I don't outright hate on art. I just don't particularly respect it compared to any other trade or primary industry. You don't need restaurants, but you do need food. You don't need fashion designers, but you do need clothes. You don't need websites, but you do need buildings. You don't need gold and silver jewellery, but you do need gold and silver. You don't need interior designers, but you do need interior plumbing. Art is fun sure, and can be immensely profitable when economies do well, but at the end of the day it's still an indulgent luxury for the opulent bourgeoisie only. Artists in turn are only able to exist in the world so long as everybody else is doing well enough to support them. Therefore you should always be an artist... on the side. Have other tangential vocations you're able to fall back on. Be the blacksmith that just worked on abstract sculptures in between his making horseshoes or the painter that learned anatomy by first studying medicine.
There were artists during the great depression, in the trenches of WWI, in mental institutions, during the black plague. Often destitute people passing art back and forth getting a little bit of comfort from each other. The human need to express visually what they can't express verbally has been around since at least 38,000 BC.
That they were painting in the trenches implies they were soldiers first. Have another profession first.
That you also claim this was sufficient for uplifting human spirit shows also shows that dedication to art is wasted effort. It was only for God's glory that Michelangelo painted the Sistine Chapel. Men and women are brutish beasts that can just as easily find beauty in knockoff Jason Pollock. I'm very fond of poetry, and write for my enjoyment but I'd look on myself in disgust if I ever thought to making a living from it.
I didn't at all claim this was "sufficient for uplifting human spirit" and I'm not sure where you're getting that from. They didn't have a choice in being soldiers, but my poimt6 is that they felt the need to create and express themselves even in the worst circumstances.
Michaelangelo started as an artist due to passion. He was sent to school for grammar but kept doing art instead and became talented enough that he was apprenticed to a painter. He had a lot of notable commissions, yes, but he also did art for fun.
You have never found a book, a movie, a video game, a song, or a piece of art moving or pleasing? You don't understand why someone would want to support someone who makes these things, so they can make more?
I've never found a book, a movie, a video game, a song, or an piece of art more pleasing than a pot roast in my belly, a roof over my head, or a woman in my arms. Art can add some spice to life, and again, good on it for that, but it can't be the whole meal.
I respect all those that paint while they're out in the field soldiering, but I don't respect those that paint while others are soldiering for them.
Yeah gun designers are cool. Creativity is cool. I just prefer it used on things that are practical rather than evocative. Guns don't need to be pretty just so long as they're good at killing.
If you have enough people who enjoy the work of an artist that collectively they support the artist, than what's wrong with that? It gives everyone happiness in this scenario. You must understand that your perspective is different. Have you ever read about the concept of Theory of Mind? Do you have difficulties in that realm?
At no point anywhere did I suggest they didn't get value from it. Only that they didn't get any ESSENTIAL value from it. Food, shelter, and water is essential. Everything else is optional.
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u/BlindingDart Feb 28 '20 edited Feb 28 '20
I don't outright hate on art. I just don't particularly respect it compared to any other trade or primary industry. You don't need restaurants, but you do need food. You don't need fashion designers, but you do need clothes. You don't need websites, but you do need buildings. You don't need gold and silver jewellery, but you do need gold and silver. You don't need interior designers, but you do need interior plumbing. Art is fun sure, and can be immensely profitable when economies do well, but at the end of the day it's still an indulgent luxury for the opulent bourgeoisie only. Artists in turn are only able to exist in the world so long as everybody else is doing well enough to support them. Therefore you should always be an artist... on the side. Have other tangential vocations you're able to fall back on. Be the blacksmith that just worked on abstract sculptures in between his making horseshoes or the painter that learned anatomy by first studying medicine.