tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6026109189953131377.post2967424749169487182..comments2023-10-01T11:22:42.426+01:00Comments on The Commonty: The Future of The CommontyThe Commontyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11779226061470567913noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6026109189953131377.post-16077845731143082812015-04-27T16:21:00.085+01:002015-04-27T16:21:00.085+01:00ART WITHIN CAPITALISM AND THE COMMON GOOD. We all ...ART WITHIN CAPITALISM AND THE COMMON GOOD. We all love to be inspired, by beauty, passions, by art. But within capitalism, art cannot be enjoyed by all, it is exclusive. How many homeless people or foodbank users go to galleries except to sneak a look in the bins.? The primary function of an artist from an economic perspective is to add value with no regard to social oucomes. The artist may wish this not to be the case and may try to raise deeper social issues for the genuine benefit of the common person but the corporate machine is both subtle and powerful in disempowering any such messages for the common good. Is art to benefit one's self or to better the world? I would argue the latter. For if not then it has no value at all.<br /><br />'The good we secure for ourselves is precarious and uncertain until it is secured for all of us and incorporated into our <br /><br />common life'. Jane Addams<br /><br />There are very real national and global socio economic issues at play currently, ideological austerity for example, the <br /><br />increasing inequality creating homelessness, underemployment, poverty wages, necessity for food banks, an entire underclass <br /><br />of poverty to support a comfortable middle class and a ruthless super elite. Jane Addams considerations are about equality <br /><br />and life's value, pertinent to today. But where is the art shining the light, brandishing the truth to power in the interests of <br /><br />those that are excluded by those subtle but powerful mechanisms to maintain the inequality? Art devoid of the social <br /><br />imperative is a poor reflection on society. She goes on to say.<br /><br />'We have learned to say that the good must be extended to all of society before it can be held secure by any one person or any one class. But we have not yet learned to add to that statement, that unless all [people] and all classes contribute to a good, we cannot even be sure that it is worth having'. Jane Addams<br /><br />While an artist or any individual sits comfortably in their capitalist success, charging exclusively and perhaps uncomfortably ignoring the inequality that ravages our world, in the very system that brings that success, their art is devoid of meaning or worth to the common good.<br /><br />I recommend a revolution. But in the mean time, THE ARTIST TAXI DRIVER expresses my anger quite adequately.<br /><br />Michael RiddleAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com