plugged in. Likewise, we work best when we are plugged into God through prayer. Our Lord is the wall socket. You are the toaster. No one thinks much about the electricity coming out of the wall until you become unplugged. And that, Gentle Reader, is the profound lesson from today's Gospel.

My critics will condemn me with the straw man argument that I am a "do nothing Catholic." I ignore this idiocy. I am simply pointing out that you will achieve more if you put the plug in the outlet. The Church of Ceaseless Activity is too busy to grasp this obvious fact, and the declining numbers and stats bear this out.

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Recycled from the Smoke of Satan blog

https://smokeofsatan.wordpress.com/2024/04/28/prayer-and-activity/

Consolation and Desolation

 Hence they would be very foolish who would think that God is failing them because of their lack of spiritual sweetness and delight, or would rejoice, thinking they possess God because of the presence of this sweetness. And they would be more foolish if they were to go in search of this sweetness in God and rejoice and be detained in it. With such an attitude they would no longer be seeking God with their wills grounded in the emptiness of faith and charity, but they would be seeking spiritual satisfaction and sweetness, which are creatures, by following after their own pleasure and appetite. And thus they would no longer be loving God purely, above all things, which means centering all the strength of one's will on him.

SAINT JOHN OF THE CROSS

The purpose and end of life is to become a saint. You were made for God, and you will find satisfaction for your soul only in Him. I have to remind myself of this every single day. For many people, the purpose of life is to achieve great things in various fields of endeavor. This is vanity. For those unlikely to achieve greatness, they settle on chasing after a good time. This requires time, money, and energy. This is also vanity.

It is no surprise that both of these mentalities can creep into our spiritual lives. For those desperate for greatness, they become religious hypocrites. They want the glory of the reputation for saintliness without actually being a saint. For those desperate for a good time, they crave a religious experience that makes them feel good inside. So, they seek out an emotional and ecstatic experience in a form of spiritual hedonism.

The antidote to these twin temptations is known as desolation. Consolation is when you enjoy certain things God sends your way. Desolation is when He deprives you of these things. If you read any of the saints, they all describe these periods of desolation. Saint John of the Cross called it "the dark night of the soul." This dark night of the soul is indispensable for advancement in holiness.

Once you know about consolation and desolation, you learn to take the good with the bad in life in a practice known as ambidexterity. When times are good, you learn to keep the knife at your throat. Good times never last. Conversely, when times are bad, you learn to trust entirely in God and His Providence even when you can't see it or feel it. In both good and bad, you develop an internal compass that points true north in good seas and storms. You become indifferent to things and immune to comfort and despair.

Right now, it is hot and dry where I live. The grass has died, and our garden hangs on by the daily watering we do. The weather forecasts predict rain, and the dark clouds form. Nothing comes out of the sky. It is concerning to me because of the upcoming Fourth of July fireworks and the potential for fire. At the end of the summer, I will become a hurricane watcher. You get the picture.

It would be nice if there was a place that always had pleasant weather. This place does not exist. I used to think it was San Diego, but they just had a spell of bad weather. The better attitude is the Swedish attitude that holds that there is no bad weather but only bad clothing choices. They would know. Similarly, there are no bad seasons in the life of the Catholic but only bad formation.

When I was a Protestant, I thought bad times in my life meant that God had abandoned me, or that I was doing something wrong. I also craved spiritual experiences and "revival." This was all stupidity on my part, but the upside is that I see all of this same stupidity has crept into our parishes. For every nutty Protestant thing, there is a Catholic counterpart. I can recognize the errors because I have already lived through them.

The one error that I will point out is the one that believes that a Catholic renewal will be sparked by some emotionally driven fervor stoked by a huckster wanting to make a buck off of the faithful. People want that consolation even if it is artificial and manufactured. These things are light on catechesis but heavy on "encounter." In the long run, you leave deflated with a lighter wallet.

I never go seeking these consolations. Outside of prayer and Mass, my primary spiritual activity is reading. I read the Holy Bible, and I read the writings of the saints and the doctors of the Church. I do not seek transformation through some emotional fervor but by the renewing of my mind as prescribed by Saint Paul in Romans 12:2. The mind is renewed with the learning of solid doctrine and not cheerleading and motivational speaking.

The other error that I will point out is the one that believes that renewal comes from building, fundraising, organization, and activities. This error is popular because it points to visible things. It's hard to point to holiness and devotion as these are mostly internal. It is easy to point to a new church even if it is in the shape of a UFO with clown liturgies taking place inside. You know it is alive inside with the praise band music, the happy clappy garbage, and the "spirit of community" around the sacred picnic table.

Once upon a time, you could go to church and be left alone. You could have a genuine encounter with the Lord. Today, this silence and stillness is under constant assault by the modernist community organizers. They do not have the faith, so they are trying to replace that faith with Marxism.

Why does God allow this? This is desolation. The Roman Catholic Church is in a serious dry spell as those without the faith drive her into the ground. You have to get to a place where all of your strength of will is centered on God alone. Desolation is where we see the purity of our love for Him.

I continue to garden even though there is no rain. I continue to believe and follow the Lord in these times of desolation. You have to be a saint to put up with it all.

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Recycled from the Smoke of Satan blog

https://smokeofsatan.wordpress.com/2024/06/29/consolation-and-desolation/