Hi Michael, Whew! You're all fired up this morning; some good ranting below. Rather than a point by point, I'd like to suggest another way of looking at the problem.
I know many artists as well as engineers, and you may find it amusing that many share the same problems as engineers. I came to NYC expecting to find the best of the breed, and after some searching I did indeed find these people. It is often claimed that the arts in general are at a low point now, "Where are the Van Goghs and Rembrants?" They are still here, more than ever before. But where are they? Last week I went to an opening in Soho, a Japanese artist was showing there under the auspices of a Swiss organization. We went, and many people were in attendance. NO ONE was looking at the work, they were all networking. The work itself was brown lumps pasted to the wall, I think the artist was trying for a sort of Japanese Rock Garden effect. The results were miserable. We surveyed the room, and there in the corner was a gorgeous 20 something girl standing alone. I said, "There's the artist" and sure enough it was. I'm sure her parents would be familiar to you, Mike. So we left, and went uptown to look at a space my SO wanted to rent for her business. It was a studio and living space of another artist, a friend I had never met. I was struck by a few of the canvases in the hall, and asked to see more. So the artist goes off behind the refrigerator and starts pulling out these incredible works, stuff that just knocked your socks off. "Wow" I said, "This is amazing stuff, are you showing now?" "Nope, can't get a show in NYC, sometimes I show upstate but otherwise I teach art to inner city grade school kids". I'd like to say this was an anomaly, but it's probably the third or fourth time I've had this exact experience. I've come to know many good artists in NYC, none can show here. I've given up on the galleries, what's there is just mountains of crap. My point? A society of Creators values the creative. A society of Consumers does not. It has often been said that we live in a Capitalist society, historically considered the opposite of the Communist society of the former SU. I think this is mistaken. We do not live in a Capitalist society; we live in a Consumer society. The difference is striking. Capitalism and it's handmaiden Meritocracy can challenge the individual to rise to their potential; Consumerism drags the individual down to the lowest common denominator. It removes self determination and motivation and replaces it with passivity and consumption, spoon feeding of the most easily digestible pabulum. We see the effects everywhere in our mass culture. Buildings are beige boxes rather than compelling architecture. Cheap and crappy products pushing out the quality goods previously available at a slightly greater cost. Television saturates us with advertisements for ever more ugly and crass opiates for the ever more incurious and ignorant masses. In such a society, the Creators, be they artists, scientists, or otherwise, are marginalized. What value is Quality and the New? It should be noted that Carly Fiorina has a degree in Medieval studies ( the better to control the serfs I suppose ), and shareholders were quite happy to allow her to run one of the two preeminent US electronic test equipment manufacturers into the ground. She's far richer than you or I will ever be Michael, so can you with good conscious suggest to your children they should become engineers or scientists when such a path will lead them into a career only moderately more successful than the local Wal-Mart greeter? I don't have any kids, but what do you tell yours? By the way, I appreciate your sharing your thoughts below. The point is well taken that the Left suffers from as much ignorance and cupidity as the Right, lumping all of Capitalism into the Evil box without regard for the great value and potential for good which exists there. In the same way, the Right lumps all consumer protection and regulation into the Evil box, forgetting things like Bhopal which would happen in America much more frequently were we to eliminate liability and litigation along with regulation ( just how did all those superfund sites come into existence? ). Lawyers are just one symptom of the problem. The source is Consumerism. The result is a society in which waste and crass consumption are lauded, and efficiency and taste are deprecated. When buying and selling become more important than creating, does it surprise anyone that the results are as you find them in your neighborhood? K. -----Original Message----- From: Michael Foster [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, February 24, 2005 4:40 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: US advantage in technology slips away Jed wrote; > "China now graduates four times as many engineers as the United States, > while the European Union countries graduate three times as many. At the > same time, the US lead is slipping in technology patents and science and > engineering doctoral degrees. Emerging nations are also becoming adept at > capitalizing on technologies invented in the developed world." > As teenagers say: Well, duh. Well, duh, indeed. Don't you want to know why? And no, it's not the ineffectual and badly aimed Homeland Security Act. It's lawyers. In order to have a market for engineers, you have to make something. In order to make something you need a factory. And as we all have come to learn, that's just not nice. We have read for more than a hundred years now in the popular press how evil industry and industrialists are. So-called environmentalists have come to use the word "industry" as an epithet. Naturally, any corporation or individual who actually makes something should be sued for something, anything. And since that is usually what happens, there are fewer manufacturers and hence a dwindling demand for engineers. Furthermore, engineers are often underemployed, can't get paid what they're worth. Lawyers are getting all the money and engineers aren't. I currently employ three engineers (chemical, mechanical, electrical) in jobs that don't require their skills just because they can't get employment in their chosen fields. My son goes to a public (state school, for you Brits) elementary school with very high academic standards, quite unusual for the Los Angeles Unified School District, but not too surprising when you consider that there probably isn't a house in the neighborhood worth less than $2 million. I would estimate that, except for a sprinkling of actors and other entertainment types, at least 80% of the parents are lawyers. Both parents. When I meet these creatures in a social situation, I just have to bite my tongue. "Hello, I'm little Diana's father, Bob, and this is my wife, Judge Martha. What law firm are you with?" I'm not exaggerating. I just want to explode. When these folks learn that I actually make things and sell them for a living, they just look mortified. I can't help but wonder when I'm in a room full of these lying vile snakes, how many jobs they've destroyed, how many lives they've ruined. And they look so nice, so proper, so upstanding. In the last 20 years, most of the suppliers I buy raw materials from have been sued out of business, and I am now forced to buy from foreign companies. At one time, I was willing to pay more, within reason, for domestic supply, but now that option has been removed. And for those of you Vorts from the Michael Moore, Ted Rall end of the political spectrum, who continue to insult and offend those who may not agree with you, consider the following. Three or four years ago, in the Los Angeles Times, the president of the California Trial Lawyers Ass'n was quoted as saying, "We own the Democratic Party, it's ours." This was a public statement, not some back room comment. They are ostensibly quite proud of this. You know, it might be a good idea not to alienate potential allies in the quest for alternate sources of energy, just because you disagree with them politically. M. _______________________________________________ Join Excite! - http://www.excite.com The most personalized portal on the Web!
