Nature of consciousness

[Eric the Green]

(11-16-2018, 10:03 AM)Bill the Piper Wrote:

(11-15-2018, 01:38 PM)Eric the Green Wrote: The contrary point to that is that in earlier times than today, most people were poor. Today, whatever inequalities may exist, most people are richer than most people were hundreds of years ago. And yet the art produced by earlier civilizations was vastly superior to the trash that passes for art today. Economic growth seems to have, if anything, a negative effect on art. What counts is whether society values the arts or not. Our society values tech and money over art.

The art of the past eras was enjoyed only by the aristocrats who were absurdly rich and did not have to work.

That is true. And now the common people can enjoy that art. Too bad our own people don't make art anywhere near as good.

And the common people in many cultures were also artists and craftspeople, and they made and enjoyed their own art, even though they were poor. People in many poor cultures make beautiful folk and religious art and architecture. Europe, South Asia and the Orient is full of it, everywhere you go. The descendants of the Mayans and Incas still make it. Even in the Dark Ages in Europe, they did. And many great artists and craftsmen were supported and employed by the barbarian chiefs, kings, priests and aristocrats. The common people experienced it in their churches and temples, and learned from it. Plays, music and later literature were made available to them. We today do not think art is important; only money and tech. We have iphones, and about the only thing created today we can get on it is rap and pop. We have TVs and netflex, and all we get are lousy shows. There is good contemporary arts around, but you have to search the fringes to find it; it is not valued by our society. So, we are missing a source of truth and connection to life.

We could do great things in the arts as well as in science and tech today, if we wanted to. We have the means to do it; more than that of any other times. So why isn't there a renaissance today? Maybe because the young generations today didn't pick up the ball and run with the inspiration of the Awakening and further develop it, but threw it over instead. It's a common problem among generations today and the gaps between them. And the general commercial and tech orientation of our society works against real arts and connection to life. We are interested in means to the end, not the ends. We want more "bread" even though we almost all of us have enough.

Modern society is better than ancient and medieval in many ways, but don't be deceived that it is better in all ways. Humans tend to forget as much as they learn, and that's very true of the USA.