If you are a paid member (either through FASO or BoldBrush Circle here on Substack), come see the latest ideas from us and our community in the BoldBrush Circle of Marketing community here: https://marketing.faso.com.

We encourage you to join us and become a paid member today here.

The Church of Art - Part I

On the importance of art — Is it up to the artists to save us?

The Church of Art - Part I

Assessing the mess we’re in

This is Part I of a three part series titled, The Church of Art. This part looks at the current state of civilization and some of the ways our institutions are failing. If you wish to comment on this essay, I only ask that you read it in it’s entirety first. The entire essay is posted on my personal Substack, Clinsights, with comments open, at the following link:

“The artist's task is to save the soul of mankind;
and anything less is a dithering while Rome burns.

Because of the artists, who are self-selected, for being able to journey into the Other…
if the artists cannot find the way, then the way cannot be found.”
— Terrence McKenna

I feel that we might be at the point that only Art can save humanity. Only art can wake up humanity. Only art can put us on a path of harmony that celebrates our differences while also reminding us what we have in common. Only art can explode our complacency. Religions have failed. Politics has failed. Western culture has failed. Materialism has failed. Technology has failed.

While all of those institutions have brought great advancements, they certainly have not harmonized us — that is what I mean when I say they have failed.

Not only have they not created harmony among us, instead, they’ve deeply divided us. Just look at the violence, envy, greed and tribalism of modernity — trends that are leading us down a depressing and dangerous path.

Yes, humanity is full of different cultures, ideals, religions, and politics. That is something to be celebrated! However, we need to find a way to allow disputes that arise from these differences to be resolved in a harmonious fashion instead of by simply one faction demonizing, hating, and more and more often, killing members of an “opposing” faction.

As Terrence McKenna said in the epigraph quote above, Rome is burning and our institutions are dithering.

Western culture has, for quite some time, denied The Mysterious, the spiritual, and the sacred. As The Enlightenment and the march of Science progressed, organized religions, at least in the west, seemed to have followed suit, and have focused on a kind of logical, knowledge-based sort of approach, rather than guiding seekers to the actual experience of the divine.

As a child, church felt like homework. Indeed, I was required to attend Sunday school. By then, it seems, many denominations had turned away from, and often discouraged members from following any of their more mystic traditions or sects. However, those mystic sects are the very places where the sacred act of entering The Mysteryis still pursued and revered.

I was never taught any form of communion with The Mystery. Prayer seemed to be asking for the divine to grant boons and favors — more talking than listening. Mostly, I was taught, that all the answers to any questions I have are “in the good book.” We even got a sort of “book report” each Sunday from the pastor, in the form of a sermon.

I love books, and reading is my favorite pastime, and what I found in the book was a deity who talked about providing “living water.” A living experience and communion with the divine. A deity that spoke of The Mystery. I didn’t know it at the time, but that’s what I longed for, and what, I think, we all long for.

My experience was obviously a christian-based one; I’ve had little exposure to how other religions conduct worship. And, I’m sure there are plenty of counter-examples which would reflect a different experience. But, in any case, despite the good and necessary functions churches provide, we can’t deny that we are more divided than ever, and organized religion hasn’t (yet) united us in at least a basic peace and love for one another.

In fact, some religions have done quite the opposite in various times and places. The very term “holy war” is an oxymoron. It has not been those who worship at the altar of art and creativity who have started wars and burned heretics.

Church attendance has fallen to all time lows and disastrously, people have turned away from the spiritual and, mankind, apparently needing something to worship, has made politics into the new religion. We are a tribal species after all, and transcending our tribal roots in harmony appears to be an almost insurmountable problem. It seems that for mankind, it’s always “us against them.”

“If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him.” — Voltaire

Having, collectively, abandoned religion (in the west, anyway), and, having invented our new God of Politics, we appear to have started a different kind of “holy war.” And it is raging between our two biggest “religions,” our political parties.

I, personally, know families — parents and children — who have disowned each other, who hate each other, over political beliefs. How can something as pedestrian and petty as politics divide one from the people they love? How can it divide any of us? Is this extreme division by design? As long as we are this divided, we will refuse to look for real solutions. Do our “venerable” institutions want real solutions?

“When the government is too intrusive, people lose their spirit.” — Tao Te Ching

How can we come together, to any degree, when the two subjects we are not allowed to even speak to one another about are religion and politics?

The two certainties in life are death (our biggest fear) and taxes (one of our biggest expenses) and these two important subjects are the purview of, you guessed it, religion and politics.

We are indoctrinated into the belief that these two institutions contain the keys to saving our souls and bettering our civilization, yet we are taught from childhood to never discuss either topic (and, by extension, to avoid discussing death or taxes) in polite company.

Do you see the giant elephant-sized problem in the corner of the proverbial room staring us in the face?

Outside of religion and politics, some people in the west have rediscovered eastern traditions.

Traditions such as meditation, new age experiences, spiritual practices, and seeking enlightenment. These pursuits often do allow one a chance to experience The Mystery (and some of these practices, in earlier times, were also a part of western religions).

While meditation is usually secularized or dismissed, I admit that I’ve felt closer to what might be called the “living energy of the divine” in meditation than I have anywhere else.

I think of it this way: if prayer is talking to God, meditation is listening to Him. Perhaps we all need to listen more and talk less. I’m not sure why meditation has been so diminished in the western tradition. Maybe in our western, market-driven thinking, some would prefer we get our answers from the organization rather than “dialing direct,” so to speak.

Whatever the case, I’m not here to sell you on meditation, it has, after all, already been “sold,” and has become, over the past few decades, increasingly popular in the west. My point, in this writing, is to highlight the fact that, meditation, and its new age cousins, have also failed to harmonize us.

The ideas of meditation, spirituality, new age, and similar practices are marginalized by the mainstream. They are slightly taboo. They are allowed in the west, but those who follow any of them are often joked about. We are accepting of them, as long as people stick to the “lite” versions for simple “stress relief.”

But, if you get too serious, you will simply be dismissed as too “woo-woo” or too “hippie.”

Materialism has a firm grip on our minds, indeed. And thus, these experiences, despite the intensity with which they may be felt within the practitioner, aren’t taken seriously, they aren’t utilized by enough people to create mainstream harmony, and are usually dismissed as fictions of the mind, or perhaps attributed to some sort of placebo effect.

In Part II, next week, we’ll look at where we went wrong and why, and in Part III (in two weeks), we’ll explore why I think the artists of the world, might be our best, last hope.

If you’d rather read and comment on the entire essay now, it’s all available on my personal Substack at the following link. As I asked at the top, if you choose to comment, please read the entire essay first:

Read or Leave a comment

FASO Loves Robert Goldman’s oil paintings!

See More of Robert Goldman’s art by clicking here.

Wouldn’t You Love to work with a website hosting company that actually promotes their artists?

As you can see, at FASO, we actually do, and,
we are the only website host we know of that does.

Click the button below to start working
with an art website host that actually cares about art.

Get Started with FASO for Free

You're currently a free subscriber to BoldBrush. For the full experience, upgrade your subscription.

Upgrade to paid

© 2024 Clint Watson
PO Box 700534, San Antonio, TX 78270
Unsubscribe