Welcome creatives! These are discussions, thoughts, case studies, interviews, and lessons about how our creativity relates to life. The host, Mr Benja, is a former video game programmer / designer for Rockstar Games, Sony Santa Monica, The 3DO Company, and others, as well as a fine artist. -- Be sure to check out the website for more.
Was Dr.
Martin Luther King bold,
creative, and action oriented?
The answer to all three of
those is yes, yes, and yes.
Today, I want to get in and talk
with you about, uh, A creative figure
who's usually not thought of as such.
I think civil rights activist kind of
puts him in a box a little bit, but today
we're talking about Martin Luther King
jr and his legacy here as a creative.
And the title I've chosen for
today's MLK is bold creative action.
This is Mr Benja for
creativity threads life.
And we're going to get into this one.
I'm not.
As prepared as I would like to be.
In fact, it's not even the day
we celebrate Martin Luther King
Jr's birthday, or his death, or
his legacy, it's not the day.
I was going to do this Monday,
but did something else instead.
And maybe I didn't have
boldness on the mind.
Maybe that's why I didn't do it.
I didn't have a strong reason.
But part of the creative dilemma
is getting into politics.
And as they say, all art is political.
But what does that even mean?
What does that even entail?
Well, anytime you start with an
art, you start with an expression.
It's a certain part of you coming out
and reacting to the public, reacting
with the public conversation, thought
process, the public sentiment.
Your expression goes
up against the public.
And the better artist, the stronger
artist, the more influential artist,
are often the bold, creative ones.
And I want to put Dr.
King here in this category
as a bold, creative
action taker, bold, creative action taker.
And if you hear me stumble a few times
here, it's because, as I said, I wasn't
as prepared to do this one as I wanted
to, but I wanted to just jump in anyway
and go ahead and do it, even though it's
not the day it's not on schedule, it's
not on brand for most of what many of you
might think of me, it may not even be.
Uh, totally coherent.
Um, I'm coming from a lot of thoughts
that I have, and I don't know how
well my audience is to prepare to hear
a lot of this or if they even care.
But anyway,
the thing I want to, the thing I want
to bring up is that you have to be
yourself and be true to your cause.
And if your cause really gets big
enough, it starts to outgrow you, and
it starts to become something outside
of you, something bigger than yourself.
And you have to be bold with
this expression of self.
And that's why I wanted to include Dr.
King today, because this man
was bold until the death.
Bold creative action was taken
many steps along the way.
And I'm not here to argue for
or against any certain position.
I like to keep politics at a
fair distance from what I do.
I don't shy away from it,
but it's not my brand.
If that makes any sense, if you have
any questions politically, socially,
or otherwise get at me, you'll probably
hear something you don't want to hear.
But nevertheless, I'll continue.
And let me change this banner
here to ask the question, do
you think of MLK as a creative?
Most people do not.
So once again, I want
to drop my definition.
What is a creative?
And what does it mean to take
such bold creative action?
To be a creative, you have to
change the environment around you.
You have to invest in creating
something where there once was nothing.
Creating a certain order
where there once was chaos.
Creating a path where previously
there was only obstacle.
The creative spirit is the person Or the
individual or the vibe that does this,
that moves you into that new creative
space that moves you into that new future.
And it's not an easy or
un, un, unopposed way.
It is in fact, the
harder way to do things.
People say, why are you doing this?
And that there's an easier way to do this.
And a lot of times that does
not satisfy the creative spirit.
If the creative spirit is looking to
change the environment, if the creative
spirit is looking to create that order,
the creative experience, creative spirit
is looking to make that pathway where
there are previously only obstacles.
Then the creative spirit has to be bold.
Intentional.
Strong.
And yes, as we traditionally say it,
I'll use it as an adjective here,
the creative has to be creative.
So,
I got started on this because,
after all this time, I'd seen Dr.
King get positioned in
people's minds a certain way.
And there are many ways, I'm not
speaking of one particular way,
but some people thought of him
as just a civil rights figure.
