In Praise of Amateurism

An amateur is someone who does something for the love of it (amator means 'lover' in Latin, which is why amour means 'love' in French).

Amateurs only care about the activity, enjoying it, and (sometimes) sharing it with others. There is no other motivation. They are not shaped by market forces, nor do they have to bother living up to some hierarchical set of 'professional standards.'

Roland Barthes has suggested that a 'completely de-alienated society' (something possible only in theory) would be a society of amateurs -- unlike our society, which is a society of consumers. (He said this in The Grain of the Voice).

It still sounds like an ideal worth working toward to me. So let's raise a glass to amateurs and lovers everywhere!

And let's stop using 'professional' as a synonym for 'good' -- 'conditioned wage-slave' might do as well, I think. (Though let's be gentle, and think -- not say -- that, and more with compassion than contempt... We all have to make a living somehow, now don't we?)