Cultures are controlled and manipulated, but this need not be the case.
Under normal conditions, culture and the arts function interactively. When developments in one or the other are brought to a standstill, both succumb to a state of stasis that is ideal for the impress of any form of totalitarian, centralized, collective control.
The critical element that must be reigned in is information, but this cannot be done through direct, visible, means, or contention will ensue. Yet it is a simple matter to narrow the focus of the public discourse to a few vexing issues, and to make those appear to be the central facts of social reality, removing the creative impetus from the cultural setting-- to a great extent, if not altogether.
The result is darkness, and its perpetual increase, unless the visionary rise up against the benighted.
Under normal conditions, culture and the arts function interactively. When developments in one or the other are brought to a standstill, both succumb to a state of stasis that is ideal for the impress of any form of totalitarian, centralized, collective control.
The critical element that must be reigned in is information, but this cannot be done through direct, visible, means, or contention will ensue. Yet it is a simple matter to narrow the focus of the public discourse to a few vexing issues, and to make those appear to be the central facts of social reality, removing the creative impetus from the cultural setting-- to a great extent, if not altogether.
The result is darkness, and its perpetual increase, unless the visionary rise up against the benighted.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Comments opened Jan. 2016. All comments moderated, out of respect for the intelligence of the audience.