ARTFUNK:

The proper function of art is not to be progressive, advancing human society towards some final objective or providing a steady flow of revolution and reform to keep restlessness at bay. The proper function of art is to act as an expression of universal human truths that each generation rediscovers time and time again, often one individual at a time. Considering this, the entire meme of progress appears rather absurd. The human condition remains the same at its most fundamental level; only external diversions in culture seek to suppress this. The same threats that man and woman encountered four hundred years ago remain imminent today. The role of the artist was to arm the mind against these forces, so that the tragedy depicted in the work of art would remain a work of fiction. The great geniuses were always edgy, defying the timeless tendency towards egoism in all its forms by pushing the envelope. This egoism includes the tendency to take offense, especially when none is intended. In previous generations, men like Mozart, Handel, and Joyce could get away with overstepping boundaries and blazing trails, not because they were the products of a liberal scene (which was not the case) but rather because they did not rely too heavily upon the opinion of the common peasant, often depending instead upon the patronage of a wealthy benefactor who recognized their genius, however grudgingly. Today, art is disguised as policy and reform. Works are only considered relevant in so far as they break ground, but not because they reaffirm values which are more fundamental and timeless than the status quo at present. Men like Shakespeare and Kafka are esteemed because they allowed for certain liberties that have been taken for granted today, yet that is not what made these men so great. Rather, it’s that they were not afraid to TAKE those liberties as means towards another end: that of expressing a Truth. Truth has been reduced to a political and linguistic construct, comparable to propaganda and almost invariably synonymous with it. But what Faulkner observed was not of relevance because of its relationship to Fascism; rather, he saw the world through an exceptionally, breathtakingly keen lens that has not been tarnished over time. Time is the enemy; eternity is the goal. The problems of our contemporary culture are twofold, both derived from “progressive thought”: on one end, works that are OFFENSIVE are repressed, not under conservative auspices, but rather under LIBERAL auspices, barring any serious consideration for their liberal value by contrast with the egoism and complacency of dogmatic “liberal” critics, who saturate the consuming public. On the other end, if a work is not progressive and liberal ENOUGH, there is no audience for it, and it can only be progressive and liberal insofar as it appeals to trends within groups. Our society has not become more free and progressive by seeking to dissolve tradition; it has confined us to redundancy. In democratizing culture, it has allowed culture to kill genius.

Dm.A.A.