We Need More Artists

It’s hard for me to write on the weekend. I have husband and son to occupy my time and keep me happy. It is easier to write when you’re frustrated with something or excited about something. Then it just comes out. Also there is no Facebook to piss me off while I’m taking a break from the 24 hours news cycle. Just watched some amazing hilarious cartoons. It’s the little things. Some people still make art, even in this world. 

I wish I could be funny about this shit. Sometimes I am. Most of the time it’s just so obvious how horrible things are and how little we can do. Except, we can enjoy things. Even when we aren’t making drastic changes, every moment we choose whether to be happy or calm. Active or not. Some activities are more valuable than others. But maybe time spent cuddling in front of television programs or movies wouldn’t be wasted if it was full of art instead of advertising dollars and objectification. 

I’m not against art, but all the good jobs that pay enough to afford shelter, bills, and food take our art and turn it into bureaucracy. The artists need to take back the culture. Every breakthrough in creative science requires artistry. We enjoy carefully crafted High Definition television and bright crisp advertisements. We have a need for input. For art which is language that communicates messages from other people that we will never fully understand. We will read what they say, and see what they draw, or film or sing, or engineer, and we still will never fully understand someone else’s life from their perspective. 

Computers and robots can take care of the monotony now. We need to learn how to use our cooperation and differences to make the most out of life for every man. We need to recycle and respect property and the metals and minerals we need to keep the cycle of life going. We need to respect how much energy we have tied up, how much water is in water bottles on shelves that should be in the cycle, how many gases and oils caught up in unnatural shapes. We will eventually have a finite number of resources on this planet; it is not the needs of the many keeping us slaves to consumption. 

The world has plenty for us. Especially with the more we learn. We have ways we could be maximizing life and science and learning the unimaginable to us now. Instead we are letting the extravagant needs of a few forces the rest of us to always struggle instead of contributing what we are worth. We never get to fully utilize our potential. These menial tasks take up most of our time. 

Why does anyone still have any paperwork? We should still write letters. They are tangible hand written art to someone. Calligraphy is to practice ancient hand-writings but some day our hand-writings will be ancient. What if someday you text it all? Children still do a ton of paperwork in school. Millions of massacred forests. Why not use hemp to make the paper and use APPs more often than dittos. 

Penmanship should be a skill and an art still learned, but much of what they do could just be done with one simple computer they all got on their first day of school. The forests we could save, consolidating all the paperwork. It has started but we need to accelerate the process. 

We can do so much better than a lot of the usual behaviors we are accustomed to. It’s time to forget the fucking box. Don’t step outside it. It doesn’t even exist. Throw away all the rules, except for, if it doesn’t feel good don’t do it. We need to avoid the adrenaline, or anxiety that we are all addicted to. 

What makes you feel good? What makes you relax? Looking at other people’s YouTube and cat meme art? Instantly connecting with friends because of social networking? Never truly feeling alone even when you really wish for it sometimes. 

There was a time when everyone was feeling alone and isolated. It has only started to change recently. This generation will be plugged in probably much sooner than any of us parents are going to like or are willing to admit. It takes over a little more of every generation. I had a LiveJournal before the word for it was even “to blog”. That shit wasn’t even a a noun or verb yet. I never said I had a blog, or I blogged, or I was a blogger. It wasn’t even a word yet in the average person’s vernacular. 

We were out there from the time we were teenagers. How will any millennial ever run for political office? We need a better measure of people than their hidden or fake persona. We need a new set of rules about what areas of people’s lives are off limits when it comes to what they are good at running or making decisions about, or performing. People's personal lives shouldn't be trash news fodder. We have real issues to address. 

Our social boundaries of judgment are out of whack. Photographers don’t want to invade people’s lives. The paparazzi shouldn't exist. There is enough to see that we are willing to share without anyone feeling violated. No one is perfect. We need people of merit to do the things they are best at. Figure out what you’re best at. And do it.We need more artists.