A Social Analysis

[zero-gravity]

While I understand this discussion I'm inciting does not properly fall under the category of 'politics', I believe that since it does have to do with the nature of America's social progression, that it does best belong here. While you could say it belongs in the general forum, i trust more the individuals here than those in the general forum to contribute to a meaningful discussion.

The basis of my analysis:

The basis of my analysis comes from a philosophical idea I've recently concocted that essentially goes like this: Man is made three main components and experiences 3 main realities: Intelligence (through thought), Emotions (self-explanatory), and a Physical nature (through experiences). Individuals while have the capacity to develop all three, usually specialize in one to some degree. These individuals can be categorized as such: The thinkers, the feelers, and the doers; or in more socially standard terms: The intellectuals, the artists, and the working man.

Now I believe we all (or those who have the capacity to notice) have a feeling that society is going in a terrible direction, underneath the surface. Now I don't wish to speak for others, but this is a strong feeling I've had, and a sentiment that is shared among many of the other individuals that I've spoken to. Now the question of the day (especially if you're an intellectual like myself who operates via analysis) is WHY?

This is my theory:

Essentially, we are losing the perspective of the artist. This has been the result largely of the rise of science and its use in commercialization in the 20th century. This social movement has favored the intellectual and the worker, but has been costly to the artist. We are essentially finding smarter and more efficient ways to satisfy our most basic desires, which can primarily be described as physical comfort and stimulation. We find ways to make bigger and better TVs, cars, couches, houses, sound systems, food, and scents. This process is done through the commercialization of scientific engineering. The scientists design the products, the doers make them. There is also a philosophical component which underpins all of this which (in rebuttlement to religion), physical science is the only legitimate means of truth, which is detrimental to the artist who understands his (or her) world through intuitive feeling, metaphors, and symbols (tools largely employed by religions previously)

Now you may be convinced how the intellectual and the worker have been given a leg up, but perhaps not convinced how that hinders the artist or the contributes to the overall downfall of society. Well here is the reason: the artist has a very special skill set: He (or she) is imaginative/creative, empathetic, and largely individualistic; and this skill set is being ignored. Our system orientated, yet atomistic society favors the traits of the other two (intellectuals: logical, analytical, and efficient; Doers: Unrelenting, strong, and fast). So thus, society is overall becoming less imaginative, less empathetic, and in some sense less individualistic. We are still very much self-serving, but overall we still have fear of expressing our true selves for the very reason that we are self serving, and in fear that by veering from what is acceptable among the collective, we will be disconnected and ultimately lose out. This creates the common tension today of people having to 'put on a mask'.

Now the cause of all of this was a rise in 20th century material science, but the playing field has slightly shifted since then. For one, there is the rise of the internet, which has become a remarkable outlet for artists of all types, but on the flip side it has also become an astounding tool for the commercialization movement which is the fundamental promoter of this 'material science' movement. Also, while artists had a great uprising in the 1960s against the current established progression of 'mainstream society', that has largely died down as commercial enterprises have found ways to incorporate the role of the artist into their own structures, but simultaneously being able to hinder the expressive component of the artist that is so threatening to their existence. They've done so by creating 'art with a purpose'. Artists who have been incorporated into the commercial/industrial establishment now have marketing and design jobs where they don't get to create what they want, but rather use their skills to create what the company wants. We can even see this plainly in modern music where all of mainstream music essentially moves to boost consumerist values, most predominantly in the rap industry where its all about 'money, bitches, and power'.

While I think underground art is largely making a comeback through the internet, it is a relatively slow progression compared to the progress commercial enterprise has made in using the internet as a marketing tool. I fear, if the perspective of the true artist is not more fully integrated into society, we will progressively become more egotistical, robotic, and living in fear. Society will completely lose its soul.

I'm interested to hear your comments, perspectives, incites, as well as criticisms pertaining to what I've written and to the state of society at large.

[Camarohusky]

First off, I would seriously dispute that art has been killed, hurt, or even been lightly dampened during the 20th Century.

Art still exists and is as strong as ever, if not stronger, thanks to technology. Back before the 20th Century art was largely limited to the well to do who had enough money to spend time on pursuits other than their trade. The bulk of art created and expressed amongst regular folk was in the forms of music and dancing, or in the form of artisanry (making their trade so fine to a point of it being a form of art itself.)

Nowadays, everyone dabbles in art. Whether it is the passive enjoyment of near 24/7 (well, the waking hours at least) of music and visual media, or whether it be doodling and drawing on their own in the spare tim eour 19th Century and earlier counterparts never had.

I can understand why you may think art is lagging, but that's because you're looking at art as a science, and it is not. "Advances" in art are very few and far between, and more often have to do with technological and scientific innovations being converted to the artistic arena. Art isn't something that advances because it does not need to to, and in many cases is not supposed to. Art does go through phases, but again that's not the goal of art.

Here's a good two nouns that can distinguish art and science and how to look at them: effect and affect. Science is meant to effect the world. Art is meant to creat ean affect both within and upon the world. As we humans have not changed much in the past few thousand years what it takes to create, alter, shrink, or enlrage an affect within us has stayed largely the same. However, humanity, the world and its needs have changed largely since we were a small group of nomadic bands in Eastern Afirca thousands of years ago. Thus, science advances along with that to both address those changes and in many aspect to facilitate those changes.

On a separate note, if anything actually HAS hurt art in the 20th Century, it has been art itself. Art hit its peak with the realism/naturalism literature movements, the realism play movement, and the realist visual art movement. Prior to that point art was about creating what life aspired to be. On top of that, art was oozing with expression in overt ways. However, with the movements I mentioned above, expression and aspiration were replaced with reality and verisimilitude. The post modren art movements have tried to meld expression with realism, but have ended up doing little more than creating overly pretentious and esoteric messes that make inside jokes look like common knowledge. This has largely turned off the layperson to such media, as they want to enjoy art, not intellectually understand and conquer it.

[randomperson23]

I indeed think you are right when you said that the perspective of the artist is being lost. Most artists are becoming too negative, or lost or gone.

As far as state of society, I think that there will be an up and coming global catastrophe. The trigger? That is for time to tell (there are many that could set it off).