The error that many people who consider themselves realists make is failing to adequately credit the role of people’s choice and beliefs in shaping the reality of the world. In fact, as anyone who’s studied history knows, these have a vast effect on reality. And in failing to acknowledge this reality, the realist falls far short of understanding reality of the world.
We see some people seeing artistic interest as being unrealistic. These likewise have not studied history. In Renaissance Italy and 1920s America, there was both a commercial boom and a cultural blossoming. The business world and the artistic world coexisted side by side to create golden ages to which we still look back fondly till this day.
There is no reason why the same should not be possible now.
Renaissance Italy had a population of 3 million and a per capita GDP of $1500 a year. America has a population of 300 million and a per capita GDP of $50,000 a year. Americans are no less talented than the Italians. We should have 300 Sistine Chapels. The only reason that we do not is disrespect for the arts – much of it done in the name of realism.
What we have on the part of such “realists” is an incomplete understanding of reality. Planet Earth is not just its crust. It is also the molten metal at the centre; oceans and atmosphere at the top; and all the life that lives on it. The people who see only the crust do ignorant things. Specifically they crush all sorts of things that are not the crust. The problem is an inadequate understanding of what reality is. There is a lot more to reality than what these people believe there to be. And in failing to see that they do very grave wrong.
So when someone describes himself as an “earth person” what he is really saying is that he is a crust person. He sees the earth’s crust; he fails to see the rest of the earth. Many such people can be reasoned with to get them to expand their perspective. Most of them are not evil, just wrong, and a number of them are honest enough people. If they hear an argument in their language that speaks to them, they can be influenced for the better.
These people should be told, once again, that the Earth is not only its crust, and that there is a lot more to reality than what they realize. They need to be shown the value of literature and the arts. They need to be made aware that civilizations are known by their artwork, and that producing good art is contributing to the civilization. They need to be told that, just like monetary success, art is accomplishment. And they need to be given real-world applications of the artistic, such as for example when people can write poetry to their loved ones to enrich their relationships and friendships, use the creative process to work through their thoughts and feelings, or communicate their realizations to other people in a way that is beautiful and complete.
Is art unrealistic? Once again, there was a commercial boom and an artistic blossoming in 1920s America, and it is the time that America became the leader of the world. It is not for “snobs” or “liberal elites” or “pretentious Europeans”; it has been practiced by patriotic Americans at the time that America rose to its greatest glory. And much greatness stands to be accomplished by recollecting that spirit.
Once again, we should have 300 Sistine Chapels. We should have 300 Aristotle’s. The only thing that stands in the way of that are wrong attitudes. It is completely rational and realistic to produce and consume art. And people need to bring their understanding of reality to a level advanced enough to understand this.