Image: Photo,  Art shop Melbourne, Australia. 2017.

A SENSE OF PROPORTION.

Imposed isolation gives us time to ponder on what is important in life. The preservation of art and culture may be something to consider.

Quotes come from: (Rian Hughes from the book: CULT-URE ). 

‘From a practical standpoint, art if functionally useless, -no-one ever died through a lack of song,dance,poetry of sculpture- but from a symbolic and cultural standpoint, it is of the highest significance. Art, at its most effective, connects us with the sublime.‘                     

It goes without saying that our sense of proportion will inevitably be affected by the lockdown, given that so many of our freedoms and rights have been curtailed. In normal circumstances these would arguably not be tolerated but our compliance has been secured by persuasion rather than force. We have largely bought into the arguments presented to us. We must however reserve the right to question and examine these arguments and present our own ideas on their wisdom and legitimacy. Things will change when lockdown ends, and may never be what they were before. Despite whatever the post lockdown world will look like, for me, the one thing we must not lose sight of as it is our responsibility to preserve and protect our ability to fashion and influence culture; that means our freedom to have our own ideas. This further quote sums it up well.

‘ We inhabit a world where the free exchange of ideas is changing culture globally like never before. Ideologies have always understood that the real fight is for the inner landscape, not the outer, because controlling what people think is more difficult and ultimately more important than controlling territory. Ideas guide actions,and culture consists of ideas writ lage upon the world. Distrust any ideology that distrusts education, rationality, individual creative expression and free enquiry. They don’t want you to have ideas about yourself.‘