my meaning is really only a variation on what you, Carrol, have said whenever lefties engage in lifestyle moralism. you recently said it this way: "Well, I'ave always defended the right of individuals, absent a real masss struggle, to survie as well as they can."
that is what "fuck you, pay me" means and how i'm using it. it means that, in this dirty world, in the here and godamned now, no one should have to defend their right to get paid for their labor against the moralism of demands to not be so "precious" about their intellectual property. Eric just did it, to me, with the question about the comment, "Are you really saying that the fruits of your labor are your property?" as if, somehow, this was a bad thing. My time is my godamned property, yes. And lefties who are outraged by my whoring attitude can suck my delicate feminine cock. (I don't really think Eric is outraged by that, actually....)
what is making me laugh really hard, though, is this. I learned to think in terms of fuck you, pay me from Eric, among others on this list! My boss had a job, and Eric didn't. I asked Eric if he thought the wage, $10/hr, was fair. He told me that no way on earth did freelance writers work for $10/hr. Freelance writers were a mercenary bunch, he said. I have used that line often since then, which is why I remember the convo.
Two other folks did the same, Kirsten and Ravi. And then there is my favorite instance of all. A list member's response to my call for help from a sys admin. We needed help on a project for a lefty non-profit. The company was willing to pay $25/hr - which was the wage *we* were working for. This guy, who lives in NYC, sneered and said he'd work for no less than $75/hr.
Not even for a lefty outfit, not even for a good cause, was he going to say anything other than, "Fuck you, pay me."
They all treated their labor time as their property, to be sold on the market, and to the highest bid they could get. No one should do otherwise. I don't think Sean Keenan should work with iTunes. He should say to their shite deal the same thing that Eric said to my boss's $10/hr: fuck you, pay me. Prince should say to iTunes, "Fuck you, pay me (an advance)" - which is, acc to Keenan, what he basically said. Prince refuses to let itunes distribute his music unless they pay him an advance.
I seriously doubt that you disagree with any of that.
shag
-- http://cleandraws.com Wear Clean Draws ('coz there's 5 million ways to kill a CEO)