The Tale

 

Doing ronin is a samurai attitude. When the lord of the day lost is battle or found displeasure with them, samurai had to choose: seppuku (ritual suicide) or ronin (status abandonment or banishment.) Recently, I once again have chosen the second. 

Samurai expected to be experienced practitioners of their art. They also were well read and practiced many of the Japanese arts: philosophy, calligraphy, even ikebana (flower arranging.) War weaponry were not the only tools they used.

The parallel is ronin are freelancers in today’s climate of powerful daiymos (studios) and serving the shogunates (Disney, Netflix, …) Peter Drucker describes in our post-industrial society, knowledge workers are king. We are those knowledge workers.

The corporations and institutions we align ourselves with have specific agenda. Ronin align with these daiymos as long as it suits our own agendas. Those who believe the daiymos will be there for them (the we-are-family argument) are not being truly aware of how the world of power works.

Ronin are masterless samurai; freelance artists using their talents to produce for a variety of studios and markets. Ronin is translated as “wave men.” Those who ride the waves of change. There's lots of that these days.

Years ago, I was quoted: “We are all freelance. Some of us just don’t know it yet.” This is as true today as then.