The following text is a response to Edward Winkleman's post A Constant Crisis of Faith
First of all, certainty and doubt are fundamental catalysts to an enormity of social and political threads that are woven into our cultural makeup. As too much of anything can be potentially dangerous, certainty and doubt dwell precariously on both ends of the spectrum. The extremes of certainty and flirting with ideology can lead to what Adorno calls the “potentially fascist individual” (Adorno, The Authoritarian Personality). On the other hand, too much doubt without any pursuit of truth also becomes an ideology of sorts. Both extremes of certainty and doubt place us in the arena of an apathetic culture industry where compromise seems to be our only option.
It is fruitful to question all things, but tasteless to question without pursuing an answer. Questioning for the sake of questioning seems to be the popular way a post-modern society runs. And as it might seem to have a good utilitarian ideal in mind, that is the greatest good for the greatest number, it deploys our collective understanding of Truth into a vacuum and leaves us without a foundation upon which Truth was once built (God). This does not keep us from building onto what we already know about our history-- but where we find ourselves is a strange place of longing for some abstract original state of being (perhaps in the Garden with me and God), while combating our material tendencies (perhaps in the penthouse with me and myself). How did we get to a point in history where all things may (or may not be) considered as Truth? By using philosophy (modernism), politics (democracy), economics (capitalism), and religion (Protestantism) as benchmarks, The Self is arguably becoming more and more central to contemporary thought and is the very foundation of post-modernism.
"The modern artist suffers even more than society as a whole from the lack of any vital religious impulse. Like the individual who has been forced to find his own salvation, our painters tend to fall back upon exaltation of individuality as the way out....This state of affairs has produced and found an audience for most of the fashionable but transient movements of our day and since all else has failed, Freud has become the God of those nations which have not fallen under dictatorships...."
I personally do not trust in boundaries put between the world and the “art world.” As separate entities, like any other economy, these two positions are much more homogenous than we make them out to be. Therefore to say one is suffering more than the other is a violent misunderstanding of Arts’ relationship to the world. And true as it might be that Freud has become the God of our time is a way for us to point fingers and evade social responsibility to our own shortcomings. “All else failed” is a gesture to our fallibility. We point in whatever direction we can, but until we realize that we have been fallen from the beginning and we are a world in need of redemption, there is little we can do to “find our own salvation.”
I appreciate Kristin’s reference to Ecclesiastes that there is in fact nothing new under the sun. Point being that it is not God’s position that has changed, but our own position by our own doing.
All things are wearisome;
Man is not able to tell it.
The eye is not satisfied with seeing,
Nor is the ear filled with hearing.
That which has been is that which will be,
And that which has been done is that which will be done.
So there is nothing new under the sun.
(Ecclesiastes 1:8-9)
Uncertainty is not new to artists, let alone the rest of the world. The degree to which certainty has slipped from our grasp is due in part to our own mishandling of Truth as well as our ambition to rid it from those who have abused it. Uncertainty is our own doing and as it is our responsibility to combat cultural apathetic tendencies, it is our obligation to seek certainty, seek answers and work against the currents of popular culture so that we can gain a deeper understanding of the world. It is for this reason that artists tend to find themselves in the margins of society, pushing against the grain- but these are old paradigms which are beginning to tarnish as terms such as ‘artist,’ ‘curator,’ and ‘platformist’ begin to blur into one another.
This religious impulse is something that we desire to plug into but refuse to hold on to. We are built in skeptics who find no comfort in being certain of anything with the exception of that which is uncertain. Certainty is an impossible circuit to tap into if we continue to hold onto our doubts. This is why the notion of Faith is such a large fish to swallow. It requires of us a certain letting go of uncertainty in order that we might understand that which is certain (God). And this is why scripture continually refers to the notion of “dying to self” in order to gain life.
I do not intend to evangelize or impose any sort of belief system onto those who choose to read this post, I am merely referring to that religious impulse that we desire so much to have but are too selfish to attain. And if we were to attain it, chances are we would transform it into an ideology which would in turn make us into Pharisee. Understand here that when something requires a certain amount of uncertainty, we make it into something we can be certain of and make it something that it never was. That is the desperate condition of the religious impulse that we ourselves are unable to attain by our own doing.
