Value Systems

Quasi stream-of-consciousness philosophical / social / political musings and a brief update on art output. 

Quasi stream-of-consciousness philosophical / social / political musings

Christina and I had an interesting conversation the other day which centered on the idea of different value systems. The kind of behavior that Person 1 thinks should, and would naturally cause Person 2 to shrink in guilt and shame, might in fact make Person 2 glow with pride because these two people subscribe to totally different value systems. The behavior of, for instance, a CEO of a pharmaceutical company implicated in the opioid epidemic makes for an extreme but therefore highly illustrative example. (Person 1 thinks "how can that CEO even sleep at night!?" while the CEO (Person 2) thinks "Fuck yeah, I made it to the top! The good life!") I guess this gets to the core of different political systems as well. A person who leans towards Democratic Socialism… or the idea that everyone should have a reasonably equal quality of life and that those who can't manage that quality of life on their own should have ample access to a robust social safety net… has a very different value system than a person who believes that all of life is one big competition, and the point of it is to win… or to have a better life than everyone else around you. So, I’m not really saying anything new here, but Free Market Capitalism and Democratic Socialism arise out of very different value systems… And I’m speaking about value systems in the human sense, or the moral sense. (I think it's worth noting that people living under Scandinavian-style Democratic Socialism are MUCH happier than those living under Free Market Capitalism). And going back to an old theme of mine, I just can’t help but wonder how much of this is rooted in psychology. It just wouldn’t surprise me if most of it arises out of formative life experience. For instance… and this is obviously a simplification… a person who grows up in poverty or in other kinds of challenging circumstances might gravitate towards a "Winner Take All" worldview, becoming a venture capitalist or something of the sort, and never sparing a second thought for those less fortunate than him. "Social Justice" might be a fundamentally meaningless term to a person like that. On the other hand a person raised to believe that everyone is equal and has a fair right to the good life… (and it might even be necessary for the functionality of my example that this theoretical person might himself or herself have been raised in comparative comfort)… such a person would understand the term and concept of "social justice" as an integral part of the way the world should be, and would fight to make that world real. It's fascinating to think of all these adult actors on the world stage (by which I mean pretty much every grownup) just directly acting out the unexamined consequences of their childhoods, and unconsciously shaping the world.

This might feel like a jump… the thematic link might seem tenuous… but I can’t help thinking about the comparative prevalence of religion between a place such as Scandinavia and another place such as the United States, or for that matter some parts of South America or Africa. In Scandinavia, religion is a mere formality. Almost no one actually believes in it… it’s just a ritualized vestige of the way that culture has evolved over the last thousand years. Whereas in the United States or South America or Africa, religion is quite prevalent.… and not just as a formality. People really believe. Now what is the difference between these two places? In Scandinavia, the government and the concomitant social safety net is highly developed. Peoples' basic needs are met by the society in which they live. So therefore, they do not need the supportive myth of a God who will make this life bearable, and then give them an even better life after they die. But in places like the US, South America, Africa, and others, there is no social safety net. People must struggle and fight just to have a decent life, and the government, gutted as it is by years of unchecked capitalism and/or mismanagement, is almost wholly incapable of taking care of its people. So religion plays an incredibly important role in the lives of these people… steeping them in the message that someone does actually give a shit about them (even if that caring someone is an imaginary bearded patriarch up in the sky), and that their lives will finally be better after death. 

Nietzsche would be appalled. Or maybe I’m wrong about that…maybe he would just have a good laugh. 

(I believe that there is an incredible hubris underpinning the idea that our human consciousnesses must persist after death. Consciousness seems to me to clearly be a product of biology (after all, my consciousness apparently did not exist before my biology grew up to support it [reincarnation enthusiasts might disagree!]), so why would we believe that consciousness would persist after the supporting biology fails? It's as if we humans are so impressed with ourselves that the idea of our consciousness dying when we do is just offensive! Again, hubris. Do animals go to heaven? The same heaven? Or a separate one?)

If you think about it, the progress towards Democratic Socialism and the progress towards a post-racist society have a lot in common. Both Democratic Socialism and race-blindness are obviously the more morally defensible positions, and progress towards these goals is obviously something worth fighting for. And yet the fights for these worthwhile goals both proceed haltingly at best because of the powerful vested interests which stand to lose their time-honored positions of advantage. After hundreds of years on top, there are signs that Whitey might be starting to lose it, and He doesn’t like it so he’s fighting back. In my opinion this is the core appeal of Trump and other fascists and aspiring fascists like him: “Make America (or Italy or Germany or Spain or Hungary) Great Again!” (for those of us who have traditionally been the privileged class).

