Why Bother With Judges

“People who say it cannot be done should not interrupt those who are doing it.” —George Bernard Shaw

1/7/21

We all yearn to be appreciated for who we are and for what we do. We would like ourselves to know and others perceive that what we do is generated sincerely not only from who we are but also, in the same light, our actions will illuminate who we are.

These aspirations are noble but, realistically, are full of pit falls. Most treacherous of these is that ever murky terrain of value judgments. Whether it pleases us or not, or we are willing to or not, we must plumb these judgments in order to garner any sort of perception of how we relate to the world as we find it. Even if such a miraculous event should ever occur that we are left to our own inclinations to define truth, we would still have to navigate the reality of how the world receives our truth.

And, as if the world at times does not vex our integrity enough, we also must traverse the sometimes fertile, sometimes inhospitable, and sometimes endless stretches of imagery that we are how we conjure own identity. As we grow and become well acquainted with the capricious aspects of life, our experiences, both in our artistic and personal lives, introduce us to judgments that we may or may not agree to hold, but which seem at the time to carry great importance to our careers or personal survival.

I am noting here nothing of great surprise to any of us. Even when we are still quite young we are conversant with judgment and conscious of the accumulation of judgments which proscribe our behaviors. Nothing new here. But as artists there is a traditional and special aspect to our calling, which is that we are doomed and/or honored (pick your poison) to be the conscience of our societies. In short, that we are to tell the truth about the human condition. And to tell those truths equally to the slave and the slave holder, the ruler and the ruled, the advantaged and the disadvantaged. All of whom declare there are different truths for each. 

I am here not to argue such highfaluting concepts as to if any truth is immutable or what indeed is a truth, and if really anyone can perceive a truth that universally defines the human condition. That’s your job. My job is to posit the old maxim that an artist can take no master, but will have many teachers. For, as artists, we must always remember that the world amuses its self with its lethal wars over truth and that we must not be mastered by the powerful or the powerless.

Does this mean we are to be inactive, passive, or neutral, and to take no sides?  Au contraire, Hamlet. This means that we are to be constantly observant, constantly evaluating how the factors of dominance and subservience affect the human condition, and create works that reveal the true consequences of inequity.

But how are we to do this? Who are we to say we have truth? And if we feel we do, how do we avoid becoming self-congratulatory, proud, pompous, and domineering ourselves?  And how, in the presentation of our discoveries retain the humility that is the truth seekers’ traditional aspiration?  Ah, if I knew the answers to any of these questions, I could make my first million and share it among us all. 

And do any of these rambling theories apply to the specific interest or need an artist might have in agreeing to study, analyze, and confront our value judgments?