Some people thought of him as
just a talker, a marcher, a person
who rallied people together.
Some people have bad
things to say about him.
Some people have good things.
Did his message do what it intended to do?
Is it something that's
only taught in February?
Are you only going to get little
snippets on the television?
What does his daughter have to say?
Is that even valid?
There's so much back and
forth about what he created.
And what he actually created was a
legacy, a, a thought, a, a thought in the
collective consciousness of the world.
And that's no easy task.
He died at 13, um, at 39 years
old, was still doing his thing.
Wrote letter from a Birmingham
jail at in 1963, long time ago.
And we're still talking about it now.
So yes, this is definitely a
powerful legacy that has been left.
But one I think that has gotten watered
down isn't the word, although it's true.
Malformed isn't the word,
although that's true.
It's gotten internalized by
different people in different ways.
And this is one of the dangers
of creativity, and I want
to jump into this a bit.
Because it's what's actually
kept me from doing a lot of
things that I think I need to do.
Whenever your creativity goes out
into the world, you can't control it.
It's not something you can, you
can assume people will understand
and take at face value or take
at, um, it's intended meaning.
Everybody's going to have an opinion.
And if your brand can
stand up to the opinions.
Then you know you have
something truly strong.
A lot of people are going to look at what
you do and just say, Oh, you're that.
Oh, you're this.
And they immediately put you into a box.
This is how the human mind works.
The human mind sees, comprehends, hears,
senses, and it will try to categorize.
Categorize by putting in a
series of mostly binary boxes.
Is it living or is it dead?
Living?
Okay.
Is it mammal?
Is it a fish?
Or mammal or not.
Okay, that's a category.
Okay, does it breathe air or does
it breathe oxygen through the water?
And you start to categorize.
Everybody does this differently, but
the point is, once your message starts
to go out, it has to be strong and bold
enough to defend itself against attacks.
And even if it does defend itself
against attacks, it's going to still be
seen as something else by other people.
And what do I mean, seen by
other people in a different way?
Well, I was thinking about
things you can't control.
And a lot of times, I put a piece
of art out there, or I'll put a
message out there, or I'll put a,
a concept out there, and I'll see
it get taken in different ways.
And this used to frustrate me a lot.
I hear about people who are frustrated
on behalf of Alan Moore, when, when
they read the reviews of Watchmen,
they're like, wait a minute,
that's not what he meant at all.
You'll get people who look
at Andy Warhol's art and
say, oh, it's X, Y, and Z.
I'm like, no, no, that's not
what it was about at all.
I remember I had a painting
of Mario and, and money.
Mario was on the, on the bottom
of the painting and the money was
flying, floating above his head in a
cloud, like he was thinking about it.
And everybody started calling that
money on my mind for some reason.
I suppose it made sense, but
that's not what I had in mind.
And when I, when I started hearing
these people's opinions on my painting,
my original intent, and if you look
closer at it, checked out the title
of it, it was actually called, um,
Dreams of the Means to Purchase Life.
And a lot of the background
and more subtle details in the
painting hinted at this idea that
we're trying to buy our lives.
We're trying to buy our way
into having a life that was
already given to us for free.
And that was the idea behind the
painting, but everybody just called
it money on my mind and thought, Oh
yeah, we're thinking about money.
Woo, Mario, let's go.
And that was kind of the
extent of it actually sold.
I don't know what people think of it now.
Um, I'll have to go check with the
buyers, but that's what happened
to the painting and its idea.
But if you remember from
Mario, it's always been the
fact that coins give him life.
He collects coins and
collects a hundred of them.
Back in the older games, he
collected a hundred of them
and would gain an extra life.
In the newer games, he collects coins
and it literally fills up his life meter.
And you got to remember this was a
poor Italian plumber that this was
based off of, possibly on drugs,
possibly living in the slums.
Existing in pipes and whatnot.
Fighting against creatures with lots
more money than he does, he has.
