Make a Statement: The Arts Can be Powerful

"Plato had a love-hate relationship with the arts. He must have had some love for the arts, because he talks about them often, and his remarks show that he paid close attention to what he saw and heard. He was also a fine literary stylist and a great story-teller; in fact he is said to have been a poet before he encountered Socrates and became a philosopher. Some of his dialogues are real literary masterpieces. On the other hand, he found the arts threatening. He proposed sending the poets and playwrights out of his ideal Republic, or at least censoring what they wrote; and he wanted music and painting severely censored. The arts, he thought, are powerful shapers of character. Thus, to train and protect ideal citizens for an ideal society, the arts must be strictly controlled." Professor David Clowney, Rowan Univ.

Most artists, myself included, don't do enough with this powerful weapon we control. The arts, he thought, are powerful shapers of character - We can influence our world, we can bring our country back from the brink of insanity. We can unify, rather than just "Stay the Course". But how? What art movement can influence rather than manipulate society?

Plato feared the power of art, but he respected it enough to utilize it to convey his own ideas. But what coming artistic storm did Plato fear? Was it "Uncle Tom's Cabin" or the now-famous 1984-esque Macintosh Superbowl Commercial or was it the Nazi-influenced-and-supervised art, literature, film, music and architecture of the 30's and 40's in Germany? The knee-jerk reaction is the Nazi answer. But what if it was all three. What if Plato, we forget he was human, feared the arts because they were the only thing capable of finding something better than his ideal society and he (of all people) knew he could not fight a GOOD idea and win? - DN