From: ibshambat@gmail.com   
      
   One claim constantly made about artistically inclined people is that they lack   
   realism. My response to that is that reality of human world is what people   
   make of it; and such things are only unrealistic if people choose to make them   
   so.   
      
   If something is not in demand, then those who are willing to supply it either   
   go starving or have to do something else. The problem is not with those who   
   are willing to form the supply, but with those who undermine the demand. I se   
   no reason at all why    
   America, with 300 million people and per capita GDP of $50,000 a year, should   
   have less good art than Renaissance Italy, with 3 million people and per   
   capita GDP of $1,500 a year. The problem is not with realism or lack of   
   realism. The problem is one of    
   values. Clearly there have been times in history in which it was completely   
   realistic to produce and distribute art. And the times and places where that   
   was the case are the times and places to which we continue to look back now.   
      
   So now we’ve come to a completely ridiculous point: Seeing artistic interest   
   as psychopathology. You might as well say that it’s pathological to want to   
   make money or to worship God. Treating such things as a psychopathology takes   
   more resources than    
   it would take to allow such people to be artists, and it does not produce any   
   kind of benefit.   
      
   There have been times in American history when that was not the attitude. In   
   1920s there was a magnificent artistic blossoming even at the same time as   
   there was a great economic boom. Economic prosperity and artistic blossoming   
   coexisted. They worked    
   together with one another. And it was in this time – one that combined   
   economic prosperity with artistic excellence – that America became the   
   greatest country in the world.   
      
   This means the following. Not only is it completely realistic to produce –   
   and consume – art, but doing so is fully consistent with America’s values   
   and America’s greatness. It is not for “snobs” or “liberal elites”   
   or “pretentious    
   Europeans.” It is something that has been done by patriotic Americans at the   
   time that America rose to its greatest glory. It is fully realistic, as well   
   as completely American, to produce and to consume art. The problem is lack of   
   demand. The solution    
   is increasing the demand while also producing supply of good art that people   
   want to buy.   
      
   Ilya Shambat    
   https://sites.google.com/site/ilyashambatthought   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)