The point Żydowicz was trying to make speaks to the same thorn that's been embedded in social remediation (aka Affirmative Action) since its inception: if you choose people based on identity characteristics are you choosing the best people? If your qualifications for any position (from art to jobs to college admins) are not based solely on merit and excellence are you sacrificing merit and excellence?
But liberals have never been able to have this conversation, I think because of Sowell's "Unconstrained Vision": because of the intense messianic moralism that's infused the Civil Rights movement and all its various offshoots, liberals simply can't accept that there will always be tradeoffs and/or unexpected consequences to any policy. Their dogma insists that all differences and inequalities are wholly socially constructed, and thus no one can be better/worse talented/untalented, there are just people who have yet to receive sufficient social support, so championing and supporting these various "marginalized" people is the entire purpose and goal of their moral crusade—combined with attacking anyone who dissents.
And while this may be facing pushback in things like employment or college admins, there is simply NO HOPE here when it comes to Western art and culture. Individual talent and vision, as well as esthetics, were overthrown decades ago and were replaced by the same stale Left-therapeutic gestures that everyone must worship and replicate if they want any kind of successful career. We're 30 years out from things like Arlene Croce's "Discussing the Undiscussable" (amongst other protests against the suffocation of the arts by people like Robert Hughes and Camille Paglia), where she nailed the new dispensation—"[artists] representing themselves to the public not as artists but as victims and martyrs" "When even museum directors can talk about 'using art' to meet this or that social need, you know that disinterested art has become anathema"—and nothing has changed since then, except now the orthodoxy is policed by the millions of mad Furies of social media.
Social Justice may be fading here or there, but it has been the reigning belief system of anyone in arts or culture for maybe 2 generations now, and that is probably not changing in our lifetimes.
I'm afraid you're right: "Social Justice may be fading here or there, but it has been the reigning belief system of anyone in arts or culture for maybe 2 generations now, and that is probably not changing in our lifetimes." And I'm a big admirer of Sowell. Lefties would do well to finally pay attention to him.
I really hate to be a crabby pessimist here, but I'm guessing I'm a bit older than you (I'm 55) and I went to an "arts college" back in the 80s and am still kind of in shock how this same post-60s "trangressive" identity art has never evolved or even budged.
How many repeats or copies of Karen Finley or Cindy Sherman or "Piss Christ" etc have we lived through since then? And the same dancing on the grave of the old world—it's a black George Washington! A lesbian Virgin Mary! And also the erasure of the esthetic in the name of a sacred victim class—"We have to go to this exhibit, all the artists have AIDS!" All this was stale by the turn of this century, and here we are on the cusp of 2025—and what was once a rote reflex or just lazy social signaling has hardened into this intensive punitive dogma, where artists boycott other artists for blasphemy.
I don't know how many years I have left, I'm just hoping that this rigid orthodoxy cracks and crumbles sometime before I'm dead—but it's not looking good!
My only hope/musing is that the short youtube and tiktoks that my teenagers are watching aren't woke, and just exist to tell a good tale. Perhaps someday a kind of short form video will be seen as art or culture.
Well, if they're telling a good tale, then that's definitely a step in the right direction. I've seen 30 second commercials and even shorter vids that are works of art.
Well, now I want to see it despite McQueen's antics! I try to know as little as possible about directors so I can watch the movie without any outside noise. Alas, that's getting harder to do these days.
The point Żydowicz was trying to make speaks to the same thorn that's been embedded in social remediation (aka Affirmative Action) since its inception: if you choose people based on identity characteristics are you choosing the best people? If your qualifications for any position (from art to jobs to college admins) are not based solely on merit and excellence are you sacrificing merit and excellence?
But liberals have never been able to have this conversation, I think because of Sowell's "Unconstrained Vision": because of the intense messianic moralism that's infused the Civil Rights movement and all its various offshoots, liberals simply can't accept that there will always be tradeoffs and/or unexpected consequences to any policy. Their dogma insists that all differences and inequalities are wholly socially constructed, and thus no one can be better/worse talented/untalented, there are just people who have yet to receive sufficient social support, so championing and supporting these various "marginalized" people is the entire purpose and goal of their moral crusade—combined with attacking anyone who dissents.
And while this may be facing pushback in things like employment or college admins, there is simply NO HOPE here when it comes to Western art and culture. Individual talent and vision, as well as esthetics, were overthrown decades ago and were replaced by the same stale Left-therapeutic gestures that everyone must worship and replicate if they want any kind of successful career. We're 30 years out from things like Arlene Croce's "Discussing the Undiscussable" (amongst other protests against the suffocation of the arts by people like Robert Hughes and Camille Paglia), where she nailed the new dispensation—"[artists] representing themselves to the public not as artists but as victims and martyrs" "When even museum directors can talk about 'using art' to meet this or that social need, you know that disinterested art has become anathema"—and nothing has changed since then, except now the orthodoxy is policed by the millions of mad Furies of social media.
Social Justice may be fading here or there, but it has been the reigning belief system of anyone in arts or culture for maybe 2 generations now, and that is probably not changing in our lifetimes.
I'm afraid you're right: "Social Justice may be fading here or there, but it has been the reigning belief system of anyone in arts or culture for maybe 2 generations now, and that is probably not changing in our lifetimes." And I'm a big admirer of Sowell. Lefties would do well to finally pay attention to him.
I really hate to be a crabby pessimist here, but I'm guessing I'm a bit older than you (I'm 55) and I went to an "arts college" back in the 80s and am still kind of in shock how this same post-60s "trangressive" identity art has never evolved or even budged.
How many repeats or copies of Karen Finley or Cindy Sherman or "Piss Christ" etc have we lived through since then? And the same dancing on the grave of the old world—it's a black George Washington! A lesbian Virgin Mary! And also the erasure of the esthetic in the name of a sacred victim class—"We have to go to this exhibit, all the artists have AIDS!" All this was stale by the turn of this century, and here we are on the cusp of 2025—and what was once a rote reflex or just lazy social signaling has hardened into this intensive punitive dogma, where artists boycott other artists for blasphemy.
I don't know how many years I have left, I'm just hoping that this rigid orthodoxy cracks and crumbles sometime before I'm dead—but it's not looking good!
Thanks for your excellent piece.
My only hope/musing is that the short youtube and tiktoks that my teenagers are watching aren't woke, and just exist to tell a good tale. Perhaps someday a kind of short form video will be seen as art or culture.
Well, if they're telling a good tale, then that's definitely a step in the right direction. I've seen 30 second commercials and even shorter vids that are works of art.
We saw "Blitz" last night. Quite the masterpiece. What a disappointment to see that McQueen has acted so uncharitably.
Well, now I want to see it despite McQueen's antics! I try to know as little as possible about directors so I can watch the movie without any outside noise. Alas, that's getting harder to do these days.