So it had this whole vibe to it, right?
But I was saying that yes, Mario
has equated money with life.
In the game sense, at least.
And there's a thought behind that.
Nobody cared.
Money on my mind was the end of it.
And people like the idea of
getting after that money.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Let's do that.
Or maybe they thought it was
because of what I represented.
I represented somebody who was trying
to get after that money or whatever.
And the thought, yeah,
get after that money.
I was like, all right.
Uh, that's what you think this is about.
Cool.
But I say all that to say
the image you control.
Is not one that you really control.
You put it out there and
it has to do its own thing.
It has to stand on its own and the
stronger and bolder your message is, the
more difficult it will be to tarnish it.
The stronger and bolder and more
active you've made your message,
the better off it will be.
And hopefully you have something
that lasts decades since
reverberations throughout the world
has people actively discussing it.
To this day,
we're talking, we're talking over 60
years and we're still talking about this.
That says a lot.
So yes, creative action, public
speaking is a creative act.
You listen to Dr.
King, everything he was doing
was in the spirit of change.
We talk about what Dr.
King was really about.
He was creating one of the most difficult
things that there is to create, and that
is large scale social change for the good.
If you've ever tried to create
social change within your family,
you know how difficult that can be.
If you've tried to create social
change within your classroom, you
know how difficult that can be.
Your department at work, you
know how difficult that can be.
Your soccer club, the group you go to
basketball with, your Sunday church
group, you know how difficult it can be to
create change, especially lasting change.
Most people think they're making changes.
Most people think they're making
waves and reverberations when
they're really just being loud.
And if they went away, everything
would go back to normal within days.
That's how most people's change works.
Most people's change does not
leave a bold, creative mark.
Where people look back and
say, Yes, this happened.
This changed my life.
I live by this code.
Or even better yet, a lot of
people say they behave one way,
and they don't even know why.
It's because their path was created
And they were led down that path
by a certain strong, bold, creative
individual creating action.
And a lot of people don't think of
art and creativity as something that
moves people in the literal sense.
Well, there, as I've, as I've
stated, there are a lot of
different ways to be creative.
Moving somebody with a message
is not just bringing the message.
It's causing pressure
externally and internally.
Can you bring something in a strong enough
way where you start to pressure people's
insides to make a move where you start
to pull them forward with the message
and they get inspired, not motivated.
They get inspired by your
message where they're so in
tune with the social construct.
That you've developed, that they
have no choice but to be moved by it.
Whether positively or negatively.
This is an action.
This is when you cause, This is
when you cause people to violently
react by the thought of your name.
And don't get it twisted.
Nobody, a lot of people didn't like Dr.
King at the time.
I mean, he was assassinated.
That should tell you something.
The way they make it sound now is that
everybody just kind of like, Yeah, Dr.
King is right.
We should listen to him.
Not at all.
His fight was one of trials, tribulations.
It was one of scrutiny.
Obviously, he had to face,
you know, the risk of jail.
His friends and families were at risk.
And in fact, a lot of people
don't realize that family members
were killed along with him.
They were murdered.
That doesn't happen with just anybody.
Now, some people will be
removed just because they're
annoying, which is one thing.
But when you get to the level when
you, you are removed because you're
dangerous at a very large scale, Then
you know you're getting somewhere.
When you start flirting with the
ideas of mass public change for the
better, whatever you think better is,
then you're in dangerous territory.
I can't help but think back to all
the discussions I've had over the
years of when people bring up the, oh
god, when people bring up the phrase,
you know, it's not about skin color,
I know they're referring to this.
I know they're referring to Dr.
King, and they're honestly bastardizing
a lot of what he went through, what
he said, and what he stood for.
Just by boiling it down to, hey
guys, it's not about skin color.
A lot of times, those arguments are
trying to erase any injustice or racism.
A lot of times, those, those ideas
are just to make people calm down.
It's a form of erasure.
It's a, a way of saying, listen,
we don't want any trouble.
