Some people have accused the president of lying and I’m pretty sure he doesn’t look at it that way. It’s more likely he thinks of what he says as ‘salesmanship,’ deal-making lingo, and he doesn’t necessarily see the connection between what he says and what actually is, and in fact there’s no connection. He’s speaking to a population that’s asleep, more of an opiated stupor, and they hear him in a dream. Here’s how it works. The super bowl happens in the middle of the NBA season and basketball playoffs overlap with the beginning of major league baseball. The world series is played in the middle of football season, and they’re building a new stadium for soccer but who knows where they’ll fit it in. That takes out the middle hump of the population, they might as well be asleep. Their minds are filled with trades and statistics and their emotions are drained, elation with each touchdown turning to anger and frustration with each interception, and they talk that stuff when they’re not watching. When the cycle is suddenly broken, as it has been, some will wake up and begin to wonder what their congressman’s been doing, how other people are living and maybe even how they’ve been living themselves.
Women have recently found themselves let off at a bus stop that’s existentially nowhere, nothing but a faint horizon line and a light blue mist. The old movie parts won’t fit anymore, and they've had to set off in some new direction and redefine themselves from scratch. They call it being woke and it seems to be literally correct, a percentage of mainly younger women measuring each step as a conscious choice and looking for meaning in the mirror. Everybody has been confronted with the ubiquitous skull on everything from mud-flaps to baby clothes and the dawning realization that it’s a sign of imminent death, and the pandemic possibility of premature mortality has sobered up a few. It’s a bit like a slow thawing, a population emerging from its old shell and in this vulnerable yet mutable condition capable of assuming a more cooperative, eco-friendly and sustainable way to behave on the planet. How do these newly questioning citizens communicate and how does the word spread of a new community consciousness? Now would be the time to suggest the actual value and utility of art.
If you feel the need to spend fifty million dollars on a painting that’s essentially only a big price tag with some color smeared here and there, there’s no law says you can’t. You’re dreaming, of course, and the world will shake you awake soon enough, but everyday folks participating in art, making it, buying it, owning it and hanging it on the wall makes the transition to a new awareness quicker and easier. Art on the wall will make recognizing the like-minded less of a guessing game and leads to better conversations, and as a bonus art broadens and deepens perceptual function and you’ll see more detail in the world. Will a piece of art alter the universe and bend reality, maybe not enough to notice, but it can provide a bit of traction in a very slippery place for the determined climber, attempting to realize their own human potential, awake.
Women have recently found themselves let off at a bus stop that’s existentially nowhere, nothing but a faint horizon line and a light blue mist. The old movie parts won’t fit anymore, and they've had to set off in some new direction and redefine themselves from scratch. They call it being woke and it seems to be literally correct, a percentage of mainly younger women measuring each step as a conscious choice and looking for meaning in the mirror. Everybody has been confronted with the ubiquitous skull on everything from mud-flaps to baby clothes and the dawning realization that it’s a sign of imminent death, and the pandemic possibility of premature mortality has sobered up a few. It’s a bit like a slow thawing, a population emerging from its old shell and in this vulnerable yet mutable condition capable of assuming a more cooperative, eco-friendly and sustainable way to behave on the planet. How do these newly questioning citizens communicate and how does the word spread of a new community consciousness? Now would be the time to suggest the actual value and utility of art.
If you feel the need to spend fifty million dollars on a painting that’s essentially only a big price tag with some color smeared here and there, there’s no law says you can’t. You’re dreaming, of course, and the world will shake you awake soon enough, but everyday folks participating in art, making it, buying it, owning it and hanging it on the wall makes the transition to a new awareness quicker and easier. Art on the wall will make recognizing the like-minded less of a guessing game and leads to better conversations, and as a bonus art broadens and deepens perceptual function and you’ll see more detail in the world. Will a piece of art alter the universe and bend reality, maybe not enough to notice, but it can provide a bit of traction in a very slippery place for the determined climber, attempting to realize their own human potential, awake.
No comments:
Post a Comment