Can we get rid of the word Creative, used as a noun? Like this:

“Let’s get the Creatives working on this,” or,

“How many Creatives are working in your department?”

It’s a uniquely business/corporate way of phrasing things, which means that it reduces the complexity of a human being to a unit, an employee, a component in the work force that is responsible for coming up with ideas, creating concept sketches, producing an artwork that corporate will use to sell their product or idea (the latter generally fashioned by the Creative Department).

But there are no “creatives.”

There are, however, creative people.

That’s it: people, human beings who live and breathe and feel and wonder, and because they do these things, they are able to use these elements to create artwork, writing, posters, plots, using ideas formulated in a human brain.

And because they are living, breathing, feeling, genuinely sentient people (as opposed to artificially intelligent), they do not necessarily appreciate being seen as a unit, an employee, a worker, a component in the work force that gives the major portion of their day and energy to assist a bloated, behemoth corporation get even fatter.

Which is why, when people are exceptionally creative, they either wish to be paid well for their creativity, or they look around for opportunities to use their creativity for their own use, their own benefit. In order to preserve their energy, they may engage in what corporate bosses sneeringly refer to as “quiet quitting” – to the bosses, this implies laziness, a lack of commitment to the company, but to those under the bosses, it’s simply a matter of a contract: they put in their day, and the bosses give them their pay. No unpaid overtime, no extracurricular (unpaid) classes or training, no added responsibility without corresponding pay, no texts and calls after work or on days off.

Seems like common commonsense, unless you’re an overlord.

But back to creative people: it’s easy to forget, in a society where most of us are assigned by corporate and governmental overlords to be wage workers, that all people are creative, innovative, imaginative, able to make and do, reach for and achieve. And it’s only logical that we want to use that creativity and hard work for our own benefit, not that of billionaires.

“But I’m not an artist,” some people say, or, “I’m not a writer.”

Possibly – but if you want to be an artist or a writer, then it’s time to think about trying it out, practicing, seeing where it goes. You may find, over time, that because of your interest and research and practice and work, you are, indeed, an artist or writer, and like all artists or writers, are continually learning.

But art and writing are not the only avenues of creativity. Gardening is creative. Sewing is creative. Cooking is creative. Reading and researching and thinking through what you’re learning is creative. Working out is creative.

Doing anything with your hands and mind is the road to creativity, and with the exception of watching TV, pretty much any activity that we actively do leads to creativity.

So . . . you’re not a Creative, and never will be.

But you have everything within you to become a creative person.