Let's all sit down and be calm.
And
nonviolence isn't the same as
being nonresponsive, which is what
a lot of those individuals want.
A lot of people just
want nonresponsiveness.
They don't want you to
respond to anything.
They just kind of want things to
go around and be happy go lucky.
Looking for You know, corporations,
you can see they just don't want people
upset because when people get upset,
they start wanting real change and
corporations just kind of want to drag
and drain every little bit of life
out of you without the real change.
Remember, the system is
designed to defend the system.
Everything's going well, then screw
you and your little uprising and your
thoughts and you trying to pressure
the company into doing something.
The system will try to quell that.
So yes, a lot of times when
people bring up quotes by Dr.
Martin Luther King, they are looking
to quell your creative spirit.
They're looking to quell
that creative change.
Like what can we change?
What can we do better?
Hey guys.
Don't be mad.
Remember, it's not about skin color.
Come on, let's hold
hands and sing Kumbaya.
As much as I am for coming together and
celebrating differences and trying to
be amenable to everybody's points
of view, I am not about sitting
around and not having things change.
And this is one of the, this is
one of the places that I end up
with a lot of friction, with a
lot of people who assume that I'm
looking for, quote unquote, peace.
The type of peace that we're looking for.
Or that people are often really looking
for required this bold, creative action.
I don't care if you think he
was a communist or, you know,
think anything ill of him.
I don't, I don't truly
care in this discussion.
That's another discussion we can have
later on, on whatever aspect of his life.
What I'm getting at is do not
try to quell or do not try to, do
not allow your creativity to be.
held back by ideas of non confrontation.
Non violence?
Okay, that is a statement.
That is not the same as non confrontation.
You've got to bring your
confrontational creativity into the mix.
You've got to be able to
put pressure on systems.
You've got to be able to make change.
And if the system is in fact designed
to defend the system, it will resist
the change you want to bring about.
I'm not making a left or right argument.
I'm not making a progressive
conservative argument.
I'm not making a, you know, individual
versus the people argument, corporate
versus government argument, not
making any of those ands or ors.
I'm making the argument
for bold creativity.
against inaction.
I thrive on action.
Things must move.
Hopefully things change for the
positive, change for the better.
This is something I've struggled
with much of my life, trying to bring
about change, and being summarily
removed from the system because of it.
So after all this time, I've stopped
trying to work within the system, and
I'm now just working on making change.
At some point, I figure I will
start pressuring other systems,
and it will cause problems.
In fact, in a very little way, you
notice I don't curse as much anymore,
that's because meta doesn't like that.
And that's a shame.
I've been flagged by meta before,
I've had some of my list removed,
I've been banned at certain points,
I should say suspended from certain
activities, not completely banned, but
things like this can happen very easily.
Same thing with Microsoft.
Same thing's happened with Google.
And if you listen to me, I don't
really go terribly dangerous places.
I leave that for the, the
listener's imagination.
So listen, before someone trots
out the I have a dream speech and
starts talking about kumbaya, let's
all shake hands and stop fighting.
The idea that we should stop
fighting can only be if we're
going to stop attacking each other.
and start trying to make a change.
I do not attack people, I
like to attack problems.
And yet people will attach
themselves to problems so whenever
you attack the problem they feel
that they are being created.
Thus brings in the pressures and the
problems of trying to make any change.
People attach themselves to
ideas and concepts, and when your
idea and concept goes up against
that, they feel threatened.
They feel they must defend it.
They feel they must attack you,
even if you're not attacking them.
They feel they must attack you,
because you are attacking a problem
that they have attached themselves to.
This starts to get into social navigation
waters that really annoy me, that I do not
like to partake in, and have caused Many
issues in my life where suddenly someone
thinks they're being attacked and we can't
effectively attack the problem without
the person jumping in the middle of it
and deciding that they're being attacked.
I don't know exactly what that means.
