The Role of
Intellectuals and Artists in Social and Political Issues.
When we live
in a time of great social change and dysfunction, there is a moral obligation
to express dissatisfaction publicly. We need at times to expose deficient ideas
and questionable policy, and take up unpopular positions.
Currently,
there seems to me to be far too much political correctness, it is as though
ideas may no longer be debated in a rational and impartial way. Any descent
from the official or accepted line is considered irrational. Yet, over the
centuries thinkers and artists have express contrary viewpoints to the accepted
behaviour of their day, and through their efforts achieved some success in
creating a better world. Political correctness may of course address certain
issues, generally minority ones in various societies, and I have no argument
with the need to address such concern, but fair aesthetic and social concepts
for certain groups may have adverse effects on the population at large.
The concepts
of philosophers, artists, and thinkers have over the centuries raised many
social, legal, and economic issues in need of reform, however for their insight
to have impact it is necessary to tread the middle ground. Socrates encouraged
his followers to think problems through, but accepted that the Athenian citizens
had to introduce the necessary changes themselves, and not have them imposed
from outside. Whether we are discussing Rousseau, Goethe or Russian novelists,
the package is the important thing. Thinkers have to engage the public with new
ideas, whether it is slavery, both physical or economic for only then may improvement be made. The important point
being that their ideas be separate from official government policy,
otherwise it will be treated as propaganda.
The Russian
novelists Tolstoy and Dostoevsky are a good case in point, would their social
agenda have had the same impact if it had not been clothed in fictional
storytelling. Confining themselves to the use of fiction they were able to
maintain their purity and integrity in a powerful way. Tolstoy’s literal
writing on social issues did not engage in the same manner as his fiction does.
The greater the artistic and scholarly quality of the work the greater its
influence and the more likely meaningful solutions will be found. Often with
the demise of spiritual belief people are left founding in a vacuum, searching
for the meaning of life in a world were the pursuit of material things has
swamped our values. Happiness is an internal state of mind.
Unfortunately
too many visual artists today rely too much on technique to gain attention,
rather than develop original content. This is a pity for it contributes nothing
as to where the world needs to move from here. There are serious problem aboard
in need of solutions. Half the world seems to be searching for a better life, a
utopia somewhere else other than were they were born. There is a raise in
extreme right-wing political thought throughout the world, which if history teaches
us anything generally leads to some form of dictatorship. Somehow we need to
find new ways of doing things. Whether people are sufficiently engaged in serious
intellectual thought remains to be seen, but one issue is only too plain for
everyone to see, far more thought needs to be undertaken before action takes
place.
