I am very glad we’re having this discussion, Justin.

Conventional, or ‘received’ wisdom is in full agreement with your thoughts. It is the flames of suffering that help us forge true art. But…

I am very glad we’re having this discussion, Justin. At the very least, helps me clarify to myself some of my own half-baked thoughts ;)

Conventional, or ‘received’ wisdom is in full agreement with your thoughts. It is the flames of suffering that help us forge true art. But what of the Beatles then? They were wee lads when they produced their absolute best work. Surely they didn’t have sufficient time so early in their life to experience and then digest some serious, deep suffering.

The egomaniacal artist is a relatively new phenomenon in human history. Most great art has been produced anonymously. And it is an even more recent phenomenon that art has been transformed into crass commerce.

Not all successful art is centered around common sentiments of love, personal loss, friendship, etc. Some great artwork has been focused on global issues. One example comes to mind — Marvin Gay “Mercy Mercy Me (Ecology)” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8UU9Re84hM)

But the thing that interests me most right now is the possibility of impeding liberation from the oppressive layering and labeling. So far, we as human race have always fallen into the shameful trap of divisiveness, seemingly unavoidable layering, assigning pedigree to certain arbitrarily chosen traits, etc. Such discriminatory behaviour has always created untold suffering to all humans. Today, many of us feel that we have finally got a chance of taking a stab at eliminating such idiotic discriminatory practices. Liberation feels possible, so why aren’t artists jumping in to expedite this possibility?

Why do I feel that liberation is finally possible? If even myself, a privileged overfed white heterosexual male am fully aware of the unnecessary suffering that various minority groups are today needlessly being subjected to, that must mean that we’re at the end of our idiotic rope. We gotta collectivelly recognize the meaninglessness of gender, race, religious, and any other discrimination. The only discrimination that makes sense is discrimination between law abiding citizens and criminals.