I will talk to a psychologist at
some point to figure all that out
and break it all down, but it is a
problem and it holds back creativity.
And as I said about boiling it down to
the, I have a dream speech and everybody
sit down on the ground and sing Kumbaya
and money's going to rain out of the sky.
You got to look up things like Dr.
King on reparations, why he was killed,
the economic change he was trying
to bring about, his knowledge of the
media in the bus boycotts, his concepts
on rioting and voices being unheard,
his ideas on pressuring government
bodies, and putting pressure on social
institutions and people that uphold them,
the justice system, nationalism even.
Dr.
King struck me as one of those
people that was a Universalist, much
more on the human side of things.
I was about to say humanist, but
that has certain connotations.
He fought for the person, not
necessarily the nation, and that
really throws a lot of people off, too.
So, you can get into a lot of discussions,
and it will go in a lot of different
ways whenever you start bringing
up actual, bold, creative action.
It's like, yes, Everybody will
nod their heads and say, that's
a problem, we should fix that.
Okay?
Now how do we act?
Once you start to act, once you start
to voice your opinion, once you start
to put pressure on people as Dr.
King did, then you will start to see
what it really means to be creative.
I've lost jobs over this.
Yes, plural.
Where I've been in this situation,
and someone just wants the happy go
lucky, just turn in your work, x, y,
and z, go about your business, we are
the corporation, we are the system,
we are the institution, we are the
people, we are the contract, we know
what's going on, bow down and be happy
that we even allowed you in here.
And if you just follow along with that,
yeah, you might get somewhere, you might
get some compensation, but will you really
have made the change necessary, or will
you have been continuing on with a lot
of the BS that's plaguing our society?
I struggle with this.
I figure a lot of creatives do.
I know for certain in the music
industry, the music industry, especially,
uh, I'm thinking about black music
the way it is now, has definitely
been a, they've definitely been
affected by this push to just follow
along with what the system wants.
And look to where that is now.
If you remember when a lot of black
music started up, it was expressive.
Hey, we need to get out of
this situation we're in.
Hey, you know, let's love each other.
Hey, let's, you know, be
happy about X, Y, and Z.
Let's let's celebrate our lives.
Let's fight back against.
evil causes.
And even years ago, I played a song for
somebody and I was talking about the
production of the music, the production
of the audio, the production of the beats.
And they looked at me, they were non
black, they looked at me like I was crazy
and was thinking, Hey man, this, all
this, all this music is, is, you know,
talking about B's and H's and yeah, yeah.
That whole thing.
Once you start hearing that once
again, you're like, eh, have
you really thought this through?
And what was interesting is that this
person listened to this type of music.
They thought I was promoting this type
of music when I clearly was there to
show them something about the beats
and the production value of a song.
They went on talking about B's
and H's and I'm like, what the
hell are you talking about?
This person had the nerve to confront
me over that and they listened
to more of the music than I did.
They only knew of hip hop and
rap from that point of view.
You know, back in the day when they
used to have the albums, you'd have
the first three songs and those
are like your singles or whatever.
And the more popular ones to get
people to listen to the album.
But then further on down, maybe towards
the 10th or 11th track, maybe, maybe
through in the 9th track in there
just to put a little jazz on it.
But you start to hear real
messages in the songs.
And you're like, oh, okay,
wow, this is what they had to
do to get their album made.
They had to make that single, those
first couple hit songs that people
wanted to hear, that the record
labels were pushing for, and then
they had to tell their message later.
Okay, this is interesting.
And that's just one example.
Of the creative pushback
that you would get.
You have to deal in this system.
You have to deal in these,
you have to deal in these big operating
machines, or at least they like to
tell you that you have to deal with
them, but they exist and they exert
forces on you and your creativity.
Now, what do you do with that?
You have to find a way to make it work.
And this is where creativity comes
in, not rolling over and just
listening to whatever they have to
say about what you should be doing.
But actually taking your creative
expression to its fullest, actually
taking out your creative expression
and making things the way that
you feel it should be made.
