I think the part of the seminar that stuck with me the most was the very end. After a detailed discussion with a wonderful guest speaker, the swapping items demonstration, a presentation, and some videos, there were a couple of questions asked. “How many of you want to put your art or something you’ve made out into the world?” Every hand went up. “How many of you want to make a lot of money doing just that?” Every hand went up again. It was interesting because it contradicted almost everything said in the discussion before. Capitalism is defined as “an economic and political system in which a country’s trade and industry are controlled by private owners for profit, rather than by the state.” It is easy to make that seem evil, big, private, powerful cooperations working and getting richer, while there are plenty of people struggling. But when you think about it, it’s what almost everyone wants, especially at a school like ours. Parsons is full of ambitious students who are passionate about their craft and want to turn it into something. They all want to be big, they all want to own their work and businesses, and they all want to make their name known. I’m one of them, I want to be a successful interior designer with her own business one day who is also known for her fine art. All the fashion majors either want to create a label of their own, or work for one of those well known companies that are so easy to criminalize. Its the same for all the other majors. We all came to this school to evolve our work and make something of ourselves. I know its a generalization, but I think its a fair one. That’s basically capitalism, is it not? I think hose questions at the end were very important because it makes you think, it made me think. It put a different perspective on everything we had just spoken about. it makes you realize nothing is so black and white, even something that seems easy to dislike like capitalism.
