In 1945, when America dropped atomic bombs on Japanese cities roughly two hundred thousand civilians humanity as a whole took a close up look at extinction. It was the culmination of some years of stupidity but only one episode in the long frieze of human history. In recent writing by Phillip Romero the role of art in countering the dangerous twentieth century flirtation with final extinction is examined.
In the twentieth century two world wars demonstrated the insane bestiality of which human beings are capable. The atomic bombs punctuated the insanity but did not end it. The Cold War era hung over the world like a dark cloud for decades, and had it not been for the greed of communist dictators that impoverished their own people yet a third world war might have broken out, probably extinguishing civilization. In the whole scheme of things this would not have been the first time. Geological records show that plant and animal communities have often flourished on the planet and then disappeared entirely when a certain saturation point has been reached.
It was the people and not the politicians who saved the world from catastrophe during the Cold War era. Russian and Chinese people suffered terrible privations. In some cases they were reduced to eating roots and grass. Their attention was focused on survival. In the West the Hippie movement engrossed the attention of many people intent on making love and not war.
In the 1960s not everyone was a hippie. Many people held the 'flower people' in great contempt, and with justification in some cases. Drugs, free love and an indolent lifestyle were seized upon by lazy and incompetent individuals in many cases. They used the movement as an excuse for self indulgence.
Parallel with the artistically inspired fashions of the post modern era there were more conventional and convergent intellectual trends. Science and technology had made great strides on the back of war mongering. Many baby boomers did not put flowers in their hair and grow long straggly beards. Instead they labored at science, technology and business theory. They carried on believing only in what could be proved and dismissed arts and humanities students scornfully as inferior beings who did not know 'science'.
Academic disciplines are not intrinsically 'difficult' or easy. As Hamlet remarked, 'there is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so'. A mathematics course can be made very easy or very difficult and so can a course in English poetry. Leonardo da Vinci did not discriminate between 'easy' art and 'difficult' science, but appreciated the challenges in both spheres. In the Industrial Age there was an obvious demand for technicians. The need for artists might not have been so obvious but it has always been there since well before the Industrial Age.
There is quite a widespread view that the twenty-first century will be the era of the artist. Technology has made huge strides forward but has run up against environmental limitations. It has also come to the point where fields like information technology have discovered that they are not only technology, but also 'information' which is, ultimately artistic in its need for creative power.
The writings of Phillip Romero are relevant in the twenty-first century when the need for really creative solutions has become apparent. It has become imperative to search for the artistic impulses that have helped people to survive in the past and will do so in the future too.
In the twentieth century two world wars demonstrated the insane bestiality of which human beings are capable. The atomic bombs punctuated the insanity but did not end it. The Cold War era hung over the world like a dark cloud for decades, and had it not been for the greed of communist dictators that impoverished their own people yet a third world war might have broken out, probably extinguishing civilization. In the whole scheme of things this would not have been the first time. Geological records show that plant and animal communities have often flourished on the planet and then disappeared entirely when a certain saturation point has been reached.
It was the people and not the politicians who saved the world from catastrophe during the Cold War era. Russian and Chinese people suffered terrible privations. In some cases they were reduced to eating roots and grass. Their attention was focused on survival. In the West the Hippie movement engrossed the attention of many people intent on making love and not war.
In the 1960s not everyone was a hippie. Many people held the 'flower people' in great contempt, and with justification in some cases. Drugs, free love and an indolent lifestyle were seized upon by lazy and incompetent individuals in many cases. They used the movement as an excuse for self indulgence.
Parallel with the artistically inspired fashions of the post modern era there were more conventional and convergent intellectual trends. Science and technology had made great strides on the back of war mongering. Many baby boomers did not put flowers in their hair and grow long straggly beards. Instead they labored at science, technology and business theory. They carried on believing only in what could be proved and dismissed arts and humanities students scornfully as inferior beings who did not know 'science'.
Academic disciplines are not intrinsically 'difficult' or easy. As Hamlet remarked, 'there is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so'. A mathematics course can be made very easy or very difficult and so can a course in English poetry. Leonardo da Vinci did not discriminate between 'easy' art and 'difficult' science, but appreciated the challenges in both spheres. In the Industrial Age there was an obvious demand for technicians. The need for artists might not have been so obvious but it has always been there since well before the Industrial Age.
There is quite a widespread view that the twenty-first century will be the era of the artist. Technology has made huge strides forward but has run up against environmental limitations. It has also come to the point where fields like information technology have discovered that they are not only technology, but also 'information' which is, ultimately artistic in its need for creative power.
The writings of Phillip Romero are relevant in the twenty-first century when the need for really creative solutions has become apparent. It has become imperative to search for the artistic impulses that have helped people to survive in the past and will do so in the future too.
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