On Wed, Jul 1, 2009 at 11:08 AM, david buchanan <[email protected]>wrote:
> > John: > > Even though I was trying to make a serious point, it was also supposed to > be funny and I laughed my ass off while writing it. Well good. I'm glad you enjoyed it as well. I think humor a wonderfully apropos rhetorical flourish. > Anyway, thanks for being such a good sport about it. That's mighty big of > you. Seriously. > Big? Nah. I'm just not the kind of person that gets upset over "losing". I don't take it seriously enough I suppose, which is more frustrating than appealing once you get to know me. Seriously. But I do try and keep to the rules of dialog, which means to me that if you make a good point, I owe you an answer. Since you even mention you have a "serious point" I feel obligated to address it: We'll leave aside the fact that Hitler hated certain kinds of art, and we'll focus on your criticism of Kitcsh. It should go without saying, but I'll say it anyway that neither one of us wants to censor any artist or particular style. If we are arguing, it is over the main points of Scruton's, which is that the art world art - the kind that gets people notice and recognition and sponsorship - successful art, has been slanted toward a "dark" direction - Art meant to shock and upset values as opposed to art meant to soothe and promote homely values - which we'll term kitcsh. Is that the heart of your point? Because I think it is in fact, a very serious subject. Art, I believe, is hardly ever intended by its creator to reinforce values in a preachy imposing way. I know more than a few artists, even in my own family I know more than a few. Some successful financially, some not. But from what I've observed is that artists are usually motivated mainly by something inside themselves that they want to express. Doing art in a preachy "Ok, we'll just put a nice norman rockwell flourish on everything everywhere" way -- that won't work. You can't go there. I don't think that was Scruton's point. And if it was his point, well, he's wrong. Art as communication of what values a society inflicts on its individuals, well there Scruton is making a very perceptive point. There is a lot wrong in a society that doesn't value kitsch at all. We just can't all be oh so sneeringly sophisticated in every way, peering down our educated noses at homely art and homely values. I'd say that's a problem. Because there is intrinsic value in stable homes and family. Value that if sneered at and discarded as boringly bourgeois, will come back to bite society in a big way. But then, I'm just a reactionary Of course, there are so many problems and so many different indications of problems that it gets tedious mentioning them all. The world of humans as presently ordered is insane. What else is new? Now on the other point, my four kids all did their elementary education in yer basic lil-red-school house. They started out in a charter school homestudy program that is over 25 years old - way before charter schools we had one up here on the ridge. Even had the classic school house shape with the bell tower and everything. It was white tho. The kids would meet there at least one day a week and often for elective and fun classes. The biggest and most important advantage was the age mix. Little kids look up to big kids and big kids often like to feel useful themselves in teaching little kids. It works out much better in my experience to mix the grades in one room and treat everybody as part of one school community. Later, my kids wanted to go to a parochial school in town and it was about the same size, 30 kids, K-8; They had three rooms, but still came together in one room for activities and occasions. From what I've observed first hand, it's a far superior way of teaching than the modified prussian system in use today. The fact of the matter is not degraded at all by being printed in the Wall Street Journal. Anymore than my affection for beer and dogs is degraded by the fact that Hitler liked those things as well. Seriously. John Moq_Discuss mailing list > Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. > http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org > Archives: > http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ > http://moq.org.uk/pipermail/moq_discuss_archive/ > -- ------------ Doing Good IS Being ------------ Moq_Discuss mailing list Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org Archives: http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ http://moq.org.uk/pipermail/moq_discuss_archive/
