"You have to pay your dues" started with the idea we should to expect to work hard, learning the ropes along the way.  So how has it become a euphemism for surrender by musicians too timid to say "no"?   There is that awful movie with great actors called Whiplash about an ambitious drummer who must survive the tribulations of a collegiate jazz program led by an abusive professor.  Having had a college percussion professor who treated his students similarly (fortunately not physically), I saw firsthand the continual subjugation-based methodology.  This guy was just a miserable bully, yet to many this experience was "paying dues" - but it's really just abuse.  At that time I did in fact lack the esteem to know I had an option and I feel that is too often the case wth many of us.  

  Always make sure you know where the door is and use it at your discretion. There will always be a better band, opportunity or school who will accept your money or your efforts.  The dues you pay are the sacrifices you make to learn or do something you love. The time from friends and family. The money you invest; other opportunities you gave up.  Facing mistakes and failures and resolving to overcome.  There is no guarantee of safety from theft but you don't have to stick around for repeat offenses.

  It seems we find it is easier to rationalize getting ripped off by a club and repeating the process under the guise of "paying dues" than it is to address the issue rationally and change the process of acquiring such gigs...like not accepting those gigs or as a band not returning to that venue.  Sadly very few bands are willing set up their own gigs at a rental hall; if you're going to lose money and time, why not dictate your own parameters?  Musicians have to learn to say "NO"!   And if there is a shred of a music "scene" - bands would stand up for eachother when others are theived and instead ban the venue.  This would change things, but why is it so hard to find groups of people to back this up?  Plato's Allegory of the Cave tells it all.

  If this abuse is paying your dues just where do these hypothetical dues go?  The same place as lost socks?  I'll tell you where they don't go: your wallet, dignity, art, perspective or future.  "Paying Your Dues" is the battle cry by those who have no value for what they do or what you do.  When you have a positive standard of value for your skill, product or service you'll find you are less open to exploitation.  Certainly attornies, doctors, mechanics, landscapers, caterers, undertakers, circus performers, prostitutes and snow shovelers have all figured this out.  So how will you respond the next time someone tells you demurely that you must "pay your dues"?

  Thoughts? Comments? Criticisms?