Replying to LO30645 --
Leo,
I believe in many possible solutions to evolution. I suspect it is both
more complex and more simple then the science indicates but I don't
believe that it is a good explanation for a wrong turn in 1883.
Somethings just have to be considered a cul-de-sac and return to a
previous point. The arts depend upon expertise developed over many years.
For that to happen the person has to be able to earn a living or the
requisite skill is not developed.
In Europe it was the consistancy of the aristocracy that gave an economic
base for the Arts to survive, today it is the Socialist answer from the
governments. In the US the wealthy people are not stable enough to
maintain a patronage base that will build a sustainable culture program.
For a truly comprehensive cultural program to evolve you need a
sustainable economic base.
It is in the exploration of the interface with the Capital Market that I
wish to explore. To find the places where the mistakes were made in the
past. To develop a combination of marketable skills that includes not
only professionals but erudite volunteers. I suspect the model that works
is the religious one, i.e. the congregational model churches use. (not
the hierarchical model of the European liturgical church formulas) A
local organization with a national confederacy or convention. The Fashion
Industry has such a program and the wildly successful church music
programs do as well. As pointed out on the chart, the churches have had a
growth of over 300% while the complex secular arts have declined 98%.
Considering that the secular is the glue that holds society together and
the complex secular the barometer of the intelligence and maturity of the
society I think we are in for some rough waters ahead.
Getting beyond the expediant and the "productive" is a question but even
more important how can we develop our market programs in such ways that
they can compete with the expedient and create a more livable alternative
to junk food. What would some of those models look like? How would they
be applied in the US?
Ray Evans Harrell
----- Original Message -----
From: leo minnigh
To: Ray Evans Harrell ; Cotterell, Alan ; Bill Harris ; AM de Lange ; Howell, Clyde
Sent: Thursday, October 09, 2003 4:50 AM
Subject: Re: Future of the Arts in a Mixed Capitalist Economy
Dear Ray,
I understand that you are very busy, not only with the preparation of your great performance, but also in your head. I wish you a lot of succes and satisfaction.
Ray, do you believe in evolution? I suppose so. I was thinking of the 1883-event and what happened and will happen after that moment. Possibly a comparable event happened some 65 million (or do you say billion; I mean a thing with 6 zero's) years ago. 95 % of all living species died off. It was the start of a new fragmentation - a whealth of new life forms, particularly the mammals but also flowering plants, originated. Some of these developed further, others had no chance to survive. Some of the rare and vulnerable species could only survive in natural reserves. These reserves are now touristic attractions.
Is the musical reserve the future for complex music and is the musical life of today populated with virusses and rats?
This analogue is miserable. Because evolution always leads to more complex organisations than before. Evolution never steps twice on the same path or never even returns on its own feet back to its origin. So one could say that the more complex forms have the future!
But what if we compare the 1883 event with the fall of a china plate on a marble floor and the thousands pieces after the impact? How could we heal the pieces together to reconstruct the plate? No way, it was an irreversal event, an immergence. So we could only enjoy the original plate in our memory. Perhaps there are still some undestroyed plates in the cupboard, we should be very careful with these leftovers from the past.
There is one optimistic possibility- some of the fragments could be a nucleus for a new complex life form.
Ray, I never have visited your country, I know it only from what comes to me via media and what I have read in books. So I do not know how deep the general public is already sunk, but what I see in the Netherlands (which follows some 10 years behind) it must be really deep. The only possibilty I see is that some TV station will start with 'intellectual' programs of literature, music, visual arts and science. (Hardly) no commerce on it. It must be financed by a couple of filantropic and concerned people who have no intention to gain money from it. If there is a critical mass in the general public which is sick of one-liners, cheap entertainment, porno, stupid games and the bunch of self-satisfying presentators, it is the moment of the birth of something like that new TV station. I guess that moment is nearby.
Leo Minnigh
--"Ray Evans Harrell" <mcore@nyc.rr.com>
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