What’s passion worth?

Image: one of the many coffees that have contributed to my productivity.

Reconciling passion and productivity is a challenge. My wife will tell you that I don’t take my task of teaching and learning about the Holocaust lightly. Everything I do is based on the most up-to-date, most solid, and most reliable scholarship I can find – as the state of my study can attest. This comes at a price. Academic publishing seems determined to ensure that the ivory tower is surrounded with searchlights and machine guns, and paywalls of such proportions that George R.R. Martin would think them implausible. Supportive friends can and do help out with discreet emails of particular articles, and I’m expert these days at sourcing second-hand. But there’s a cost.

But, as my recent post on AI and the Holocaust explored, the damage that can be done by shortcuts is immense: we are in danger of the truth of the Holocaust being diluted and debased by AI fabrication that can be produced at little or no cost to the producer. And once produced, it can spread quickly into distant corners of the internet. Meanwhile, those of us who take care and pride in what we do struggle to cover the cost of books, research…and daily life. My two year-old daughter needs nappies, and food, and all the other things that children need.

The internet age has made it easier to create and distribute what the world lumps together as “content”. But the very democracy of it makes it harder to turn a profit. In music, even small bands can produce merchandise like T-shirts and vinyl that can help to manage. But nobody needs a T-shirt with my face on it, let alone the subjects of my research. And publishing is still hard to break into: especially when some of my best ideas are available for free, because I want to communicate when the issue is important, not necessarily when an editor agrees.

I do paid work. The charity Generation 2 Generation uses me as a freelance historical consultant, and this month I’m going to work with the inspired and remarkable young people of HabonimDror UK. But my fees for these organisations are not sufficient to keep me going, since they reflect organisational needs and the willingness of funding organisations to support their work. That doesn’t affect in the slightest how seriously I take everything I do.

I don’t ever want to charge for engaging with my work on this site. In the event that I were to become an established academic, I would still keep this site free to use. But in the meantime, the last post I wrote has had 223 views. If everyone left the price of the coffee I drank while typing this, I wouldn’t be any nearer retirement – but I also might be a little less worried about what to do to keep my work and life together.

So from now on, all new posts will carry the notice that you can Buy Me a Coffee: https://coff.ee/jaimeashworth Please think about clicking and donating, and know you’re supporting the work of ensuring the Holocaust is taught and learned about (and commented upon) as accurately and completely as I can manage. Thank you.