(Note for 2004: to all people trained in speed
reading. I would recommend skipping this post.
I was trained in poetry and theology. I do not write for speed
readers. Cheers. REH)
Brad,
we are speaking of two different types of
artist. I'm talking about music, dance and literature while you are
using the graphic arts and architecture. Every society has to have a
designer for their buildings and graphic arts can be stored while they accrue in
value.
(Aside: The question occurs to me, if war is
productive because it stimulates work and durable goods become expendable then
why wouldn't art serve the same purpose with non-durable self renewing
goods? The one difference is in the elimination of the
worker. The solider dies and the world becomes more productive
because he ceases to exist rather than becoming unemployed. Even a
wound provides medical work for the professions and removes him from the work
force on disability and disability is more "honorable" than unemployment which
has an implication of impotence.)
In the current system music, dance and even cuisine has a
"productivity lag" built into everything but the most shallow and simple
forms. Literature can be stored but if it is not read or understood
it goes out of print and it is as if it never existed in the first
place. "Things" are always more fundable than
ideas. We have foundations funding theaters today that will not be
able to afford to produce works. But things are durable while
ideas are fragile.
I've made assumptions that the economists on the list
understood such terms as "Productivity Lag" but their language is so ambiguous
even amongst themselves that I've come to realize that was a
mistake. When one recently said that he didn't understand
"negative externalities" I realized how deep the ambiguity was in their
ranks. Reference to any Economics' Dictionary is easily
available, I have two. Or you could type it into Google and
find: http://www.bized.ac.uk/virtual/vla/theories/negative_externalities.htm One would think that the externalities or
implications of economic activity would be a part of a basic course in economics
but I guess not.
(Musical theory is a lot more concerned with the
implications of things although you do have those musicians who will teach
theory for its own sake and they are a part of our employment problem.)
"Productivity lag" simply means that
productivity is not possible given the complexity of a task that incurs greater
costs than can be made back in the short term. Profit is not
even a possibility. If the institution is simple, like a factory,
you can downsize as long as you have enough workers to make a
product. Of course if you have too much productive
unemployment then that constitutes a negative externality.
Productivity Lag in Germany with reunification has been the big drag on the
West German social structure.
In the Arts it is a different version of the
problem. In an orchestra you cannot downsize a flute player if the
flute is needed in the score. (You might compare it to a
guaranteed job in a full employment economy) If the costs of tickets
cannot pay for hiring a flute player then you cannot play the
symphony.
If enough symphonies are not played then the creation of
symphonies and other complex works of art become rare.
They become written either by the occasional driven
pathologically obsessed individual or a University teacher who must produce
publications or the very rare individual trickster, like Ned Rorem, who is
capable of stirring such controversy that the resultant fame carries his works
forward. (But most of the public who knows of such
individuals rarely knows their real work and purchases the
product for the controversy.) In most of the cases
the whole purpose of such work is subverted in the culture and the culture
declines. We are experiencing that in America today.
"Productivity Lag" is the Achilles heel in Capitalism that
is beginning to bring down the whole deck of cards. I would
add that "productivity lag" is also the reason that the midtown bridge in
Manhattan almost fell down and the West side highway was finally
closed. They downsized upkeep until holes appeared in both
highways. That is the problem of the modern city with its
requirements which seem to exceed the ability to tax to keep them
up. (Think of the decline in the world class universities in
California. Shall we have a bedroom community for retirees and movie
stars or shall we have a whole society? Shall it be the fifth
largest economic society in the world or will it just be "California
dreaming"?)
Unfortunately most
"classical" economists seem like high school English teachers
encountering the complexity of James Joyce and complaining that the man doesn't
know how to write an English sentence or the equivalent art instructors making
similar claims about Picasso. What has happened in
English is that the writers like Joyce have opened a door that has made the
realization that the old Latin based grammar was never a very good fit on
English in the first place and so now even high school is a war zone in the
teaching of grammar. But there is a lot of very good writing going
on at the present in spite of the complaints. Joyce and Picasso have
made their point but it will collapse if the economics cannot sustain the
revolution in the teaching of English going on.
Artistic sophistication and formal knowledge of what it
really means to be "classical" is unfortunately beyond such
simplicities. It is a different world and the old world will
only exist again if everyone becomes so ignorant that they have to start over
again. A collapse could bring that on and that is what has
happened in music. As a result, the clever composers like some
in the Minimalist School have started playing simple chords over long
periods of time with very small changes after the "dummies" have "gotten" the
chord. If you play a dominant chord for sixteen measures and then
resolve it, even the most anesthetized of audiences will go beyond trance and
into cognition and register a resolution as a great idea. Of course
Bach did it in two beats. The more sophisticated audiences call it
"wallpaper" music.
There are some great composers in the medium like Philip
Glass and Steve Reich but I have met a lot of "composers" there who were
illiterate as well. And I'm not kidding. They
could barely read music they were so primitive. And they got "Meet
the Composer" grants as well when the more sophisticated composers got
nothing. (Even the foundations are funding what is
economically "feasible.") In some ways Mozart also was a
minimalist or we could say that the minimalists are classicists in their
forms.
I think we should fund the best in all mediums as these
are aesthetic expressions of who we are. But we should remember that
although a grade school child may play a Mozart concerto, understanding the
aesthetic implications of those notes takes decades and communicating the
meaning is only the realm of the Elders. The same will be true of
Reich, Glass and others as performers mature and take their works into the
heights of interpretation. Then we will see how these works stand up
in history. Virtuosity always proves the point.
