Creativity in Chains.

I work and have worked with a lot of aspiring, frustrated, and closet artists. Musician, photographers, painters, writers, you name it. And the reason why these people are aspiring, frustrated, and closeted is because society (and government) does not support artists or art enough for people to make a living at it. This marks the beginning of the fall of western civilization. An environment where profit takes precedence of performance. Where cost effectiveness takes precedence over creativity. Imagination should be at the top of the endangered species list. Sure, like any oppressed movement there are a few holdouts. TV channels like IFC, Sundance, Trio, and Ovation. Publications like the New Yorker, Atlantic Monthly, American Poetry Review, and Lake Effect magazine (It’s good and it’s local, so I threw it in!) Ok, maybe there are more holdouts than I thought but that’s not the point. Today’s bible thumping, right wing spread, cast of a shadow of repression over any idea other than their own society views art as a wimp. A wimp that, “Yes, if you must indulge in it go ahead. We can’t stop you…yet. But don’t spend too long in there and get right back to church!” Most people today don’t understand there is a connection between progress of a society and progress in the Arts. The age of Pericles was also the age of Phidias. The age of Lorenzo de Medici was also the age of Leonardo Da Vinci. The age of Elizabeth was the age of Shakespeare (a quote from “The West Wing”.) The age of George W. Bush is the age of who or what? A boulder carved in the shape of the 10 Commandments? Europe and Japan are spending billions on the arts. The United States is barely spending millions. I ask you, who seems to have progressed more as a society? Culturally and technologically America hasn’t stepped forward, we’ve fallen back. Today’s American society has wrapped chains around creativity and inspiration. In turn those “threats to our moral fiber” have been replaced with old fashion ideals and stagnant thought.

The Arts were just the beginning. They'll be coming after Science next. Wait a minute…