Ray E. Harrell,
>Welcome to the world of the arts. Out of 5,650 graduates a year in vocal
performing >arts programs there are about 300 full time jobs. We are told
by the economists that >making a living at something else means that we
should be happy to do the art for >free. Welcome to the world of lean and
agile thought and virtual reality. >Prooducktivity. I wonder who thought
that one up. So far only Mike Hollinshead has >commented on our Nobel
Laureate (Friedman) and his fear of having to pay taxes for >the common
good. Thank you Mike for rising from your sickbed.
>
This is not only happening in the vocal and performing arts. Former
neighbors or ours both had Ph.D.s, he in microbiology and she in some other
field of biology. Neither could get full-time work in their professions.
Both went back to university, he to do an MBA, she to obtain a teacher's
certificate. Both then got full time work.
It would seem that there has been a change of emphasis from specialization
to flexibility; from the application of skill and knowledge in depth to the
provision of "just in time" solutions. To know a little bit about a lot of
things, as MBA's do, is more valuable than knowing a lot about one thing, as
microbiologists do. One can visualize a world in which everything the
microbiologist knows can be stored in a computer, and in which the
generalist (perhaps an MBA with a microbiology background) who knows how to
organize it, store it, retrieve it and apply it is the really important guy.
It is guys like him or her that businesses and governments will increasingly
want to hire and the universities will increasingly try to turn out.
As for the performing arts, turning on our TVs, renting videos, and buying
CDs does seem to have disposed of the need to get dressed, get in the car,
and go to the theater, all at considerably greater expense. Think of it --
with a good CD player you can now hear the best voices and orchestras, and
you can even shut your eyes and use earphones if you want to be alone.
There are still things that you have to go and see or hear because there is
no other satisfactory way of accessing them -- stage plays for example --
but they are diminishing in type and number.
The problem appears to that, in the not too distant past, someone,
somewhere, linked the performing arts to the economy. This worked for
awhile because the economy was localized and the type of technology
available today was either non-existent or existed in a rudimentary form.
Two things appear to have happened since: the economy has become
"globalized" (how I hate that word but there does not seem to be another!)
and the ability to distribute and consume (good economic words) artistic
performances via gadgetry has exploded. There is no need to pay all of the
artists, even if they are better than mediocre. Let them go back to singing
in church!
Ed Weick