First of all, certainty and doubt are fundamental catalysts to an enormity of social and political threads that are woven into our cultural makeup. As too much of anything can be potentially dangerous, certainty and doubt dwell precariously on both ends of the spectrum. The extremes of certainty and flirting with ideology can lead to what Adorno calls the “potentially fascist individual” (Adorno, The Authoritarian Personality). On the other hand, too much doubt without any pursuit of truth also becomes an ideology of sorts. Both extremes of certainty and doubt place us in the arena of an apathetic culture industry where compromise seems to be our only option.
It is fruitful to question all things, but tasteless to question without pursuing an answer. Questioning for the sake of questioning seems to be the popular way a post-modern society runs. And as it might seem to have a good utilitarian ideal in mind, that is the greatest good for the greatest number, it deploys our collective understanding of Truth into a vacuum and leaves us without a foundation upon which Truth was once built (God). This does not keep us from building onto what we already know about our history-- but where we find ourselves is a strange place of longing for some abstract original state of being (perhaps in the Garden with me and God), while combating our material tendencies (perhaps in the penthouse with me and myself). How did we get to a point in history where all things may (or may not be) considered as Truth? By using philosophy (modernism), politics (democracy), economics (capitalism), and religion (Protestantism) as benchmarks, The Self is arguably becoming more and more central to contemporary thought and is the very foundation of post-modernism.
"The modern artist suffers even more than society as a whole from the lack of any vital religious impulse. Like the individual who has been forced to find his own salvation, our painters tend to fall back upon exaltation of individuality as the way out....This state of affairs has produced and found an audience for most of the fashionable but transient movements of our day and since all else has failed, Freud has become the God of those nations which have not fallen under dictatorships...."
I personally do not trust in boundaries put between the world and the “art world.” As separate entities, like any other economy, these two positions are much more homogenous than we make them out to be. Therefore to say one is suffering more than the other is a violent misunderstanding of Arts’ relationship to the world. And true as it might be that Freud has become the God of our time is a way for us to point fingers and evade social responsibility to our own shortcomings. “All else failed” is a gesture to our fallibility. We point in whatever direction we can, but until we realize that we have been fallen from the beginning and we are a world in need of redemption, there is little we can do to “find our own salvation.”
I appreciate Kristin’s reference to Ecclesiastes that there is in fact nothing new under the sun. Point being that it is not God’s position that has changed, but our own position by our own doing.
All things are wearisome;
Man is not able to tell it.
The eye is not satisfied with seeing,
Nor is the ear filled with hearing.
That which has been is that which will be,
And that which has been done is that which will be done.
So there is nothing new under the sun.
(Ecclesiastes 1:8-9)
Uncertainty is not new to artists, let alone the rest of the world. The degree to which certainty has slipped from our grasp is due in part to our own mishandling of Truth as well as our ambition to rid it from those who have abused it. Uncertainty is our own doing and as it is our responsibility to combat cultural apathetic tendencies, it is our obligation to seek certainty, seek answers and work against the currents of popular culture so that we can gain a deeper understanding of the world. It is for this reason that artists tend to find themselves in the margins of society, pushing against the grain- but these are old paradigms which are beginning to tarnish as terms such as ‘artist,’ ‘curator,’ and ‘platformist’ begin to blur into one another.
This religious impulse is something that we desire to plug into but refuse to hold on to. We are built in skeptics who find no comfort in being certain of anything with the exception of that which is uncertain. Certainty is an impossible circuit to tap into if we continue to hold onto our doubts. This is why the notion of Faith is such a large fish to swallow. It requires of us a certain letting go of uncertainty in order that we might understand that which is certain (God). And this is why scripture continually refers to the notion of “dying to self” in order to gain life.
I do not intend to evangelize or impose any sort of belief system onto those who choose to read this post, I am merely referring to that religious impulse that we desire so much to have but are too selfish to attain. And if we were to attain it, chances are we would transform it into an ideology which would in turn make us into Pharisee. Understand here that when something requires a certain amount of uncertainty, we make it into something we can be certain of and make it something that it never was. That is the desperate condition of the religious impulse that we ourselves are unable to attain by our own doing.
"It is fruitful to question all things, but tasteless to question without pursuing an answer."
ReplyDeleteThat's a great line!
Good post!