Not with a bang nor a wimper

This story is not set in some far away time or place that could be, it is about the here and now. It comes about not because evil won a war, but instead because humanity failed to understand and listen. It is amazing to think that in a time where information was so vast, knowledge so deep, and facts so glaring that such a simple thing could be forgotten, and yet simplicity in its most basic necessity is so elegant and pure that it is often glanced over as mundane. It is almost amusing the think that the straw that finally broke humanity was not a physical strike, or even an environmental catastrophe as we had all been mongered into believing. Instead, it was the human psyche that broke beyond repair. We lost our belief in belief and our hope for a better tomorrow.

The deathblow struck first the downtrodden and meek, then the weak willed, and after the masses had been laid low the remaining had little to do but succumb to the pandemic.
As to how this happened, the answer once again is as simple as the problem: there was more bad news than good.

It is easy to blame the media for an event of this nature as they were the ones feeding us despair on a silver spoon but ultimately, we still choose to gorge ourselves on it. We could have found alternative information sources, we could have scavenged for ourselves, but that would have required us to open our shutters and use our voices to speak with our neighbours, which seemed far too bothersome of a thought.

It was fear that kept us shackled to our keyboards and pleasureboxes. The fear however was not the one propagated to us by the media. We were not truly afraid to listen to the world because it may have hurt us. Instead, we were afraid to listen because the results of listening would have demanded action. If every person simply listened to the actual physical world around him or her, they would have had no choice but to take action

First belief was lost, and once that was gone hope shortly followed. Without hope and belief people simply lay down and died as they are just as precious to us as water and sunshine.
A great silence fell over the earth for the first time in millennia and planet earth could finally get a full night’s sleep, yet Mother Nature was not happy. It’s true the human’s were a troublesome lot, but they always had that glimmer of potential in their eye. No teacher wants any student to fail, no matter how much of a troublemaker than are, especially one with as much potential as humanity. If only humanity had listened when she was trying to teach it a lesson.

If anyone is still reading you probably think the ending is weak and possibly simple. Perhaps it ends too soon, too sharp, too sudden breaking up what seemed like a promising future and a glimmer of hope. I am not going to disagree with you, but instead, going to challenge you to listen. What needs to be changed here isn’t the ending but the entire story itself.

The State of our Arts

Over the last few months I've seen a lot of 'Art': film, theatre, paintings, advertising, and almost none of it has moved me in any way. It isn't that the art was bad, it is simply that the 'Art' was unfulfilling. Art, at least at its best, holds a mirror up to the world and allows us to see that the emperor isn't wearing any clothes. It warms our heart, chills our soul, and ultimately brings us closer together making us more human. Somewhere in this instant society we have lost the purpose behind Art. We now only create small letter 'a' art. This art simply access our pleasure center, jerks us off, and then makes us pay ten dollars for its time. I have to wonder when Art changed to art and who is to blame. I am not saying that some good Art isn't being made, but if an Artist masturbates in the forest and there is no one around to see it, is it Art? Somewhere along the way 'Art for Arts sake' lost its audience and then the artists took over.

Before I go much further let me define artist. An artist is someone who attempts to create Art without actually understanding any of the theory behind what they are doing. The understand the tools of the trade and are actually extremely competent in utilizing them, but they do not know why this makes an audience feel a certain way. The result of this is audience experiences the thrill of art without actually gaining any of the deeper insight of Art.

The question that then needs to be answered is what do we do now. This is up for debate, and I will offer my thoughts in a moment, but first let me say what we must not do. We cannot blame the audience. It has never been the audiences mandate to dictate Art. Instead, it is the Artists responsibility to bring the audience into the world of ideas that they wish to discuss. To often have I been to shows where this simple fact is forgotten. I believe that many Artists feel that as soon as an audience walks into a room they sign a contract saying the Artist can do whatever he or she wants. This is wrong. As the audience beings to experience the Art before them the contract begins to be drawn up. In short, the Artist needs to prove their worth before the contract is signed. The contract essentially stipulates the rules of the world for the duration of the work. As long as the rules are followed the audience will follow the Artist anywhere he or she wishes to take them. This is where the true Art takes place.

I'm sure some people will argue that this approach to Art slows the avant guard as it does not allow for Artists to take giant leaps forward with extreme risks. I disagree entirely. I think this approach allows more people access to the world of Art, and thus widens the avant guard by stretching it laterally as well as forward, creating a higher overall area of Art. To insist that the avant guard be inhabited by a select few is not only elitist but also seems to defeat the overarching goals of Art to hold a minor up to the world.

Art is a unique form in that is it not only how we make it but also why we chose to make it. In the end, both of these ideas need to be working in harmony for it to be successful. Success is measured by each person individually, but if the goal of Art is to help change the world then it is much more likely to reach that goal if it plays to a full house.

Not voting is part of the problem

I was reading the post Canadian election results on cbc.ca and one of their lead stories was that only 59.1 percent of Canadians voted in the last election: a new record low. One of the first user comments I read I believe is quite telling of this phenomenon, ‘I didn’t vote because there is no difference between the Liberals and the Conservatives, it’s like voting for the worse of two evils’. This of course was met with the standard response, ‘If you don’t vote you can’t complain”, but I don’t think that is a valid retort anymore. What we should say to people who don’t vote is, “If you don’t vote you are part of the problem”! Politicians count on people not voting, they actually want people to not vote, why? Because it makes their job easier, they don’t have to care about as many people and can tailor their message to the fewer number of people that do vote.

Let’s look at some numbers to illustrate my point; the Conservatives won only 37.63 percent of the popular vote, the Liberals 26.24. the NDP 18.20, the Bloc 9.97, and the Greens 6.80. For the time being lets forget about the fact that the Bloc can win 50 seats in the house of commons with only 9.97% of the vote while the Greens get none with 6.80%. I think it’s pretty safe to assume that a good chunk of the 40.9% of people who voted probably wouldn’t have voted Bloc so that leaves the other 4 parties. I could be very wrong in this assumption but I feel that many of the 40.9% probably wouldn’t have voted Conservative, they may not have even voted Liberal, they seem more likely to have voted for a candidate that they knew wouldn’t get in. If either of the two leading parties knew that extra 40.9% was voting they would need to court that share of the vote in order to keep power, they would need to broaden their policies to something more people liked which would effectively make them less evil. So, by not voting you are actually further perpetuating the problem with the system. Working the argument even further, by not voting you are actually hurting the system even more because even parties receives money for each vote they get. This is to give smaller parties a leg up in future elections and help them build a solid base.