Sticking by your guns.
If anyone is curious as to how long I've
been thinking about this, let me let you
know that there were many discussions
about my character, the character
that was created in table tennis, a
rockstar games, an Egyptian man with the
name Solomon spelled S O L A Y M O N.
That brings up, that
brings up questions alone.
Why would you name this person that?
And yes, it was there
to spark a discussion.
It was part of my expression.
I'll take that one little contribution,
at least, naming that character and
helping with that character's backstory.
But even with just the name, pressure.
Obviously, shout out to Rockstar Games.
They do,
they do a lot of creative work that really
gets their artistic expression out there.
And it's not something
a lot of people can do.
But back to Dr.
King.
The idea that, over time, has started
to take shape, Is that non violence
means just sit over there and be quiet,
just sit over there and make all the
noise you want, if you have to, but
don't try to make an actual change.
I'm not an advocate of just being loud,
I'm an advocate of being effective.
To cause an effect in the world, to make
an actual tangible and appreciable change.
Something that moves
the needle in some way.
Like what would cause such a
reverberating message to be so feared?
Go back and look at his life.
Not so much the The pop media portrayals,
but I actually listened to the accounts.
Look at the, at what was said
back then about what he was doing.
Look at who he was going up against.
We're talking about at
the presidential level,
at the statewide level, you go
into, you drive into a state, you
usually don't think anything of it.
What if you drive into a
state and that whole state is
looking to cause you problems?
What does that like?
People get upset because
six people in a in a YouTube
comment thread don't like you.
Imagine a whole state
basically being against you.
So when I think back on the legacy of Dr.
King, I look at him as a creative.
An orator?
Yes.
Civil rights activist?
Yes.
A
progressive change agent?
Yes.
But I always try to
consider what it would mean
to do what seems like what everybody
else is doing and still have the
ability to cause an actual change.
That That transition from just
talking or just writing or just doing
your job to actually making change.
Where does it, where does it cross
over into that level where friction is
not just fought against, but expected?
It's part of the job.
Am I pushing my creativity
strong enough to the point where
someone deems it dangerous?
Where it forces a change
in the environment?
Where my mere presence
carries such a strong weight?
That people start to wonder
what's going to happen today.
What's going to change.
Oh boy, here it comes.
I don't know how many of you have really
looked into the lives of some of these
characters that you look up to some
of these figures and start to really
see what it took for them to change
the landscape in the way they did.
I'm thinking about civil rights
activists right now, but that
could be in any endeavor.
Did they just sell a lot of
records, or did they actually
cause a change in your life?
Did they just build a nice app,
or did they make you think about
design and construction differently?
Was it a really cool speech that got you
hyped up, or did you stop and go home
and think about how you run your life?
Were you bold?
With your creative action,
whatever it is.
I know a lot of you listening don't
consider yourselves creatives But I
have to always mention this you're
always creating your environment.
You're always creating your life.
You're always creating your legacy.
You're always Creating
when you get up in the morning and
you eat a bowl of cereal Instead of a
bowl of oatmeal instead of a bowl of
eggs instead of a bowl of tofu You're
making decisions that create your life.
Not everyone's going to be perfect.
You can't create at a hundred
percent in every aspect of your life.
You have to choose.
Most people say no more
than three directions.
Three, um, three
interrelated vectors of life.
So you have to decide when you're
creating, what am I going to be about?
What am, what am I going to do with
this creative energy that I have?
And we all have it, by the way,
can't slip out with that one.
What am I going to do with these choices?
And speaking of choices.
When people hear that you're coming,
let's say, Hey, someone's going
to come in to talk to us about
safety.
Someone's going to, let's say
someone's going to come in the
job to talk to us about safety.
You kind of know what to expect.
You're like, okay, they're
going to tell us X, Y, and Z.
They're going to tell us to
watch coming around corners.
They're going to say, Hey, make sure
you pass this information along here.
The fire exits, yada, yada, yada.
