FIVE PRISONS AND ART
and how these contradict our day-by-day imposed reality
HIGH AND LOW
I want to return to the problem of high and low culture
and to reveal a series of phenomena point by point, step by step
to provide a simple picture of a very complex,
sometimes confusing and often purposely obscured condition
we are forced to survive within.
Let me start with this: what is the role of art in society?
To answer this we need to define what we mean by art.
To begin with: all that humans live within, think and make
are components of our culture.
Trees, philosophical ideas, ways to stop a pipe leaking,
and our shoes, lightbulbs, airplanes and oil wells are all a part of our culture.
Art is a unique part of this culture.
It is an expression of what we think and what we make,
but it is distinctive in several ways.
First, it uses a particular form of showing and/or telling called aesthetic form,
which is referred to as that which pleases our senses.
Second, it not only utilises aesthetic form
but unites it with our emotional and psychological experiences,
that is to say, with the needs and wants of our psyche’s values,
our craving to comprehend life, our desires for security, peace and wellbeing.
Through the choice of content, united with aesthetic form and the artist’s values,
a unique thing – a work of art - is created.
To be a work of art it must give birth to beauty
which can happen if the aesthetic form is coupled with the content
in a way that an audience can emotionally access it,
and if it contains some recognisable truths of one’s social/personal condition
at that moment in history.
Truth can be defined as meanings and conclusions drawn from the work
somehow make sense to the viewer’s understanding of reality.
THE DISINTERESTED AUDIENCE
But why then do so many individuals
prefer banal entertainment to thought-provoking art?
To answer this question, one must ask
“why do they believe what they believe to be true is true?”
This is not asking why their truth is truer than someone else’s truth;
it’s asking them to search the roots of their own beliefs.
One soon sees those roots are wrapped in the tendrils of their own and other’s values.
They are likely desiring freedom,
opportunity, a chance to get ahead, fairness, kindness,
perhaps centred in love for others and for life.
But they may also come to understand that some of their values
have been insinuated into their beings by endless repetition
from teachers, news readers, politicians, workmates and friends.
That is, they may come to recognise that their truth is actually someone else’s truth imposed upon them.
We are not born with a set of fixed beliefs,
we are taught our beliefs.
In whose interests are you taught one way of thinking rather than another?
Throughout history it has always been to he who pays the piper.
We are taught a belief system in school and ‘proper’ ways to behave.
We are taught to not be curious, to not be creative, to not question.
We are ignored by the overworked teachers.
We are taught to stand in line, to be quiet, to look straight ahead…
we are taught to be obedient
so we may serve the manager, the Sargent or the social worker
always with our heads referentially bowed.
We are not taught problem solving.
We are not taught critical thinking
as it leads to dangerous critical questions.
We are not taught to love and admire art,
to embrace learning and book reading,
we are taught to not admire bright people.
We are taught to believe in a particular God.
We are taught that our country and our race is superior to all others.
We are taught that within our social class we should have certain expectations,
and we are taught that the children of the wealthy are entitled.
We are taught that we must contribute to the commonwealth
and we must accept that most of us will not be able to access
most of what we contribute.
Underlying what we learn is the belief in nationalism, sexism, classism and racism.
These are dark holes in the sheer fabric of our humanity.
Our people do not write and publish the school text books.
Our people do not sit on the boards of corporations.
Our people cannot access the many privileges and perks freely available
unless they are members of the wealthy class.
We are brought up in a popular culture,
a manufactured culture
which is strictly controlled by their editors, publisher, producers and gallery curators.
These collectively create what has been named false consciousness -
in which one is led to believe that what is clearly bad for one, is best for one.
We are continually surrounded by the news mediated by their reporters,
their editors, their managers and of course by the choices of multibillionaire owners,
or by the bureaucratic servants of the state.
A whole culture has been contrived around consumption.
We have been encouraged to define ourselves less as producers then as consumers,
less by the history of all, then by the psychology of our isolated selves,
and we now care less for our loved ones and our community than for ourselves,
and our houses are no longer an album of our family’s story and dreams,
but of its bricks and mortar financial value.
Their ‘free market is only free for them.
Our democracy is owned and operated by their selected few from the ‘best schools’.‘Our’ elected politicians serve those who pay their election funding,
not we the voters.
THE FIVE PRISONS
The vast majority of people live within five overlapping, invisible prisons of servitude.
*There are prisons of Manufactured Consent
created out of their chosen images, words and domineering wants.
*There are prisons of Materialism,
where people are led to believe that consumption of things
is more valuable than kindness, love, helpfulness and caring selflessly for others.
*There are prisons of impoverishment from poor education, low pay and high rents, expensive food and mortgages, never-never credit card interest and education debts
which create what contemporary economists call Wage Slavery,
in which people have very little accumulated personal wealth,
living from pay check to pay check.
*There are the prisons of poor ultra-processed food and poorer health care
where the undereducated become victims of misinforming food advertising
and their consumption of unhealthy food like substances
leading to obesity and poor health.
*There are prisons of emptied souls
left bereft of meaningful work, experiences or relations,
left bereft of hopes and dreams for becoming something, for being or doing good,
all of this leading to escapism in gaming, drugs and drink,
leading to hopelessness and finally to nihilism and suicides
or other self-destructive behaviour.
And there is another even more pernicious prison of solastalgia
in which people feel helpless and hopeless
in the face of arbitrary corporate and government policies,
as the climate crisis destroys their environments and homes.
All of this encourages thoughtlessness
because responding with reason and fact is far more tiring and difficult
than relying upon one’s emotional responses.
The invisible walls of these prisons bend people into the twisted shape of allegiance,
emotional acceptance and even gratitude for the toys they receive from their masters
in the midst of their empty lives while they survive in a state of unfreedom.
UNCOMFORTABLE FACTS
And just to consider for a moment that in the UK:
*over 4 million children go to bed every night improperly fed;
*the biggest killer of males under the age of 35 is now suicide;
*there is a rising number of children in care, now 404, 310;
*since 2010 the number of homeless people has rise 74%;
*over 700,000 individuals and 5000 NHS staff members rely on foodbanks;
*over 36,000 teachers have left the profession since 2013;
and meanwhile unnecessary austerity has closed schools, hospitals,
libraries, youth centres
and stripped down the numbers of police, firefighters, hospital staff,
Home office workers, etc because the billionaires and the CEO’s and bankers
resent having to contribute to the welfare state,
even while they create the needs for the welfare state.
The 1% billionaire class is $2.6 trillion richer than before the pandemic,
and 63% of post pandemic inflation is down to increased corporate profits,
meaning price gouging.
The above facts surround us and affect the quality of our lives,
of our ability to be truly happy knowing what is happening to others,
purely because of greed on the billionaire’s part,
on the lust for power by politicians
and from our own inability to confront either group
because we are not only surrounded by the sorrow they create
but by the lies we are fed day-by-day.
This then begins to address the need for art and the high culture,
which there will be more of next week.
NEXT WEEK, WRITING FROM ALBANIA proposed answers.
I want to remind people of my film THIS GOOD EARTH, about climate change and yes, unfairness and criminality in the food industry.