What the arts reveal they may also conceal, and motivations are not always transparent.
There exists a continually-reinforced cultural perspective that insists that the "unselfconscious" or "instinctive", "natural", "authentic" perspective in dealings and interactions with the world is in some undefined way superior to the way of reason and sound judgement. It is simply a means to creation and control of predictable behavior.
What may be easily termed Enlightened perspective, to the contrary, elevates culture, relationships, the arts, and much more. Being reliable, factually based and conceptually well founded, uniting ideas and concepts in global and historical terms, it transcends the common, narrow and mundane through understanding of human nature and the human condition. It illuminates with neither condescension nor pretense, and works of art reflecting this perspective undermine and undo, however gradually, unconscious behavioral conditioning.
There exists a continually-reinforced cultural perspective that insists that the "unselfconscious" or "instinctive", "natural", "authentic" perspective in dealings and interactions with the world is in some undefined way superior to the way of reason and sound judgement. It is simply a means to creation and control of predictable behavior.
What may be easily termed Enlightened perspective, to the contrary, elevates culture, relationships, the arts, and much more. Being reliable, factually based and conceptually well founded, uniting ideas and concepts in global and historical terms, it transcends the common, narrow and mundane through understanding of human nature and the human condition. It illuminates with neither condescension nor pretense, and works of art reflecting this perspective undermine and undo, however gradually, unconscious behavioral conditioning.
