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Well, pouring your mediocre-at-corpo-jobs soul into corpos has been the wrong way to amass riches for over half a decade now.

Yup, being an influencer really is the way to go these days

No. Being an artisan thanks to the abundance of free ways to advertise unlike before. And that's on top of plethora of learning resources to do what your heart calls for without old academia debts.

I never knew World Illustrated had it going so bad.

https://youtu.be/e9dzqeluldk

I was convinced this is r/im14andthisisdeep

if the message is "the modern pursuit of happiness can only be aquired through money, but its a trap because there are jobs that dont even have a living wage" then i agree

if the message is "workers shouldnt be greedy" then wtf wrong with you

I’m 31 and this isn’t deep — but I still think it’s a good and mostly well thought drawing that reflects some aspects of our society.

I like the sticky note as if the symbolism wasn’t on the nose enough as it is

I didn't want to make anyone feel bad. I think the illustration is ok and truthful, but a cliché.

Fair enough. :)

What about the mouse that churned the cream into butter

The salary rat already had cheese, typical

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Artwork like this always just comes across as annoying because we’re all just mice trying to chase our cheese in order to survive anymore. What else are we gonna do until a new system is put into play? Wanna make art with a message? Call out the billionaires exploiting our labor for chump change and poor living conditions.

Aside from that, the artwork is great. The message is just flat and tired.

I can't help it, it's productive and I don't lose money! Now I just hope the rats dont unionize, we live in the same apartment

This would have been a lot better without the sticky note.

Ah yes, the old business is bad addage that artists have been peddling for a century. How original.

Can't be too subtle in r/art

Remember those who “own” the world attained it through violence and maintain it through violence.

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This. It has a base of truth, but it's cheesy to the point of feeling like being considered a preschool kid. And also so "i want this to be obvious and explicit" that it misses any possible shade (like, fuck, I'm born poor and I won't die poor, anyone reposting stuff like that never had to budget groceries)

Even the briefcase is cliche. Who uses a briefcase any more?

It's the first one. A lot of his work is very anti-capitalist. He has a youtube channel.

This is basically r/im14andthisisdeep

Yes, additionally, what was particularly striking to me are the very simplistic worldviews devoid of nuance: capitalism bad, office jobs unfulfilling, money doesn't provide happiness. While these can all be true at face value, they are all very debatable and can depend on the context.

But also the the path from choosing the message to choosing the execution seems short and unoriginal. Money = trap? Okay, but there's nothing more to it.

To not be all negative, here are some examples that I think are better. While these are all designs rather than illustrations, I chose them because they use similar simplistic premises, but the execution is a bit more clever. They combine multiple symbols in a creative and intriguing way:

1, 2, 3, 4

>anymore

Always. You mean always. The methods change but the story is the same. There has never been, and will never be some utopia.

2015 it’s been almost 10yrs and it’s no different/seemingly getting worse 8)

I’m not saying a utopia is possible or impossible however it certainly won’t ever exist under capitalism.

The existence or non existence of a utopia is not my point though. Why spread the message that chasing down our cheese will lead us, the mice, to death when the message should be that hoarding all the cheese that rightfully belongs to the mice will lead the mice to revolt and come for the trap setters head. If anything, the artwork upholds the elitist idea of stay within your socioeconomic class otherwise you’ll be in danger.

Either way you look at it though, my viewing of the artworks message is subjective to my views on the topic. Nobody is right or wrong here, just spitballing our opinions and views of the artists work. Well done on the artist to spur conversation!

Woof. Just...like...woof.

God bless.

If I kms I will have beat the system 🤩

And as artist he probably did this painting for money, like Banksy. I love Banksy, but money is in the end what drives most of us...

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Steve Cutts knows not subtlety, now, does he?

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But what if we took a picture of the a suburban neighborhood from the 1960s, desaturated it, then implied that everyone is secretly a murderer or something? Maybe THEN people will stop living in the suburbs.

Sentient business mice always fall for this trap

That moment when capitalism

I’d prefer to see the bulging eye and blood on the mouth

Most people gotta work themselves to death just to pay the bills. Actually seeking happiness is a luxury. This trivialises how toxic and exploitative our society really is because the name of the game is to not starve or freeze to death while trying to surpress the internal agony with unhealthy hedonistic indulgence. People don't drink, smoke, binge watch or overeat because they think this is happiness, they do it to drown out the pressure they are trapped underneath. Honestly the imagery is problematic enough, the fact that the sticky note makes it clear that this was actually what the artist thinks about workers is just depressing.

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It really doesn't feel like the mouse is being portrait as the victim here, more like the fool that we should learn from, even though alot of people have to fight to survive and this just makes it look like the mouse should just not grab the money and be fine.

I’m overworked and getting dumber by the day due to the stress of the workload…the sticky note helped.

I urge everyone here to watch Steve Cutts’ animated short film “Happiness” over on YouTube to receive the full package of what’s being commented on. I remember watching it around the time it released 5 years ago and heavily resonated with its representation.

