Thursday, April 15, 2010
On Freedom of Expression
Man reaches his full potential when he no longer has to sell himself as a commodity.
~Ernesto Guevara
What is your favorite song? Or book? Or any work of artistic expression? Why is it your favorite? For me, it seems every song, movie, poem or sculpture that I have found enlightening, inspiring or just entertaining was made as a tribute to artistic expression itself and not to sell X amount of units to an audience determined by accountants in terms of demographics.
I'm sure mindless entertainment/escapsim will always be with us, and damn it, sometimes it even has a purpose I suppose, but when you really need to FEEL something, there must be more than a beat you can dance to. As for music, it needs to hit your heart, mind and soul as well as your ass. The song lyrics are as crucial as the beat in those songs that I can really feel and groove to in spirit.
There are many things I detest in this for-profit society and one of them is the lack of artistic expression for its own sake. This seems to get worse every year. Just like speciation of living things, artistic expression is at its peak when there is a new niche to be filled. As the niche gets filled, innovation is stifled. This evolutionary process is hastened by the demands of the marketers, who quash artistic innovation almost immediately by applying the lowest common denominator.
Now imagine a society where the profit motive or state apparatus does not control artistic expression. Where art is created not to be sold or to sell a state-sanctioned point of view but, free from all forms of censorship, was created to exist soley as artistic expression. What a brave new and perhaps ethereally beautiful world that would be!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
"it seems every song, movie, poem or sculpture that I have found enlightening, inspiring or just entertaining was made as a tribute to artistic expression itself and not to sell X amount of units to an audience...." Ernesto
On a blog recently, I argued at length with a commenter regarding the woeful lack of true creativity in many of our movies, and the unabashed pandering to what producers believed would sell box-office tickets.
It was his contention that this was never the case, that the artist (screen writers) always followed the dictates of his or her artistic integrity, and never caved in to pressures to create something marketable--the next box office hit.
What's ironic is that when the artist is allowed the freedom to create something new and different, something that's true to his or her vision, we really get something spectacular.
But, then, that spectacular achievement is too often followed with a hundred clones exploiting the initial concept.
After the success of the movie, Avatar, for example, we will get many more films in 3D whether that mode enhances the movie or not.
"Where art is created not to be sold or to sell a state-sanctioned point of view but, free from all forms of censorship, was created to exist soley as artistic expression. What a brave new and perhaps ethereally beautiful world that would be!"
That would be the ideal. But just as some oppressive societies have sought to present a state-sponsored, and state-sanctioned ideological product for public consumption, the capitalistic need to create a sellable, and lucrative product has proven to be oppressive, as well, although not with equal fervor.
Both systems stymie creative expression, and sacrifice it for what is seen as the "greater good," one ideological, the other financial.
The recent supreme court decision on behalf of films (and videos) that show animal cruelty, has to be tolerated in the name of "freedom of expression."
We can't have what we want (a creative expression that uplifts, inspires, and evokes thoughtful consideration), unless we give them what they want (the "lowest common denominator" and the pandering to what is base in human nature, rather than to what is finest).
Beautiful writing, BD!
"Both systems stymie creative expression, and sacrifice it for what is seen as the "greater good," one ideological, the other financial."
Perfect summation of what I was trying to say.
My next post will be about how "free enterprise" not only stymies our freedom of expression, but relegates us to the status of inanimate objects with no intrinsic worth besides that which can be exploited by the engine of wealth creation.
Post a Comment