Art- good? Bad? Or useless?

“All art is at once surface and symbol. Those who go beneath the surface do so at their peril. …..it is the spectator, and not life, that art really mirrors” Oscar Wilde, the picture of Dorian Grey

Oscar Wilde’s the picture of Dorian Grey is a joy to read. The famous story of a beautiful dandy, who never grows old, whilst a portrait of him locked in his attic reflects the sin and destruction he wreaks. However the preface to the book, a mere page and a half of unfettered Wilde commenting on art, is in itself a jewel. Not only does this set some of the key themes for the book, but Wilde exposes, in joyfully nonchalant fashion, some of the key elements of our relationship with art. Because art is beautiful we tend to imbue it with undue meaning. Art has the power to move us, therefore sometimes make the erroneous conclusion that art (and indeed artists) must have some intrinsic moral worth. “There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written, or badly written, that is all.”

Because Mozart’s music is so beautiful it is somehow ‘good’, and Mozart must be a good/virtuous person to have created such beauty. We make the same mistake about people- how often to we assume that a good looking person has more intrinsic qualities- leadership, confidence, ability- than an ugly person? According to psychological studies, all the time: Studies show attractive students get more attention and higher evaluations from their teachers, good-looking patients get more personalized care from their doctors, and handsome criminals receive lighter sentences than less attractive convicts. A London Guildhall University survey of 11,000 33-year-olds found that unattractive men earned 15 percent less than those deemed attractive, while plain women earned 11 percent less than their prettier counterparts. "Good-looking men and women are generally judged to be more talented, kind, honest and intelligent than their less attractive counterparts," writes Dr Gordon Patzer, who has spent 3 decades studying physical appearance and its impacts.

Wilde’s book in part plays on this error- the young and beautiful Dorian captivates those around him, which allows him to lead a debased and destructive life, recorded in the satyrisation of his portrait. Anthony Burgess drew on similar irony in a Clockwork Orange, where Alex’s love of Beethoven coexists with his acts of ultra-violence. Nabakov’s ‘hero’ of Lolita is an extremely handsome and intelligent man, whilst at the same time being a paedophile.

In fact art, and by implication beauty, are amoral. Plenty of great artists were, and are, terrible human beings- Richard Wagner’s anti-Semitism; Philip Larkin’s predilection for pornography; the novelist Arthur Koestler, recently denounced as a rapist; the great painter Modigliani's drunken rages and the suicide of his lover and child. And the great human gift to create can be used for startlingly destructive purposes. Graham Greene’s short story ‘the destructors’ recounts how a group of bored teenagers imprison an old man, and systematically deconstruct his house until it is an empty shell. The organisation of effort, precision and artistry with which they go about their task is every bit as creative as if they were constructing a new building, sculpture or monument. In a stroke of stark irony, their ringleader, nicknamed ‘T’, is the son of failed architect. A study of how the Nazis approached the construction and planning of Auschwitz reveals terrifying creativity and ingenuity- used for despicable means.

‘Creative destruction’, in this sense is not an oxy-moron, as to create and destroy are actually symbiotic. How are we to make sense, therefore, of this co-existence of opposing forces?

The Dorian Grey story is also one of superficiality in many senses- Dorian has unending beauty, with none of the struggle necessary to achieve it- and almost as a reaction to this, an inner evil corrupts and destroy him, reflected in the painting. The duality of the story has many precedents- perhaps most notably the Faust story- where a doctor sells his soul to the devil in order to achieve greatness and everlasting life. There is no short cut though, and destruction and unfulfillment follow. The Faust story is believed to have originated in medieval German mythology- It received many literary treatments, the most famous of which was that by Johan Wolfgang von Goethe. Goethe’s 19th century version is an important departure however- it follows the standard story with one key difference: Faustus is not condemned to damnation, but rather achieves salvation at he last minute, through relating the temptations and struggles of the devil as part of his place in the world and in nature. Faust comments about Mephistopheles, the devil, “ though which art evil yet does forever good”. There is an important message here- that evil, if viewed as part of life’s struggle, can help us to overcome and progress as opposed to being something we should just avoid- “Whoever strives in ceaseless toil, him we may grant redemption".

