well... (Off-Topic)

by Kermit , Raleigh, NC, Thursday, December 08, 2022, 22:23 (715 days ago) @ Cody Miller
edited by Kermit, Thursday, December 08, 2022, 22:35

Individual works of art can change the world.

Citation needed.

And I never said individuals can't change the world. They can if they mobilize enough people to change the power structures.

Let's see. You've said:

We CAN'T see the true evil in the world, much less defeat it.

And art exists only to ...

Control.

Because ...

the system

(whatever that is)

will always co-opt art for its own purposes..

art can't inspire us to change because...

asking individuals to change never works.

But now you say you didn't say individuals can't change the world, but they can if they mobilize enough people to ...

change the power structure.

And the circle is complete. This is precisely why I said using the word system was a conversation ender, because any assertion made thereafter can be challenged by some variation of that abstraction, which could mean anything you want it to mean. Even as you admit that people can effect change, you want to take the people out of it, and make it about power structures.

You always have interesting things to say, Cody, and I know you do creative work, which is why this thread is so disappointing to me. Of course individual works of art can change the world--it's just astounding to me that you don't think so. I'll give one example in your domain. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest changed the world. Without that movie, for better or worse, it would be much easier to institutionalize the mentally ill today.

Countless volumes have been written describing how works of art changed the world. I just read a book that described how individual works of literature changed the world. I can't get my head around this being a debatable proposition.