Demand And Supply Of Beauty

There are many people – especially in generation preceeding mine, Generation X – who think that they live in reality and that nobody else does, or that the artistic perspective is incompatible with reality. I've dealt with many such people and I realized not only that they did not know shit from shit, but that they made the world worse through their presence in it.

The reality of the human world is a function of people's actions. These, in turn, are driven by their values and their beliefs. If people value things such as the arts, then they create a demand for them, and then arts become a part of the real world, and more artists can make a living.

Now one otherwise intelligent person from that generation stated once that the project of arts is to express all feelings, and that this project is soon coming to an end. That is a ridiculous claim. There is no single project for arts. Arts can be about just about anything. Some will produce art to express feelings. Some will produce art to express thoughts or spiritual intuitions. Some will produce art to celebrate whom they love or to woo whom they want. Some will produce art to express what they think or feel about their loved ones. Some will produce art to express their values. Some will produce art to inspire people or to create beauty. The list goes on.

So this mentality needs to be tackled head on. It is wrong in every sense possible. What they see as being reality is absolutely incomplete. Reality, as such, is much more complex and more rich than what they see in it. And when they portray as not part of reality the things that actually are a part of reality, they are impoverishing the world with their actions pursuant to their beliefs.

So when someone says that creativity or philosophy or anything of the sort is escaping or denying reality, it is in fact himself that is practicing denial and escape. Both creativity and philosophy have been vastly influential on the civilization, and both pursuits have created some of the greatest accomplishments ever produced by people. Even people who believe things of this sort practice a philosophy. As for creativity, it is not only good for art; it is also good for technology and business. Which means that views such as the one stated above are not only lacking in merit but are positively poisonous.

Once again, the reality of the human world is a function of their actions guided by their beliefs. And if the beliefs are compatible with creation of beauty, then such things will be part of reality. Create a demand for the arts, and the willing suppliers of the arts will benefit. But more importantly there will be created a legacy of embodied beauty. And this will create a period similar to 1920s America or the Renaissance Italy, to which people will look back fondly for generations to come.