Frederick Nietzsche, a patron saint of Glass Bead Gamers recognised this view of evil as a struggle in the ancient Greeks, whose Dionysiac festivals allowed lust and darkness an expression, but in an environment where they could be controlled. They ‘granted to evil and suspicious a moderate discharge’ therefore seeking to REGULATE darkness rather than DESTROY it. (Alain de Botton’s fabulous ‘the consolations of philosophy’ lays out Nietzsche’s views with great clarity).

Nietzsche went further, his love of gardening providing a perfect analogy: At their roots, plants can look ugly and strange, and below ground a terrible and destructive battle rages as the roots seek to establish themselves and fight for existence. But this ultimately leads to fruit and beautiful flowers above ground.

Therefore we should not expect beauty and creation, two of the fundamentals behind art, to be without huge tempestuous difficulties and destructive forces- these are NECESSARY, and an embodiment of art itself. Any number of great artists and their struggles to live, battle weakness and darkness, yet create beauty, bear testament to this. The creation of the universe itself bears witness- order through chaos, beauty through destructive forces, evolution through seismic change. Or from a theistic perspective, God’s creation of the world involved war in heaven.

Therefore we should accept dark forces as an inherent part of art, while seeking to regulate and control them. And except that these dark forces, as explored above, are bound to manifest themselves in terrible as well as wonderful outcomes. It is when they are separated, as in Dorian Grey’s dual existence, than self-implosion occurs.

Wilde sums up art in the closing line of the Dorian preface: "It is completely useless.” Typical Wildean cynicism. Yet as Wilde famously described the cynic as he who ‘understands the price of everything and the value of nothing’ maybe we should appropriate: Art is useless, therefore does not warrant a price tag, yet its VALUE is in what it reveals about it’s creation- an embodiment of the struggle between DARK and LIGHT that is in all of us

Ich bin ein Berliner

I’m currently in Berlin- a city that never ceases to fascinate.

It’s the 4th time I’ve been, and being lucky enough to be well travelled, I have to admit that Berlin continues to defeat me. It’s not an easy city- sprawling, no obvious centre, requiring prior or local knowledge to really benefit. And then there’s the history……..I first came here in 1993- only 4 years after the wall came down. It may as well have still been in place- the sharp divide between east and west- Mercedes on one side of a street, Trabants on

the other- was amazing. Every time I’ve been since its like encountering a new city- so much has changed- Berlin is a city in constant flux- is it progressing? Escaping its past?

That first time in ’93 I had an amazing encounter. I was with a friend, standing by a remaining chunk of the wall, not far from Checkpoint Charlie. Were approached by a short, fat, dark moustachioed man in his mid forties. He greeted us in clipped, Germanic English, with diction better than many Brits (not uncommon). His name was Arthur (pronounced Artoor) Braun, and he had lived in Berlin all his life. He had heard us speaking English and wondered if he might walk with us for a while- so he could practice his English, in return for giving us a native’s tour of his home city. We eagerly agreed.

The next 3 hours were incredible. We walked a lot, saw much, but more than anything we talked- incessantly, compulsively, uncontrollably. Arthur was a taxi driver, a native of Berlin who had never travelled- an unremarkable man-but one with a fierce interest in the world and in life. It is for men like Arthur that Copeland wrote ‘Fanfare for the common man’, and Joyce composed Ulysses- for they see in their every day lives beauty and meaning.

Arthur believed Berlin was indeed still a divided city. The wall would never come down. He had grown up knowing he had an aunt in East Berlin, whom one day he hoped he would see. The wall came down and he did see her…..but it was awkward: The guilt of the West Berliners….the chip on the shoulder of the East Berliners….it was never the same… the divide had driven a trench in the hearts of the people. Maybe one day it would change….. and being back here- I think it has.

Arthur was sceptical of the European Union, which was gathering pace back then. He believed that Germany would always be the pivotal country in Europe- its geographic and economic position ensured this- and that after the wall came down the French, realising this, started driving the EU as a reaction to a resurgent Germany- tying them into a confederation (many respected political commentators absolutely concur with this). The Brits however saw through this- but then the Brits and the Germans are so similar. As Arthur said, “Europe is composed of beer drinkers and wine drinkers…”

He was bitterly upset that Germany, historically the land of philosophers, poets and composers, had in the modern age become synonymous with genocide and extremism. I said that unfortunately art does not go hand-in-hand with morality- great artists can be horrendous human beings (I will devote a post to this soon- it’s a subject that fascinates me). He agreed- (he was close to tears at this point)- he said the German psyche desperately wanted to believe that the genius of engineering, music and literature were signs of a deeper good, yet the events of the 20th century had proved otherwise.

