An artist friend sent me an email bemoaning the “stupidity” of people that fuels the culture wars. I couldn’t argue. He then sent a followup describing how it had done him good to visit the studio of one of his old colleagues where they’d talked about art and not at all about the insanity that is going on around us. He suggested, “Maybe art is the secret weapon against stupidity.”
That seemed to make sense, but I thought about it a little and concluded my friend’s wide education and deep understanding about art, his lack of “stupidity,” enabled him to discuss a more interesting and important subject than those that comprise the endless squabbles most people are caught up in.
The flash points of the culture war revolve around issues that are simplistic and could mostly be resolved with a big dose of education and analytical thinking. The fights they provoke are indeed stupid and unnecessary.
Consider the issues that drive the culture war and how education would prevent the stupid arguments around them:
Religion: Religion is merely an accident of birth. It is impressed involuntarily on children who lack the logical thinking to question it and fixes itself in a part of the brain that is immune to logic. A well educated person will study all major religions and see that while the mythologies and customs differ, all are mostly in agreement about what is right and what is wrong. Religious adherents are free to make choices guided by their religions, but have no right to coerce others to accept their myths, dogmas, customs and strictures. Really. What’s there to fight about?
Abortion: Abortion before “quickening,” long considered the beginning of life and occurring at between 4-5 months, was legal well before and during the 18th century when the Constitution was written. It didn’t become criminalized until the mid to late 19th century when Victorian standards held sway. Previously common and well accepted, it was stigmatized by this criminalization. The Constitution in its original form does not ban it. Originalists in the Supreme Court erroneously claimed that opposition to abortion is “deeply rooted” in the traditions of the nation. In fact it is not. Opposition is deeply rooted only in their personal opinions, not in the document they are entrusted to interpret.
Guns: Common sense dictates nobody needs a weapon of war except the military. Common sense being a scarce commodity, however, a ban on automatic weapons must depend upon how the Second Amendment is interpreted. The “visionaries” in our Supreme Court have made it clear that all such interpretation must be “originalist.” This is also quite stupid, but, OK, let’s go “original.” The only weapons available in the 1780s were single shot flintlocks. There was no standing army. Volunteer militia members had to bring their own weapons to the battle. The Constitution, taken as written, allows for the right to possess such weapons, the only kind of weapons then in existence, for the express purpose of forming militias. Even putting militias aside, the Founders defined weapons as flint lock firearms with short range and lousy aim. We can all agree ownership of such weapons should not be infringed. Nor should ownership of powder horns and flints. (Maybe the Court should abolish the armed forces since there is no provision for them in the original document. But they don’t need to. They have Tommy Tuberville doing it for them.)
Race: Study of medical anatomy and physiology reveals that race is merely a matter of skin color gradation and some minor differences in bone structure having nothing to do with the basic humanity common to all of us. End of story.
Immigration: Study of American history reveals we were all immigrants to this country and every group has served to make it a better one. We need more immigrants in order to build and grow and to have a work force for all the nasty jobs nobody else wants to do. We have always initially opposed immigration by new groups until, eventually, we accepted them.
Money, taxes, etc: Study of economics and business records clearly show that the wealthy industrialists rake in tens and hundreds of millions of dollars in personal income a year. They own many homes, sometimes whole islands, many luxury cars, boats, airplanes, and individual pieces of jewelry that cost more than their workers earn in a lifetime. All they need do is take a measly few million less out of their profits for themselves and apply it to paying workers a decent wage and reducing prices. While they’re at it they could also pay their fair share of taxes. They would still live the same lavish lifestyle, having more money than the average person can even imagine, but the rest of us poor slobs would feel less impoverished and not be so overly focused on money when we vote.
Such minor and, at root, simple issues are blown out of proportion. They are what people focus on, because most lack the education to appreciate truly fascinating subjects such as art. There is so much to learn about science, mathematics, history, religion, music, literature, poetry and philosophy. These are what’s worth discussing, but we can’t pursue or discuss what we are ignorant of.
The pursuit of knowledge can enrich life and bring people together, but our nation does not value education. As a result our citizens do not value the humanities. We do not educate our students in subjects of higher learning, and we do not encourage their intellectual curiosity and creativity. We feed them facts (many of them non-factual) and do not teach them how to think. As a result there is widespread ignorance that my artist friend labeled “stupidity.” Individual lives and our collective culture are much the poorer for this.
Though art (as a paradigm for higher learning in general) may well be the secret weapon against stupidity, one must first be able to understand it, appreciate it, ponder it.
In this respect my friend is on to a good point, but his statement perhaps could be reworded to: “Stupidity is the not-so-secret weapon against art.”
Two constants in history are conflict and universal ignorance. War has always defined human existence. War is easy. Learning and thinking are difficult. It is easier for people to be stupid and angry, especially when they lack the opportunity or the intellectual tools one requires in order to learn and to think. They are kept this way for a purpose. Their stupidity and anger serve to pit them against each other rendering them controllable by power mongers and the greedy few.
As long as we remain in the anti-intellectual climate that has always characterized our culture, our stupidity will lead us to stupid discord and stupid wars. Conflict over petty issues leads only to wasting time, resources and lives over petty squabbles that interfere with the development of a deeper appreciation of what life is really all about and of what makes it worth living.
An Author's Inner Mind 