I think the race situation in this country is poisoned by the legacy of slavery… poisoned in a 1000 year kind of way. Black people are forever angry about that inexcusable and horrendous history; white people are terrified of that righteous anger and the result of that fear is institutionalized and structural racism designed to keep Black people from getting a foot up; and this just adds more fuel to the fire of black anger. It’s hard to see how that situation can resolve itself. On the other hand it's really not too hard to see these forces ripping the country apart.

A brief update on art output

I came across an interesting bit of research last week. It's easy to find online summaries of the research article - one is here - but the basic idea is this: A researcher wanted to understand if there was any discernible or predictable pattern underlying the idea of a "hot streak," or a period of prolific and/or successful professional / artistic output. An example of a hot streak would be the four years that Jackson Pollock spent making his "drip paintings." Pollock's hot streak was so hot, in fact, that most people don't know he did anything else, but he only produced that type of work for four years. 

So the researcher (Dashun Yang) used artificial intelligence to comb through the careers of more than 26,000 artists, film directors, and scientists (it's already interesting, right?) to look for hot streak patterns. The resulting discovery was that hot streaks are almost invariably preceded by periods of meandering experimentation with diverse ideas or styles. This preceding period is referred to in the study as "exploration." The study continues by noting that the periods of exploration naturally give way to periods of "exploitation" in which the artist, film director, or scientist in question narrows in on one element that has emerged from the exploration as the one idea that he or she feels strongly enough about to pursue. This one idea is then exploited through deep focus and dedication, and the result is... a hot streak. Again, think back to Jackson Pollock whose four years of drip paintings were preceded by many years of meandering through a variety of more traditional approaches.

I can only surmise that I am in a period of exploration. I have historically, in my life, been the type of person to always finish what I start. But lately I have been more likely to begin a project, only to lose interest or focus before finishing. I'm not too proud of this; it's not a pattern I admire in others. None of these projects are officially abandoned, they are just "on hold" until I get back to them. And I usually do get back to them. But perhaps, as I mentioned, this is what exploration looks like. (Of course, I could just be "losing it," and finding comfort in the results of this fancy study I've stumbled upon!) However I do have a sense that something new might be around the corner. I've proven (to myself) that I can oil paint and draw the human figure; I've proven that I can sculpt in clay, that I can make and modify clothing, that I can metal fabricate and design mechanisms and work in hydraulics and other forms of power transmission. I've shown that I can dream up big projects, manage them to completion, and then move them around the world to where they are wanted. I can do all these things, and yet... I don't know which of them I actually care about enough to pursue deeply. I keep thinking there might be a synthesis of these disparate threads... a project or direction that could tie all these things together into something new and interesting, something I'd feel really invested in. But I'm not sure what it is yet and I guess I need to keep exploring.

(The elephant in the room might be tying the first half of this blog post together with the second half. Maybe it's time to envision some socially relevant art. I find that I am more interested in introspective, self-analytical art, and I often experience socially relevant art as preachy and self-righteous. But who knows. Maybe... just maybe...)

Meanwhile, there are two large sculptural projects that I've been nursing along for quite some time... projects I actually DO care about, even though they are pretty much straightforward metal work... about which I am cautiously hopeful. If the cards line up, it seems I might be able to build them between now and Fall 2022. So that is good news! One is a large female robot figure, and the other is... I can't talk about it because I've submitted it as a proposal for funding by Burning Man and I don't want to jinx it! Suffice to say that it is, in some sense, the "optimistic" obverse of ENDGAME. In any case, it would be cool if I got to build them both. What a turnaround from the last few years that would be!

Oh, and I submitted, for the first time, one of my paintings for consideration in a gallery show. Unfortunately it's sort of a COVID era show - online only. But the theme of the show is Emotions and I submitted a painting that fits pretty well...

...so I'm cautiously optimistic.

I mentioned earlier that I count clay sculpture among my skills... and I feel I should post at least one picture of something I haven't posted before, so here is an (unfinished) sculpture I have been working on intermittently:

It's fun. I enjoy it. 

Some positive feedback, with regard to not only the sculpture but the paintings and other stuff as well, would be probably be nice. But for that, I would have to A) finish the damn work, and B) get out from under my rock and show some people. There is no real community here in Taos, in the sense of artists gathering together to work, help each other, and create opportunities. We found that kind of community in Berlin, and it was great. Maybe it's just a feature of cities. Maybe just European cities?

Living in Taos is like non-stop pioneering. 

(I could go on and on... once I start writing I just think of more and more things to write. But this might be enough for now.)

Cheers