Editorial
America has no soul
How strange it is that some of the most beautiful, thoughtful, and even compassionate Alaskans are willing to devote themselves to what is insensitive and ugly. The very people who have the greatest creative influence on society - artists and directors of cultural organizations - often devote themselves to the cause of freedom of expression, even when this means promoting pieces that are harmful. How is it that these people, who devote their lives to creativity, have become so utterly disconnected from moral or spiritual realities? That is the enigma which we were struck by in conducting interviews for the front page article in this issue of Alaska Humanity News.
Our sensitivity to the power of art is inadequate. The important issues have not been part of the conversation and are being forcible removed from it. As the director of the Alaska State Council on the Arts claimed in an interview for this issue, the idea that art should serve the public welfare, which is still a part of their mission statement, is now considered to be quaint.
It is impossible to be neutral. In failing to take a stand for what is good or true, the floodgates are opened to their opposites. Of course, artists almost always maintain that the violent or materialistic things they describe serve only to point to what is good. But even when this is the intent, there is only so much profanity a person can take before their spirit is injured.
Art can shatter as easily as it can create. Profane or obscene material shatters sensitivity to beauty. Our inner life hangs in the balance: once corrupted, love is impossible.
It may seem that local arts venues are not responsible for such dire potential consequences. But these are the gatekeepers of culture. By opening the floodgates, there is no way to control what is overrun downstream.
In a future issue of Humanity News we will take a look at popular culture, and the sorry truth is that this is a pornographic culture. America has no soul. But what is the soul? Understanding that is, in fact, the goal of great art, of art that would be worthy of our potential.
The great arts wake people up to their higher nature. They call us to what is best and truest. They lift us up, make us whole, and strengthen us to fight degradation. They are a response to the failure of culture, and to the emptiness of institutions.
It’s not easy being raised in our own culture, as we all are. Innocence, purity, and simplicity is bred out of us, and with this goes the facility for joy. Goodness cannot coexist with depravity.
It is quite possible to walk into Cyrano’s theatre, our wonderful local playhouse, and see a play that demolishes common sense about what is good, for example by exploring the legitimacy of having sexual feelings for an infant. This is considered daring because the playwright, Edward Albee, had the right credentials.
Our respectable cultural venues often have absolutely no sense of the difference between right and wrong, because there is no longer any way to establish a hierarchy and judge these qualities. That is why one of our long-term goals is to create a framework for judging art and holding accountable artists and those who support art for the ramifications of what they are doing. But our hope is to actually create a culture of care - by standing up for the good, true, beautiful, and sacred, and making artistic creativity of this kind a part of daily life.