"In the past people would listen to music out of love for music, nowadays it roars everywhere and all the time, "regardless whether we want to hear it," it roars from loudspeakers, in cars, in restaurants, in elevators, in the streets, in waiting rooms, in gyms, in the earpieces of Walkmans, music rewritten, reorchestrated, abridged, and stretched out, fragments of rock, of jazz, of opera, a flood of everything jumbled together so that we don't know who composed it (music become noise is anonymous), so that we can't tell beginning from end (music becomes noise has no form): sewage-water music in which music is dying." ~Milan Kundera, Ignorance
rt as a life or death component of living we no longer have as foundational, fundamental to our lives as humanity. We live in a commodity driven world where Artistic endeavor is not treated as an expression of our human experience but rather something to be sold on the auction block or marketed in various selling and buying mediums. The driving question is not "How is this artistic creation meaningful?" but rather "How well will it sell and for how much?" Editors, Publishers, Ticket Agents and literary agents are not so much interested in the writing itself, but rather how much it would contribute to their financial enjoyment. Merchants and Businessmen make the decision of what is worthwhile art and such decisions include price tags which remove it to the access of a higher economic class. In a society of capitalism, any political ideology really, such commerce driven decisions are going to be made because we live in a day and age in which "money makes the world go round". However what is not a given is that the decision making process is the most beneficial one. Art was never something people really paid for, it was something woven deeply into the fabric of their community independent of wealth. Overtime, the power of art came to be associated with wealth and thus more removed from the community. It wasn't a financial decision, it was a decision of control. Especially so when the work of art conflicted with the whims of the government or ruling leadership. Still, poverty and starvation are tools often used to motivate decisions. So much so even in present day they are still tools used in conflicts despite their prohibition by the World Human Rights authorities who classify the use of such tactics as crimes against humanity and war crimes. Islamic factions have devoted themselves to the destruction of works of art from other cultures and the Israeli govt has devoted themselves to ethnic cleansing of Gaza in one form or another. That's just in a small corner of our wide world, but the practices occur in various forms subtle and otherwise. Even the United States is plagued with censorship movements who call for the destruction and purging of libraries and "degenerate art".
gnorance in the past, and the present, has been the common excuse used by the populace to excuse themselves from accountability of such crimes and their participation in them. WW II liberation of the concentration camps ended that defense once and for all when all german citizens were forced to walk through the camps and see the direct results of their decisions to support and go along with the leadership of the time. What their lack of opposition cost people and the post interviews of those citizens revealed they knew exactly what was happening and continued their support anyway including bringing the dictator at the time to power as well as providing ongoing support. Today with the vast amount of resources and information available to us, the expectation would be such it would prevent history from repeating itself because that ignorance had been repeatedly dispelled once and for all throughout the following decades. Yet, here we are today in a world where the artistic woven into the very fabric of community is not in the more "advanced societies" but rather is preserved in the indigenous communities. The idea of Western enlightenment to savages has failed miserably. Instead of alleviating suffering and improving the quality of life, we have destroyed it and introduced new ways of suffering which would not have been present except for our meddlesome, Political-Religious mindset to go and conquer the world by establishing a "Christian" empire including establishing institutions which were specifically charged with erasing any identity of Indigenous culture ties, by whatever means possible. Art as a direct connection was the first to go, to be forbidden, as was language which destroyed the oral traditions and cultural knowledge. It also opened the door for a future of learned helplessness which would eventually come into play as personal choice and provide an opportunity for the conquering culture to redeem itself. People can now decide to live differently, albeit under the impact of past trauma, but their choices are their own. A reaching for the concept of "Make America Great Again" which really translates into the conquering creed of obliterate all traces of the inferior, a purging of society including Art, cultural ties, traditions, spirituality. The unamerican will be expelled and punished.
rtisticlly America is in the throes of Artistic growing pains. Our music industry has reached a point where the focus is no longer on creativity and quality, but rather on racial presence and political correctness, or in some of the extremist groups lack of but a reaffirmation of the Aryan ideology of racial superiority and ethnic cleansing. Many Musicians are finding it more and more desirable to expand and move out of one specific style to try other different formats (I suspect not for personal or creative benefit but to expand their financial reach). In one sense this is to be expected, not necessarily for a good reason because with a financial motivation there is a consequence of being the top competitor, to dominate all others (which is a quality not endorsed by the artistic community historically or presently). Art has become a product, not a way of living or thinking. It was never intended to be that way, and forcing it into that framework created a in for the artistic community to be the mover and shakers of history. With any major change in historical communities, there is always a shift in art which is not surprising because there is always artistic energy to seek its own level, to seek its origins and reestablish balance to reassert itself as a force of nature. Unfortunately, art has a tendency to be evaluated in terms of wealth. The higher the price, the more desirable. If you don't believe this, watch an auction house or do financial research or artistic masterpieces. Value is determined by the highest bidder, but there is never discussion of the technique, the use of color, the emotional impact, the expression or even the artist beyond name. To get that, one must attend a museum, bookshop, workshop or a classroom. 2010 Doctor Who: Season 5, Episode 10 "Vincent and the Doctor, In a single scene illustrates the attitude of artistic life woven into the very fabric of who we are. Instead of a chicken in every pot, think of a Van Gogh in every home. The depth and magic of the artistic in something rooted deeply in who we are as a human species and to deny or suppress it is to enact a very serious affront against yourself as well as humanity as a whole. Art is elemental to our existence, just as is water, air, fire and earth and included in that is spirit. It is the throes of life and death as a species and should it leave, then we as a species will cease to exist as human and become a deplorable mimicry of life.
inding ones way back from the elder caves was easier than expected. Much easier than finding them which required one search through the densest parts of the forests and more difficult roads through mountains. It was a journey which presented itself as timeless, for the distance was long but the passage of time in traversing it presented itself as passing very little and one found themselves in the forest where they began which should have been a far distance away. Still, no one found such occurrences as odd at all or even out of place, living in a place of magic one came to expect such things as the norm, if there really was a norm in the first place. One came to the caverns for various purposes, a select few with intentions not at all honorable and not from the village who knew better. Those who came in such a state never accomplished what they were seeking and never returned again. They were not killed, but they did not seek the experience again and elected to push it from their mind. Most however, found it a deeply profound experience and talked about it to only their deepest loved ones. No one quite knew the history of the caves, even the elders themselves were unclear on the origins and histories attached to them which made the caves all the more mysterious and sought after. One might hope they could meet and elder in there, but there was no memory of such an event occurring. To describe the caves would be a disservice to them, no human language could put together the experience. Poetry, music and art could capture some of the essence of them, but it would be like asking an ant to describe a galaxy or nebula. The knowledge of our external universe is limited and our awareness and knowledge of our internal universe is woefully lacking. We have only scratched the surface and not even deeply. So it was with the caves, the light and color, the sound and silences, the touch and textures of surfaces defied description and yet one yearned to do so. The colors came in dreams and in waking, the sounds were found in the song of birds and the silence of the night when the stars shone sharply and the moon grew on the tips of the mountains. The patter of rain and the brush of wind upon one's forehead or cheek brought to mind something from the caverns. The formation of words upon a page, or the exhale of breath producing a note from the flute.
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