Exactly! These shows that the artist put at least a little bit of thinking into that. They're not as profound as the average elementary school essay

“Capatalism”

No matter what you a call it, “Socialism,” “Communism”, “Capatalism”

Its all built on Neo-Colonial Industrialism.

How bout some Swedish Oil?

In her book Affärer i blod och olja: Lundin Petroleum i Afrika[26] (Business in blood and oil: Lundin Petroleum in Africa) journalist Kerstin Lundell claims that the company had been complicit in several crimes against humanity, including death shootings and the burning of villages.[27]

In June 2010, the European Coalition on Oil in Sudan (ECOS)[28] published the report Unpaid Debt,[29] which called upon the governments of Sweden, Austria and Malaysia to look into allegations that the companies Lundin Petroleum, OMV, and Petronas have been complicit in the commission of war crimes and crimes against humanity whilst operating in Block 5A, South Sudan (then Sudan) between 1997-2003.

The reported crimes include indiscriminate attacks and intentional targeting of civilians, burning of shelters, pillage, destruction of objects necessary for survival, unlawful killing of civilians, rape of women, abduction of children, torture, and forced displacement.

Approximately 12,000 people died and 160,000 were violently displaced from their land and homes, many forever. Satellite pictures taken between 1994 and 2003 show that the activities of the three oil companies in Sudan coincided with a spectacular drop in agricultural land use in their area of operation.[30]

Also in June 2010, the Swedish public prosecutor for international crimes opened a criminal investigation into links between Sweden and the reported crimes. In 2016, Lundin Petroleum's Chairman Ian Lundin and CEO Alex Schneiter were informed that they were the suspects of the investigation.

Sweden’s Government gave the green light for the Public Prosecutor in October 2018 to indict the two top executives[31] On 1 November 2018, the Swedish Prosecution Authority notified Lundin Petroleum AB that the company may be liable to a corporate fine and forfeiture of economic benefits of SEK 3,285 (app. €315 million) for involvement in war crimes and crimes against humanity.[32] Consequently, the company itself will also be charged albeit indirectly, and will be legally represented in court. On 15 November 2018 the suspects were served with the draft charges and the case files.[33]

They will be indicted for aiding and abetting international crimes and may face life imprisonment if found guilty. The trial is likely to begin by the end of 2020 and may take several years.

The Swedish war crimes investigation raises the issue of access to remedy and reparation for victims of human rights violations linked with business activities. In May 2016, representatives of communities in Block 5A claimed their right to remedy and reparation and called upon Lundin and its shareholders to pay off their debt.[34] A conviction in Sweden may provide remedy and reparation for a few victims of human rights violations who will be witnesses in court, but not for the app. 200,000 victims who will not be represented in court.

Lundin Energy endorses the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, acknowledging the duty of business enterprises to contribute to effective remedy of adverse impact that it has caused or contributed to.[35] The company has never refuted publicly reported incriminating facts. Nor has it substantiated its claim that its activities contributed to the improvement of the lives of the people of Sudan.[36] It never showed an interest in the consequences of the oil war for the communities in its concession area. The company maintains a website about its activities in Sudan.[37]

Criticism has also been directed towards former Minister for Foreign Affairs Carl Bildt, a former board member for the company, responsible for ethics.[38][39] Ethiopia arrested two Swedish journalist Johan Persson and Martin Schibbye and held them for 14 months before the release. Conflict Ethiopian Judicial Authority v Swedish journalists 2011 was caused as the journalist studied report of human rights violation in the Ogaden in connection with activities of Lundin Petroleum.[40]

The trial against Lundin may become a landmark case because of the novelty and complexity of the legal issues that the Swedish court will have to decide. It would be the first time since the Nuremberg trails that a multibillion-dollar company were to be charged for international crimes. The court is likely to answer a number of important legal questions, including about the individual criminal liability of corporate executives vs. corporate criminal liability of organisations, the applicable standard of proof for international crimes before a national court, and the question whether a lack of due diligence is sufficient for a finding of guilt. On 23 may 2019, the T.M.C. Asser Institute for International Law in The Hague organized a Towards criminal liability of corporations for human rights violations: The Lundin case in Sweden.[41]

Thomas Alstrand from the Swedish Prosecution Authority in Gothenburg on 13 February 2019 announced that a second criminal investigation had been opened into threats and acts of violence against witnesses in the Lundin war crimes investigation.[42] They have allegedly been pressured not to testify in court. Several witnesses have been granted asylum in safe countries through UNHCR supported emergency protection procedures. The company has confirmed that its CEO and Chairman have been officially informed by the prosecutor about the allegation, noting that it believes that it is completely unfounded.

Witness tampering is usually intended to prevent the truth from being exposed in court. The second investigation into obstruction of justice seems to contradict the company’s assertions of its good faith cooperation with the war crimes investigation.

Once court hearings commence in Sweden, the Dutch peace organization PAX and Swedish NGO Global Idé will provide daily English language coverage of proceedings, expert analyses and comments on the website Unpaid Debt.[43]