I would emphasize that I am not an economist but an artist
that has had to learn a few things in order to defend my profession against the
assault of the last 78 years against it and the terrible decline in artistic
sophistication. It would be good if experts in other areas
bothered to learn about the meaning, purpose and use of aesthetics in the
development of the human individual as well as our social
structures. The Utilitarians abandoned serious logical thinking to
the simplicities of math and lost touch with their own perceptions shortly after
J.S. Mill. Keynes wife made life miserable for him although she must
have been a great lover since he didn't throw her out. She was a
Russian Ballerina. So Keynes tried to run a theater but it was a
bust and he never seemed to get that the purpose was beyond relaxation and
leisure. Anyone who has ever stood "on point" knows that relaxation
and leisure is a stupid idea when it comes to art. Keynes didn't have the
guts to see it through and so returned to political economy.
Perhaps it would have been better had he simply taken a class in ballet bar and
attempted standing on point. It would have given him more backbone.
I wonder if economics has advanced to the level where a
hero will arrive who does have the guts to explore the whole of things and bring
us back to a balance of the realities of our world and not just these
simplicities such as rent, wages and whatever.
Ray Evans Harrell
PS Any resemblance in the above to economists on this
list is purely coincidental. I believe everyone on this list
is capable of becoming that hero if they just try a little harder or maybe take
a few ballet lessons. May the New Year bring success for us
all. REH
----- Original Message -----
From: "Brad McCormick, Ed.D." <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "Ray Evans Harrell" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Cc: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Thursday, January 01, 2004 8:32 AM
Subject: Re: [Futurework] The Industrial Reserve Army at
work improving productivity
> > Happy New Year.
> >
> > Its nice to see that one person on the list "gets" the solution provided by
> > this sick society for artists. Now Brad is beginning to imagine the same
> > thing for other professions as well.
>
> A combination of conscription and "working for free" can keep
> labor costs down. Perhaps the most serious argument against
> a guaranteed income is not that it would make people lazy,
> but that it would enable artists and others to "hold out"
> until they got a decent remuneration for their work. Wouldn't
> this be a more truly free market than one in which
> many are forced to sell their labor at bargain basement rates?
>
> One man's free market
> Is another man's involuntary servitude.
>
> But there are exceptions to the starving artist rule:
>
> http://www.users.cloud9.net/~bradmcc/quotes3.html#Q140
>
> Was Gehry born this way? Or did "paying his dues" leave
> him resolved he'd never take that kind of crap again,
> and also with no desire to help the next generation have
> an easier time of it?
>
> \brad mccormick
>
> > If you want to know how that works,
> > think 98% unemployment amongst college graduates. When the same is true
> > for everyone then this crazy invisible hand on my private parts will be
> > shared by all and someone will rise up and cut it off.
> >
> > May your New Year be as happy as for the Artists of America.
> >
> > REH
> >
> > PS Every artist giving a concert that makes 60% of its return in ticket
> > sales and makes it up from his own teaching is doing it to keep his name in
> > front of a fickle public who appluades wildly and rides freely. Most of
> > those old jazz recordings that you love never made a cent for the artist.
> > They were just advertisement paid for by the artist or some "angel".
> > Fame is the most fleeting of capital investments. Saw a lot of those
> > folks tonight on the TV singing the old songs. Put them back now in the
> > box for another year and goodnight.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "Brad McCormick, Ed.D." <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> > To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> > Sent: Wednesday, December 31, 2003 8:31 PM
> > Subject: [Futurework] The Industrial Reserve Army at work improving
> > productivity
> >
> >
> >
> >>Here's an item I just saw on the NYT on the Web homepage (note
> >>that the article is *old* and therefore only accessible
> >>by paying an archive retrieval fee, even though there is
> >>no indication of this: Newton only invented laws of physics --
> >>somebody at thet NYT has here invented a new way to
> >>make money!)
> >>
> >> http://www.users.cloud9.net/~bradmcc/sq/FreeWork.gif
> >>
> >>If productivity is output divided by costs, the benefits
> >>of unemployment are obvious.
> >>
> >>Also: The solution to copyright problems is to
> >>starve the writers, then they will put their stuff up
> >>for free, in part so somebody will see it, and in
> >>other part (like the lady in the picture...), in hopes
> >>of attracting paid employment.
> >>
> >>Just think of how unemployed cardiologists and
> >>neurosurgeons and other workers could
> >>help hold down rising medical costs (etc.)!
> >>Apocryphal testimonial: "I, George W Bush,
> >>got a free heart transplant from an unemployed
> >>cardiologist who hoped that by operating on me
> >>he might attract a job offer. Actually, I've
> >>had three, since the first two have already
> >>had to be replaced. I heart-ily recommend it if you
> >>are lucky enough to get an invitation."
> >>
> >>Cheers!
> >>
> >>\brad mccormick
> >>
> >>--
> >> Let your light so shine before men,
> >> that they may see your good works.... (Matt 5:16)
> >>
> >> Prove all things; hold fast that which is good. (1 Thes 5:21)
> >>
> >><![%THINK;[SGML+APL]]> Brad McCormick, Ed.D. / [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> >>-----------------------------------------------------------------
> >> Visit my website ==> http://www.users.cloud9.net/~bradmcc/
> >>_______________________________________________
> >>Futurework mailing list
> >>[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> >>http://fes.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework
> >>
> >
> >
> >
>
>
> --
> Let your light so shine before men,
> that they may see your good works.... (Matt 5:16)
>
> Prove all things; hold fast that which is good. (1 Thes 5:21)
>
> <![%THINK;[SGML+APL]]> Brad McCormick, Ed.D. / [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> -----------------------------------------------------------------
> Visit my website ==> http://www.users.cloud9.net/~bradmcc/
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