But you ever have somebody that
just shows up to something mundane.
And then challenges you in
a way you didn't expect.
And all of a sudden
you're like, Holy crap.
The safety guy came and
talked to us at work.
And now I'm questioning my entire life.
That's what a lot of people
thought about preachers.
They're like, well,
this is just a preacher.
Okay.
He's just some preacher guy.
He'll go away.
We don't have to worry too much about him.
He's just energizing the people.
Whatever.
And that's what a lot of people think
about a lot of creativity and content.
Now there's so much information, so many
videos, so many songs, so many speeches,
so many courses, so many posts, so many
reels, so many people dancing on Tik
That it becomes difficult to actually have
a creatively bold message that resonates
and moves without being nonsense.
And what I mean by nonsense is
just hand waving, hair on fire,
oh my god, look at me and get
attention, and then not deliver.
If you can be understated, as Dr.
King was in many regards, Very simple.
You didn't see him being all crazy
and crazy haircuts and trying to, you
know, do wild things to get attention.
The man simply was.
And so why I actually think about
this quite a bit, like, how can I be
profound, strong, bold with my creative
action and not turn into a buffoon
have morals?
Yeah.
Okay.
I got you have an idea
about what you're doing.
Yes.
I got you.
Have standards, have a focus,
have a point, etc, etc.
And you know what ends up happening?
When you think along the terms
of being more authentic and
having a message like Dr.
King did, you start to get into that true
artistic, creative vibe that I mentioned
before, where you're just expressing
something that resonates with the public.
Warhol was expressing soup cans
because that's what he ate.
He was poor.
He understood advertising
and wanted to challenge it.
And that resonated with a lot of people.
Didn't resonate with others,
but it resonated with enough
people to where it mattered.
That was his expression.
Michael Jackson expressed
himself through dance.
I don't know how many lessons you
want to take from the early Mike
Tyson, but he made a lot of his
express, took a lot of his expression
through boxing and physical combat.
Not saying it's good or bad.
Shout out to the new Mike Tyson.
Old Mike Tyson was pretty awesome in
his own way, but wouldn't take social
lessons from the old Mike Tyson.
But it goes to show you how much you
can learn from a champion like that.
That went from the top that went from the
bottom to the top to the bottom again,
and still had the determination in the
fight to keep his creativity bold and
create something new out of himself.
So, no matter what example you pick,
if something's a powerful example,
take a moment to actually look at it.
And obviously today at this time,
take the time to look into what Dr.
King was talking about, where
that bold, creative action
was coming from, where that.
Vibe was resonating with people and
where it was disturbing people because
only in that area of resonating
and simultaneously disturbing,
will you find true creative change?
And as I hinted at in the beginning,
you're not going to be able to.
of this, how people view you, you're
just going to be able to, to be bold.
You have to create it, put it out there
in spite of what people are going to say.
A lot of people say, don't
worry about what people say.
Well, guess what?
It's very difficult not to actually
worry about what people say.
When you start really creating
positive change, positive for
you, whatever that might mean,
there are going to be different
factors that take into account
how you're going to be perceived.
And your perception is extremely
important, by the way, if you're
talking about social change,
especially your message is going
to be received differently based
on the time, based on the audience,
based on your reputation, based on
the education level of the audience.
Do they even know what the heck
you're talking about based on cultural
shifts, based on social norms?
A lot of people like to say, oh, you
know, that's a social construct, as
if that doesn't make it any less real.
You go around talking about X, Y,
and Z is just a social construct.
Um, okay.
That still doesn't say much to the
fact that it's affecting my life.
People will dismiss the race
talk even, as I was saying
with the skin color arguments.
Race is just a social construct.
It affects lives.
Let's get back to attacking the problem.
Trying to make creative solutions
and not worry so much about what
a label is and what that means.
Getting outside of that,
what I call squabbling.
Getting outside of the
squabbling between each other and
getting to changing a problem.
