Fine arts and philosophy have been slandered as being
luxuries of the elites.
This slander is frankly ridiculous, and it exerts a
degrading effect upon the civilization.
At this time in the world history, the world has by
far the greatest amount of material prosperity that it
has ever had. It also has by far the greatest population,
the greatest amount of information, the greatest amount
of knowledge, and the greatest amount of media and
political freedom in the history of humankind. It has
enough resources for - politically correct propaganda,
right-wing radio talk shows, supermarket tabloids, TV
evangelists, Jerry Springer, and all manner of
hideousness and inanity that we see on TV and the
radio and the news. So why not then have likewise an
abundance of world-class intellectual thought and
artistic accomplishment?
This question bears asking, for the sake primarily of the
greatness of the Civilization and the history of the World.
That a Renaissance Italy, with three million people and an
average household income of $1000 a year, would produce
Michelangelo, DaVinci, Botticelli, Rafael and a number of
other timeless masters, while the modern world has produced
no known artist of similar caliber since Salvador Dali, does
not say much for the modern world. Why, at a time when the
world's GDP, population, information, knowledge and media
reach far exceeds any ever created, are there not a thousand
Michelangelos, Emersons, Tsvetayeva's, Platos, Franklins,
Jeffersons, Li Pos, Rumis, Shakespeares and Elizabeth Barrett
Browning's? Why, at the time of the greatest accumulation of
knowledge and freedom of information and material resources
and politicalliberty in the history of the world, is there
not commensurate legacy and body of work - legacy and body
of work of literary, artistic, philosophical and intellectual
greatness?
The things that were once unthinkable luxuries even to the
kings and the queens, are now the daily aspect of the
existence of the people in the most run-of-the-mill Western
household. There are full-screen TVs and two-car garages in
most working households in America. These, by any historical
standard, are luxuries - luxuries that never previously
belonged even to Queen Elizabeth the First. So why, then,
are fine arts and philosophy - the flowering, the
consummation, the blossoming, the culmination, the legacy of
man's intellectual and artistic striving - the flowering and
the blossoming that, compared to these things, take far less
material resources to create and leave per unit of resources
expended a far greater legacy and embodied value - not at a
nearly commensurate quality?
Are the moderns not smart enough? Are the moderns not talented
enough? Are the moderns not free or educated or materially and
politically empowered enough? Either of these explanations,
given historical state of humanity, is absurd. There is
something wrong with one thing and one thing only:
THE PRIORITIES OF THE MODERN WORLD.
Who indeed would see it as idle luxury to create fine art and
fine literature - all things that require minimum resource
expenditure but produce embodied greatness that contain
inspiration and excellence, enhance knowledge and emotional
wisdom, enrich experience of life, and give the country
something to look back upon proudly over centuries of future
existence - while not seeing as idle luxury the McDonalds's
and poison-spewing SUVs, taxpayer-paid subsidies to farm
corporations and giveaway of government money to pharmaceutical
companies,
the supermarket tabloids and TV evangelists and
right-wing uglies congesting the media channels and politically
correct fascists using the taxpayer money to play power games
against the helpless in social work, attack all beautiful
sensibilities in the academia, and rob life of its Richness and
Splendor (and humanity of its Genius) while using for that evil
purpose far greater amount of resources than would be required
to produce a thousand Sistine Chapels?
The problem is not with the West's political or economic system,
which after all in both cases provide viable means for
expression of people's values in the marketplace and in the
government. The problem is with the values that are expressed
through both systems. The problem is with the priorities and
the ideas guiding these priorities. The problem is with the
short-sightedness of the mindset that fails to look forward to
history and to compute into the quantification of economic
utility and political benefit the long-term greatness of the
civilization, which lives through its literary and artistic
accomplishments and bequeathes through them to future generation
the brilliance and inspiration that once lived in it. The problem
is with the failure to economically and politically quantify
this: Historical interest; long-term benefit of humanity; the
legitimate need for legacy; and the very true and significant
need for Splendor.
Splendor that:
Enriches experience of life;
Shows what is possible;
Inspires people toward Excellence with sight of Accomplishment;
Vitalizes the Passionate and the Inspired in Human Being, setting
it free to impart of its Riches and enrich the Lives of Others and
the entirety of the Human Experience;
And imparts through the intuitive channels the Sublime and the
Magnificent to the Living, Directing and Guiding them to
Passionate, Beautiful, Inspired Life.
Splendor that is the accomplishment of Humankind's Excellence -
source of its Passion and Inspiration - and inspiration for a
finely refined sense of Justice, and undying interest in the Good
Of The Existing And The Yet-To-Exist.
And that the World requires again to be made a Value, in order
that Greatness, Man and Civilization can Live Again -
Produce magnificent and inspired legacy of its existence -
And enrich the lives of the Existing, justify and give legacy to
the Existed, tap into man's Talents for Good of Humanity, and
inspire and give light to the Yet-To-Exist.
Ilya Shambat
http://ibshambat.blogspot.com
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