To Kickstart or Not to Kickstart

Many people I know have run successful crowdfunding campaigns, and they tell me I should look into doing one myself in order to get my several long-overdue albums of backlogged music off the ground. But then I look at crowdfunding efforts for sick people and important causes, and I can’t stomach the idea of putting my art (art being an inherently value-less endeavor which there is no shortage of already) in the same running for people’s hard-earned money. Having been born in the somewhat ambiguous time frame that has me fondly recalling both rotary phones and instant messaging as part of my “youth”, I simultaneously understand and do not understand how someone could ask strangers on the Internet for cash. It feels at once wrong and like The Wave of the Future (or to those of you not as mired in the 20th century as I, the Now). Will my cognitive dissonance lead me down the path of pooh-poohing the practices of present panhandling platforms (yes, I understand that in many cases there is an exchange that renders the term “panhandling” erroneous), or will I martyr myself on the pyre of Pretending I’m Doing The Right Thing By Not Doing Anything (a pyre that I, like a phoenix who has never heard the Rush song “Freewill”, keep burning on and rising from)? Tune in soonventually for the “exciting” answer or lack thereof!*

*…while ignoring the fact that no one has to tune anything in anymore.