Finally, after 3 hours of discourse, we parted at my hotel on the Kurfürstendamm. Arthur’s parting comment was that England’s much-disputed 3rd goal in the 1966 world cup final against Germany was never a goal in a million years….

And that was it- a brief meeting- a wonderful few hours of shared obsessions. Fate brings people together in this way, and heaven knows who writes the scripts.

Who knows what has become of you Arthur, my dear and fleeting friend. But as I again stroll the Kurfurstendam, it will be with a distant hope of meeting you again. And I will always believe that you are still strolling through the shadows of Kreuzberg, remonstrating against the EU, shedding tears of outrage and passion, a remarkable individual upholding and embodying all that is beautiful and great in your nation…..

……and it f***ing well was a goal !!!

The Information age- are we better off?

The ‘information age’ has empowered us hugely, or has it?

James Garfield, US president in the late 19th century once said “Next in importance to freedom and justice is popular education, without which neither freedom nor justice can be permanently maintained.”

The information age has surrounded us with a convergence of technology and information the like of which the world has never seen. More people have access to more knowledge and information than at any time in human history- surely therefore, ‘popular education’ in the truest sense (not just people going to school, but people having free access to culture and learning) should, in parallel, be at its apogee. And if popular education is at its most advanced, then freedom and justice should be prevalent all over of the world, right?

Of course this is not the case. But why? Particularly when you consider how freely accessible knowledge is. Consider the following:

• The average newspaper contains more information in a week than a 17th century person would have consumed in a lifetime
• The majority of American children now go online before they can functionally read
• The number of people who learned English in China last year outnumbered those who speak English as a first language in the rest of the world put together
• People are creating and sharing information on an unprecedented scale. A University of Berkeley study reported that in 2002 humankind created 5 exabytes of stored data (print, film, computer data)- the equivalent of 500,000 libraries of congress EVERY YEAR. there are 50 million blogs on the internet, and the that number is doubling every 6 months; Wikipedia, the web-based encyclopedia compiled by users has over 2 million articles.
• Google, where much of the world’s knowledge is indexed and made accessible has more computer servers than there were computers in the world in 1970

But is all this knowledge actually enriching us? My fear is that this huge advance is not being accompanied by actual cultural development, for several reasons: 1) There are political and cultural groups who fear this democracy of information- the Chinese government are a prime example- all of the major internet search engines having famously had to censor their results- a search on ‘Tiananmen square’ on Google China will not pull any references to the 1989 massacre Conversely there are plenty of groups seeking to utilise the information highway to destroy freedom and justice- cults, fundamentalist groups, terrorist, etc.
2) A large population of the world does not have access to the information superhighway- poverty still disenfranchises through preventing popular education in all senses.

However one can reasonably expect humanity to continue to triumph, or improve its record on these 2 issues: Just as Soviet Russia crumbled, China will have to embrace some form of democracy- (in the 2nd decade of this century their youth working demographic will shift against them- leaving them probably not enough young people to sustain their current economic growth- huge social/cultural change will be needed); fundamentalism and extremism ultimately destroy themselves; and global poverty is at an all time low thanks, in principal, to the rise of China and India as economic powers.

However my concern is not so much with those who are being PREVENTED from accessing the information age, as the decline of those who ARE. A sage once said that the danger with the technology revolution was not that computers would become more human, but that humans would become more like computers.

And ultimately, the reality of the information age is that it’s a product of computer mechanisation on a huge scale- with relatively few humans involved- as opposed to a collective human development. Google may have made the world’s knowledge universally accessible, but that doesn’t mean that people are consuming it. Look around you, and you see a society perpetually plugged in and switched on- play stations, mobile phones, Blackberries, laptops, ipods. But are the people at the end of these devices more knowledgeable, more culturally informed? Or are they merely outsourcing their entertainment to ‘the network’? Has the information age enriched us, or have we have become flesh-based hard disk drives?

