For as long as man has been able to lift his head up he has expressed himself through some form of artistic practice. From cave paintings to spray painted graffiti, the desire to reach out and connect with one’s environment, community, anybody who will listen has been a basic drive in us that almost operates on an instinctual level. Like the innate drive to reproduce and to stay alive, artistic expression is at the core of who we are and what makes us distinct.

One could argue that the drive to dominate and control is also at our core. We can look to our long history and see a path of destruction that is consistent with every generation. Wars are so common that we have to assume that to fight and conquer is also part of what makes us human. So we have these contradictory impulses of creation and destruction which history shows us we cannot ignore or pretend does not exist. Are these driving forces within us in conflict? In so many ways we can see these 2 energies all around us in a constant battle back and forth. And which would you say is winning?

What is at the center of the modern civilization? What is the driving force that propels our contemporary society forward through history? It’s money. Money is an extension of power, a physical manifestation of the need to conquer and dominate. Through monetary value we can decide the fate of a country, a people, a culture. The ones who conquer are the ones who have the most money as their trophy, their standard of proof that their role as conqueror cannot be questioned. Everything can be reduced down to a monetary unit, draining all life and all value that is not aligned with monetary value. People, cultures, countries cease to exist and are replaced by numbers and rankings based on those numbers.

This applies to everything from the coffee you drink to the music you buy to the home you think you own. You go to a job that is valued based on a monetary number. Your role as an employee is valued in monetary terms. And your person becomes defined by this monetary role. If you have no monetary value, you are discarded, you are valueless, and you are human garbage to be thrown away like something broken. Money is a force of destruction. It destroys our identity, our inner-value, and consequently our soul by reducing us to a number; a number that is separate from who we are and a number that separates us from each other.

Money quantifies the conflicting forces of the world giving them the justification to invade and take the value from another to increase their own. By judging the peoples of the world in monetary terms, the path of destruction is made wide open as the goal of most valuable is spelled out in resources and control. Destroy everything that stands in your way of becoming the most valuable. Sacrifice everything to reach that goal and acquire the most value. You are separate and in competition with everything and everyone around you and cannot fail in your fight to dominate. And money is the measure of all things.

Artistic expression comes from an entirely different place. The need to create has always been there right along with the need to conquer and dominate. But the act of creation empowers our connection to the outside world and to our inside world. Unlike the forces of destruction, art bridges the gap between peoples and cultures. It places the role of value on completely different terms. Your value is measured by your contribution and your success in realizing your artistic vision. And this expression is not limited to what has been commodified as “the arts.” Artistic expression is how we tell stories, how we prepare food for our families, how we surround ourselves with the things that inspire and uplift. Artistic expression can be found everywhere. Any act of creation that gives strength to our human spirit, that connects us to the unquantifiable feeling of joy and fulfillment that our soul’s crave and need to survive. Our economic culture has done a great job of abstracting “art” into something separate from who we are, turning it into a cold, stale product that is to be admired in museums or viewed at a distance in concert halls. But it is all around us and it is a need every person has whether they acknowledge it or not.

Artistic expression cannot be reduced to a number, or unit of measure, or commodity to be bought and sold. But of course what happens? In an economic society that needs to exploit all of its resources for economic gains, art is commodified, objectified, and quantified in terms that do not apply but are forced on to it anyway. What is the economic value of a song, a ballet, a painting, a story, a woven cloth, a meal, a beautiful home? Money fails to describe the value these things have. Yet the value is there. Everything comes with a price tag, a list of assets, and a place in an arbitrary marketplace that puts music next to coffee next to desk lamps and makes no distinction between them.

The role of the artist in our society has been devalued as well. Instead of being judged by artistic merit, artists are exclusively judged by their marketability and branding opportunities. And hence the arts are drawing in more and more “artists” who are seeking out this marketability, playing the role of a salesman more than an actual artist. Art gets pushed down the list of priorities. That is not to say all artists are salesmen, but the ones who stay true to realizing their artistic vision often have to do so outside of the arts establishment and are often not rewarded or recognized in any regard.

It is clear that the arts are getting crushed under capitalism gone wild. Profit-motive has seeped into every crack of our modern lives and taken no prisoners in it’s domination of our existence. Under the current system, that is unlikely to change since the only ones who aspire to highest ranks of government and business are the ones with the most profit-motive driving their blind ambition.

So how do the arts and artists survive? Artistic expression will never go away completely. As I said earlier, people have an innate need to express themselves creatively. It will continue for as long as there are people with any thoughts in their heads. Will it ever be possible that one day the powers of creation will finally outweigh the powers of destruction and exploitation? It’s hard to imagine through the thick, oppressive fog of exploitation and immoral actions surrounding us. But it will never die and people will always find a way.

Find your way.



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