written by Christine Whitmarsh
originally posted on her blog September 25, 2008
With each drunken daily dive of the stock market, arguments that the economy remains strong beneath it all grow ominously silent. Even the most resolutely optimistic economic experts are now sitting in an overwhelming cone of silence and self-doubt with tapping fingers and furrowed brows.
Regardless of whether you agree more with the doomsday crowd or with the finger tapping skeptics, it’s easy to agree with one indisputable piece of evidence: something is happening to the financial foundation of our country – and it’s not good.
Trying financial times like these remind me of the classic lifeboat story (no, not the one with the pope and Raquel Welch). The basic premise, no matter how it’s told is that some type of global catastrophe has happened and a number of survivors of various vocations are trapped in the last remaining lifeboat. There are only enough resources remaining for a certain number of people to survive and of course there is one too many survivors. The group is forced to decide who to jettison. In all these stories, doctors seem to fare the best and they can’t dump the lawyer and tax collector overboard fast enough.
Assuming we continue on this turbulent economic course, I can’t help but see the national business marketplace as that lifeboat. The exception, of course, would be the lawyers. When people drown in the ocean they reach for life preservers. When businesses sink, they reach for lawyers (or now, the federal government). Although we can still safely evict the tax collector from the boat, especially in light of the new tax bills they will unfortunately be tasked with delivering door to door next year.
Following this logic, and based on my profession as a writer, I’m thinking I’d better either become Michael Phelps real fast or pull a MacGyver and learn to perform surgery with shoelaces and a pen knife. In economic end times like these, I seem to have found myself in a group perceived as even lower than tax collectors on the lifeboat survival priority list.
As a professional writer, I am disturbingly aware that my position in the corporate food chain is a precarious one. I hate to break any hearts, but here are some others whom I count as my compatriots in this dilemma: painters, dancers, sculptors, singers, actors, website and graphic designers, photographers, and all the other folks not directly related to keeping clients’ and consumers’ lights turned on, kids clothed and food on the table.
During Great Depression Part I in the1930’s, President Roosevelt’s Works Progress Administration created a slew of government programs devoted to putting artists to work, practicing their respective crafts. The result was a permanent reflection of life during that time (for example, John Steinbeck’s classic novel “The Grapes of Wrath”). This time around we have the free form accessibility of blogging along with endless hordes of artists who don’t feel the need to wait for money or permission to document their perspective for posterity.
That’s all well and good, but what about those of us whose careers depend upon a client company’s need for a creative product? What is the value of creativity in a failing economy?
Creative professionals craft the words, images, colors, sounds and moving images that companies use to connect with the public. How likely would you be to shop at a department store with an empty (or so dull that it might as well be empty) store window? Or if you passed the window day after day month after month and nothing changed – would you predict the store inside to be terribly interesting? You get the point, I’m sure.
As the economy continues to leak and more and more businesses find themselves in danger of going down with the ship, the creativity at the core of those companies may turn out to be their saving grace. Those who stand out from the crowd are apt to be more noticed now than ever. In a thriving economy, it’s easy for a company to get lost among the bright colors and flashing lights of entrepreneurial fever. Creativity in times like these is reserved for companies who dare to keep their image and message fresh, dynamic and the center of attention.
It takes a certain amount of guts to continue acknowledging the existence of the folks who keep the creative heartbeat of your company beating. Sometimes it takes a moment to remember that we’re not in the corner sketching fruit baskets and landscapes (no offense to those who do). Creative professionals are there to see your organization through a fresh set of eyes and make sure that your message is seen and heard by your target audience.
Without creativity, any economy, failing or otherwise, is at risk of becoming extinct under a cloak of invisibility.
As we all wait anxiously for the stock market to somehow sober up and fly right again, let’s not forget the “less essential” occupants of the lifeboats that we’re all piling into. We may seem to be the most expendable at first, but if you ever find yourself in a lifeboat with a writer or any other artist… when it’s time to toss someone overboard, do us a favor and at least give us a pity vote.
For More Creative Action Go Here.