Consider this parable: When at boarding school I remember hearing the poem of the Ancient Mariner on the radio. It transfixed me and desperately sought it to read it. Now this was in 1986, so if I wanted to read this poem for myself, I had to go find it in the school library. The problem was it wasn’t there-the volume of the Oxford Companion of 18th century verse had mysteriously disappeared (like so much else at my school). So, I had to wait 5 days for the weekly minibus trip to the nearest town, when I was able to borrow it from the public library. The anticipation of that trip, of actually getting the poem was so great that when finally in my hands, I devoured it over and over again, and can still recite much of it to this day. The point being, the THRILL of this discovery was in the CHASE. Nowadays, I need only tap ‘Ancient Mariner’ into Google and up it pops- no challenge at all. But the problem with this is that, knowing that so much information is at our fingertips, I think we don’t seek it out, safe in the comfort that it’s available if we want it. The comfort of the availability of information can, if we’re not careful, turn us from thrilled seekers to passive receivers.

And when you look behind some of the startling figures above, the realities are somewhat different: a relatively small percentage of the Wikipedia community actually edit and contribute- the majority passively view. Similarly, Technorati estimate that of 100 people engaged in a blog, on average 1 will create original posts; 9 will supply comments whilst 90 will passively view.

My point is that the huge democracy of information is actually being utilised and originated by a comparatively small bunch of people. The majority are either passively receiving, or using the advancements to make their lives EASIER not RICHER. Glass Bead Gamers will not be content with using the information age as a comfort-blanket of ANSWERS; they will utilise its power to ask vital QUESTIONS. And the more people who utilise it in this way, the more popular education, freedom and justice will truly advance.

So, we must rejoice in our new democracy, but not forget to vote! Lest we become idle and immobilised on the sea of human knowledge- like the Ancient Mariner:

Day after day, day after day
We stuck, nor rythme nor motion
As idle as a painted ship
Upon a painted ocean

The Hermit and the Shepherd

My Irish Nana told me this story when I was young……..



Once there was a man who was considered the wisest and most knowledgeable in his land. He was revered and respected by everyone, and many people sought to be like him, and to attain his position in society.

On day, the man decided that, as he had achieved so much in his life, he needed to go and search for God. In order to do this, he decided to withdraw from society- to become a hermit. He would go and live in the remotest cave he could find, where he would seek to find and understand God. So he left his home, and travelled to the remotest cave in the land.

There he remained for a year. He wrangled with himself- God was nowhere to be seen- he argued and debated with himself, but God was nowhere to be found. He poured every ounce of his energy into searching and seeking to understand and know God, but in vain. Finally, he became angry and frustrated, and in a fit of rage scrawled in large letters on the cave wall:

GOD IS NOWHERE

He stormed out of the cave and walked off into the wilderness- a broken man.

Later that day, a shepherd wandered into the cave, in search of a missing sheep. As he looked around he saw the writing on the wall. Being poor and badly educated, he could only barely read, so he had to trace the letters individually, speaking them out loud as he did so:

“ G-O-D, God……..I-S, is……N-O-W, now…..H-E-R-E, here……God is now here….GOD IS NOW HERE!”

The shepherd was overjoyed- he ran out of the cave shouting “God is now here!” He ran back to his family to tell them the news, and they rejoiced at the news that they would be saved.

There hermit in this story seems to me to represent 21st century western society- rich, gifted, complex, advanced- yet paralysed by the over-expectation that this brings, so that we are often bitter and unfulfilled. Developing societies often retain their simplicity, their innocence and are accepting of what they have.

Therein lies the road to contentment…………….

What is happiness? I prefer to go with Aristotle's definition- that it is the thing one does solely for its own sake. So if you follow Socratic dialectic- someone may wish to have a facelift ;why do they wish this? Because it will make them look younger. Why? Because looking younger will make them feel better about themselves in comparison with their peers. Why? Because feeling better about themselves will make them happy. There is nowhere else to go from here- happiness is the end result, the end of the line, the thing one does solely for its own sake.So why in a world with so much advancement is happiness so elusive? For me the nature of this advancement is the problem- in western society we are richer, older, healthier than ever before. We have access to more money, information, resources and people than even our post-war parents. And all of these things give us choice, too much choice, and too much complexity. We have so much choice that we are prevented from making the simple decisions- is feeling younger in comparison to my peer group really necessary for greater self esteem?