And making sure that whatever you're
doing to change a problem, to make this
positive change that you're looking for.
Make sure whatever you're
doing, it's going to be
resistant, resilient to
the forces of nonsense.
Whenever you have a product that people
see, they're going to immediately
try to minimize it and put it back
into a box, categorize it, shrink
it a little bit so it doesn't cause
themselves friction in their minds.
Your bold creative action has to be
strong enough where the more they
try to cause it, to have it cause
less friction within them, the more
they're going to wrestle with the
presentation that you have given them.
That's how strong your
creativity has to be.
And I myself know I need to
work harder in this arena.
I myself know that I need to push
to be more bold with my creativity.
I know that I need to cause more friction.
I'm just now really learning how to do
that without causing self destruction.
And there's a certain amount of self
destruction and bravery and courage that
has to go along with positive creativity.
You have to be comfortable with that as
well, but I'm just now learning how to
do it in such a way where I don't damage
myself to the point of ineffectiveness.
I'm willing to take my lumps.
I am not willing to go and
have my creativity unheard.
Or stifled.
So with this podcast
and I'll end all that for now with
this podcast, what I hope to do is the
spark, a movement of creative endeavor.
I want to help people and myself
create a better world that
exists more, more in line with.
Fixing problems, moving
forward as a group,
efficiently dealing with life's
issues, and being happy about
working towards this goal.
I see so many fights and squabbles
now online that it's, it's
no longer distressing to me,
but it is still concerning.
I don't know how it gets better.
I don't know when it gets better.
I just know I have enlisted
myself into this fight and I
plan to keep going with it.
I by nature am not a.
Marketer, uh, social sales type, but I
put myself into this arena in order to see
what kind of change I can push and what
I can make, and I think that podcasts.
Are a good way to do that because
hopefully when you've listened to
something like this, you actually start
to think not that I'm right or anything
like that, not to think the way I want you
to think you've actually started to think
a little more critically to be a little
more creative in your thought process.
And hopefully that creativity
leads to a better world.
I know there's going
to be a lot of fights.
I know there's going to be a lot of
pushback and I've already had a lot
of that so far, so I'm ready for
it and I'm used to it, but that's
where I'm going with this podcast.
And I think it took a little bit of.
MLK to make me think about that and make
me make me consider it a little more.
In fact, what I want to give you
now is a short quote from Dr.
King.
One that got me, got me thinking about,
um, let me just look this up one second.
I wasn't planning on mentioning it, but
I'm going to go ahead and mention it now.
See, this is how you know it's, it's
happening live when I just decide
to pull up a quote from somewhere.
Shout out to Keisha Howard, Sugar
Gamer on Instagram for posting this.
This is a quote from Dr.
King.
We must rapidly begin the shift
from a thing oriented society
to a person oriented society.
When machines and computers, profit motors
and property rights are considered more
important than people, the giant triplets
of racism, materialism, and militarism
are incapable of being conquered.
That may sound a little interesting,
so I'm just going to read it again.
We must rapidly begin the shift
from a thing oriented society
to a person oriented society.
When machines and computers, profit
motors and property rights are
considered more important than
the people, the giant triplets of
racism, materialism, and militarism
are incapable of being conquered.
Ladies and gentlemen,
if you think of the things that
are going on now, Ideas of racism,
materialism, and militarism.
Don't look for these things
with the idea of fomenting them.
Look for these things in terms
of recognizing them and trying to
overcome them within yourselves.
It's something I'm still working
on, something I'm still studying,
something I'm still learning
how to engage in regularly,
so that's going to do it for this one.
Thank you all for joining.
Listen, Apple podcast, subscribe,
at least throw up some stars.
If you don't throw up a
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Even if you don't drop a full
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I'm coming here every, every weekday
that I want to, maybe even a weekend.
If I want to make no promises, but
I'm here, you can always check out
episodes at creativity thread, life.
com.
And for any of my projects and endeavors,
you can always check out mrbenja.
com.