Re: [-empyre-] Re: empyre digest, Vol 1 #129

["Patrick Lichty" <voyd@voyd.com>]

> I think there's a fine line between artistic integrity and
self-indulgence.
>
> Navigating that line is a personal dilemna. For some, it isn't even an
issue.

Exactly.

> I agree. So much media art is serviced by the premise " I can therefore I
> will". What about the shoulda question?

Yes - should or not to should - that is the question.  But then, that's
another conundrum.  Whose 'should'?

> The only form of PDA art I can see myself making, not that I am
considering
> it, is the sort that spams those bloody lawyers, et al to oblivion, short
> text messages of horrifying statistics of terrible disasters occurred as a
> result of their handiwork. Something like that. Angry and simple art does
> wonders.

I agree. Humorous art that humiliates and irks them works even better.

> In this case, my target audience would be PDA users only, not the wider
> population.

Of course.

> He only gives a damn about the War on terror which I coin War of Terror.
That's only a tool for mass control.

> And what about ...
> And OIL! Ahh the firm friend of the Bushes.
You're preaching to the choir in context with me here.

Balance...
> Tell that to the HIV/AIDS sufferers in Africa, in Nepal. Tell that to the
> child sold into prostitution by their parents. Tell that to women in
> Athens, yes Greece, who can only get connected to a LAND phone if their
> husbands or exes endorse it, bad luck if your ex-husband is a wife beating
> slug, and tell that to women in Japan who must still ask husbands to stand
> guarantor if they want to open a simple savings bank account. Tell that to
> the cold and hungry people in Louisiana.

If you feel that we must eschew all except civic didactic utilitarianism in
culture, then I suggest you are taking a stance that is very similar to that
of Socialist Realism, Orwell's 1984, early 20th Century Totalitarian and
Fascist ideologies.  I am not calling you any of these things (Nazi,
Fascist, et al), but such an approach is very similar to those ideologies,
or at least their attitudes towards art.

I do the best I know how. I am very active in the fight for the rights of
all living things as well (under different personae, and I do not feel
supporting humanity is the sole purpose of the Earth), but this is not
germane to this discussion.

However, I don't have to justify myself  here; I do it only because I wish
to.

> What morality or standard dictates that technology is a priority?
Judeo-Christianity and the Enlightenment.

> Let's not kid ourselves, us sitting pretty in our comfy heated homes
typing
> on computers and proselytising.

I've been on both sides, and am lucky to be where I am.  Been broke and
homeless, not rich now, have had times when I wondered whether my wife and I
would lose our home.

I'd like to get back on topic.
Thanks.