The World Values Organisation recently conducted an extensive survey on which countries in the world were the happiest- and how what constitutes happiness changes from country to country.What's the happiest country in the world? NIGERIA. Nigeria has the highest % of its population declaring themselves happy. Now Nigeria is an extremely violent country (Lagos is one of the murder capitals of the world) and poverty affects large swathes of the population, yet they are the happiest people on earth. And they're not alone- 3rd world countries are generally happier than developed countries, in this and other studies (the USA comes 16th, the UK 24th)Throughout this study the recurring theme is that the choice and complexity of 'developed' society does not lead to happiness.
As a postscript to my example of cosmetic surgery above, The Washington Post reports that women who can afford the luxury of breast implants are more than three times as likely to commit suicide. Ceci Connolly writes in The Washington Post that studies in Finland, Sweden and the U.S. all show the same reaction. This isn't true with women who’ve had mastectomies, only with those who enlarge their breasts for cosmetic reasons.
Being able to spend money this way is an incredible luxury, so why does it leave women so depressed? Researchers think that women who want this kind of procedure think it will solve their psychological and dating problems—and then find out it doesn't.
So with greater choice comes greater expectation, and bitterness when this is not fulfilled.
On of the worrying things from the World Values Survey is that old people are happier than young people, even though BOTH groups think that young people are the happiest.
Scientists say that older people forget how happy (or unhappy) they were when they were young, while young people simply assume that they won't be very happy when they're old.
Kids becoming teenagers these days in western society are faced with so many expectations- material, emotional, sexual- combined with ‘choice’ and the apparent attainability of fame and riches without application, that its not surprising they are trepidous about the future. Albert Camus once wrote ‘modern man will be remembered for fornicating and reading the papers’, and that was 50 years before reality TV!

But why do some third world countries appear happier despite being in great need? Enter the Hermit and the Shepherd………….

The Paradox of our times......

At the end of the 19th century the US patent office recommended that it be closed down. Why? Because it believed there was nothing left to invent…………

A breathtaking thought when you consider the monumental advances of the 20th century.

But then couple that thought with another……..studies conducted at the beginning of the 21st century show that western society is the unhappiest its been for 50 years. This is a statistical fact, because happiness is a physical thing- it can be measured by how much serotonin is in the body- and these levels are at their lowest for half a century. (see my next post more a detailed global study on happiness levels).

So in a hundred years we’ve moved from believing we were at the high point of our development, to being the unhappiest we’ve been, despite being richer, more knowledgeable and healthier than at any time in human history.

Why is the richest and most advanced incarnation of humanity so f***ing miserable?

I seek to answer this question in my next few posts, calling on a Hermit, a Shepherd and an Ancient Mariner…….

Welcome to the Glass Bead Game

This blog takes its name from a novel by Hermann Hesse, the German writer, and one of the greatest literary figures humanity will ever witness. In the book, the Glass Bead Game is an ascetic game played by cerebral athletes, who find a way of representing all of the threads of human knowledge- literature, science, history, philosophy, music- through a series of symbols. These symbols, represented by glass beads, are then placed by the players in continuing patterns, representing the links between the themes. The game is devised by the intellectuals as a defence mechanism against a superficial and individualistic society, as a way of protecting knowledge and the love of wisdom in the face of relentless dumbing down. Sound familiar?

This blog has no such lofty pretensions- but it takes the spirit of the Glass Bead Game as its starting point: In the context of the 21st century, a Glass Bead player could be anyone who seeks to think, learn, reflect, and share this love of knowledge with others. In the context of our frenzied, advanced and ultra-complex age, a latter day Glass Bead Game player can be anyone who pauses to think, to ask questions, to muse on the ‘why?’ as well as the ‘how?’ You know a Glass Bead game player as soon as you meet them- they’re people who ‘get it’- people who thirst for knowledge and are curious about the physical and metaphysical around them. The dumbed-down vision that Hesse portrayed in his book is arguably more real to us in 21st century than he could ever have imagined- together we must protect our minds and, ultimately, our freedom, through playing our own version of the Glass Bead Game. I provide my own humble views as a starting point, embracing in true Socratic fashion that in attempting intelligence I reflect only my own ignorance. Please contribute as freely as you like- all free thought and examined lives are worthy of record.

A lot of the stuff here I have pouring over in my mind for years, and is influenced by a huge range of sources. People write for different reasons- for expression, for therapy, for clarity. This blog is dedicated to the crazy diamond who inspired me to believe I had something worthwhile to say.