the future belongs...

Jan 10, 2009

[Cartoon inspired by this 1997 Doc Searls blog post]

36 Comments

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Cathy Elaine

15 years ago

lol. Long live the artists!

Jeff Schmidt

15 years ago

can’t ya just be a chinese artist or something?

Kiri

15 years ago

I am an artist, and I am Chinese.
Does that mean that I win?

Rick Murray

15 years ago

Hugh, Optimist? Nice to see.

Ryan Anderson

15 years ago

Gapingvoid – Cartoons drawn on the back of business cards in sumi-e.

Gray

15 years ago

Anyone have an automatic article writer?

15 years ago

Every artist has an antiartist. Every chinese an antichinese. Result = annihilation. Therefor no one has a future.
That’s was antioptimist :))

Chris

15 years ago

Population of China: 1.32b
Population of India: 1.15b
My bet is on India. Chinese dynasties have never been able to stay cohesive for long. Plus, so far, democracy is the political model that gets overthrown the least. Either way, our children and our children’s children inherit some very exciting times.

Anonymous

15 years ago

I am an artist and I speak Chinese.

Matches Malone

15 years ago

So, if you’re a Chinese artist….
I say thee yay to a great print.

faheyr

15 years ago

I’m neither an artist or chinese. I guess I should go live in the past. Can someone invent a time machine for me please?

Travis Dahle

15 years ago

What if you are neither Chinese or an Artist? Am I up a creek without a paddle? That’s sort of depressing…

DoreenatDMS

15 years ago

By profession, I am not an artist …I am not Chinese. I’m done.

colin

15 years ago

as neither i guess i’m fucked!

bonnieL

15 years ago

Hugh, agree with you 50% – the artists part. The future belongs to artists – period.
Your square-shaped/rectangular/shaped drawings are always my favorites, – not sure why, perhaps the juxtaposition of chaos in a finite mathematical shape?
bonnieL
triiibe on!

Hannah

15 years ago

I think all of us have an innate creative longing. What is the step from creator to artist? Perhaps, if you don’t take that step, you had better be Chinese…or you’re fucked?

Ben Grada

15 years ago

Or we should make China and India fight each other ! and leave the Hughtrain alone.

Ben Grada

15 years ago

Or we should make China and India fight each other ! and leave the Hughtrain alone.

Very Evolved

15 years ago

Is there room for a creative non-chinese neuroscientist?
Patrick
veryevolved.com

MiriamS

15 years ago

Love your work. Very hard case and brilliant.
ps: am an artist also but not chinese.

mulder

15 years ago

@kiri – that means, you have two futures. choose wisely. @faheyr don’t we anyway? ‘s at least what my neuroscientist tells me.

philos

15 years ago

Thirty years ago a similar quote was said by one of the most famous and significant Greek music composers, Manos Hadjidakis, who had stated that “In Greece the most important artists are communists or homosexuals. And I am not a communist”.
I say great minds think alike!
;))

maggiefox

15 years ago

@ – Chinese dynasties (imperial or otherwise) have not remained cohesive for long largely because of traditions around property and wealth distribution. Estates were generally divided between multiple male heirs (in contrast with the Western European tradition of primogeniture), meaning that significant wealth could be diminished over just a few generations.
Just sayin’.

Aaron

15 years ago

I say business a performance art. We act in a certain way to communicate meaning to our audience. The performance is still up for interpretation, but if you budget is large enough, you get to do it again, refining the message and artifacts.

Michelle Greer

15 years ago

*busts out pom poms*
Go Hugh!

Simon

15 years ago

I am Chinese and I consider myself an artist, ergo I own a piece of the future too. 🙂

lineaist

15 years ago

I’m an artist and I’m learning Chinese… Does that count?

antigravity

15 years ago

I am only Chinese and an artist in theory…

David Everitt-Carlson

15 years ago

Everyone should read Hugh’s Doc Searls reference post before commenting on this cartoon.

David Everitt-Carlson

15 years ago

Everyone should read Hugh’s Doc Searls reference post before commenting on this cartoon.

John Gillett

15 years ago

I get my lunch from a sandwich artist who may be Chinese. You may know her…

Helegis

15 years ago

OMG this thing is better than “Ars longa, vita brevis” 🙂 I need to use it as my new motto 😀

Aaron

15 years ago

There must be a lot of artists in china. How do you define art…….kung fu artist??

Oliver Spalding

15 years ago

*Are* you an artist?

Jake Edwards

15 years ago

Hugh
is this old hat ?
http://i445.photobucket.com/albums/qq172/joecooool418/P1012141.jpg

9GiantSteps · Coin a Phrase: The Leveling

14 years ago

[…] So what separates the success from the failure when each has access to the same ingredients, the same customer base, etc. I suppose it’s like Hugh MacLeod says, “The future belongs to the artists and the Chinese…I am not Chinese.” […]

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