Expression as Disputation

Consider the possibility of irreversible intellectual decline.

Contrast present cultural perspectives with objective experience.

Cloud-Hidden

At the nadir of cultural decline lies ignorance and apathy and self-absorbed complacency.

Since neither art, nor its understanding, are effortless, intellectual curiosity cannot be neglected by those who would gain the broader, deeper perspectives on life the arts reveal.

This is a critical contemporary issue, and its most odious aspects are intentionally reinforced by the elite institutions and mass media under the guise of "populist" egalitarianism.  Since these conditions are, in point of fact, the direct results of social engineering aimed at producing an anemic, totalitarian, collectivist mentality, the resolution of this cultural crisis is far from certain.

In any event, the work of the artist moves forward, openly or underground.

Illusion and Cold Light

As an artist, one may not be devoted to the arts at the expense of life's necessities and long survive.

Yet neither may a consumer culture deny the value of the arts while appropriating the contributions of artists. A society that accepts and condones blatant thievery of intellectual property will ultimately incur the consequences of both brutish ignorance and unrestrained self-indulgence.

Regardless, the artist, poet, and composer will not be silenced, nor the dancer paralyzed.

No. 22 Golden Lane

Literacy itself was once considered a form of magic.  To look an an incomprehensible text that appeared no more than random markings and then, from these, to be able to know and speak the words and thoughts of kings and priests was surely the art of a sorcerer.  Something of that magic and mystery remains, embedded in human consciousness.

Certainly there are confusions of word and object and idea, problems of emotional connotation and comprehension of figurative expression in forms concrete and abstract, and mysteries of linguistic apprehension that provoke thought and debate.  Language nevertheless moves, challenges and stimulates reader and listener.