I firmly believe one of the main goals of socialism should be to revive beauty in everyday life and make society beautiful again.
Look at photos of Western cities from 110 years ago and you will see how gorgeous and majestic the buildings were. Walk into any old Catholic cathedral and it will move your spirit. Or, look at all of the beautiful Socialist Realist art made in the Soviet Union and other Eastern Bloc nations and how it transformed everyday working people into glorified heroes. Same with the music: classical music is deeply compelling and moving.
Today’s “art” couldn’t be more different. Architecture has become dull and drab. Modern “art” like abstract expressionism makes you feel angry and resentful. Our cities are also littered with graffiti which invokes the exact same feelings of resentment. Music has gone from orchestras collectively performing epic symphonies to a single music producer pushing buttons on an Akai MPC sampler. Hip hop, electronic music and other sample-based “music” creates a sense of distortion in listeners.
All of this has greatly contributed to the capitalist mindset. When people are surrounded by ugly “art” and “music” they start to see the world as innately ugly. When this happens they start to become withdrawn and lose all sense of solidarity with their fellow man. It leads to social isolation, resentment, confusion and distortion. Anger. A breakdown of love. And it makes people feel as if they have no stake in defending society because all they see society as is ugly and alienating.
Art under socialism is different. The USSR banned jazz (some of the first degenerate “music”) and China bans hip hop. China also bans graffiti and punishes it with jail time. Real socialist nations do NOT celebrate the gutter but promote beauty as a way of festering solidarity between working people. This is what we must return to.(Rule 12 - low-quality reactionary nonsense)
69 posts and 11 image replies omitted.>>2269265*retards, we're multiple people
>Just because you repeat it doesn't mean it will happen. If you want to "utterly transform society" change the mode of production first.true, we don't disagree, but you should have some program of what will be done upon a successful revolution
>>2269262I was not a Stalinist until I met anarchists
The more I interact with anarchists, the more Stalinist I become
>>2269172I am black and I do not hate fags
graffiti is still lumpen shit though
>>2269185yes
leave the hammer and sickle engraving to actual talented artists, you will only end up insulting this glorious symbol
>>2269257>art is for college students>proletariats can't appreciate art>art isn't work working class peopleI love this take because it's just so stupid, it almost has to be projection.
>>2269282I am sure you have totally normal and not all cringe opinions on abortion rights.
>>2269264We are faced with two choices: to continue as we have done for forty years fanning our pamphlets against the hurricane, or starting to build a new revolutionary culture {…} - George Jackson
>>2269299art is not work
go sip your latte on NYU campus you fucking liberal
>“If there was hope, it must lie in the proles, because only there, in those swarming disregarded masses, eighty-five percent of the population of Oceania, could the force to destroy the Party ever be generated. The Party could not be overthrown from within. Its enemies, if it had any enemies, had no way of coming together or even of identifying one another. Even if the legendary Brotherhood existed, as just possibly it might, it was inconceivable that its members could ever assemble in larger numbers than twos and threes. Rebellion meant a look in the eyes, an inflection of the voice; at the most, an occasional whispered word. But the proles, if only they could somehow become conscious of their own strength, would have no need to conspire. They need only to rise up and shake themselves like a horse shaking off flies. If they chose they could blow the Party to pieces tomorrow morning. Surely sooner or later it must occur to them to do it.”
– George Orwell
>>2269411It is and way better than doomscrolling the internet. I just help out (family thing) but ended up getting into it. As far as material costs, you're also correct, but they have this setup where it's half an events rental business (you need space for this) which pays the bills. So, essentially the events subsidize the galleries. Or, like, you have an extra room, turn it into a rented podcast studio, yoga class for someone who has one and needs a space for it, etc. Martial arts. The area amateur redneck-wrestling league. Things like that.
Also doing things like an annual arts festival and charging a fee for the vendors. Overall it turns a small profit. You also need a core of people on the board who are good at organizing and have an "in" with other local movers and shakers to help pull big events off or send the bored local firefighters over to power wash something because they don't have anything else to do.
>>2268987>>2268997>>2269002>>2269002>>2269124Autistic and chronically ill comrade here.
I don't think you understand that one major reason why modern American architecture looks that way is because those buildings are the best for disabled and neurodivergent folks like me. Most of those "beautiful old buildings" were torn down because they didn't meet ADA regulations when it came to accessibility. Any disabled/neurodivergent person who has ever been to Europe will tell you what I mean. Old European buildings may look nicer but they are highly inaccessible. Most of them don't have ramps or elevators. That kind of architecture that's heavy on details is very bad for autistic sensory issues. Cobblestone roads are terrible for wheelchairs and other mobility aids. I would even go so far as to say walkable cities in themselves are highly ableist because a lot of us need cars to get around since we can't walk for very long. There are a lot of autistic people who need to be driven around by caregivers.
You may call modern architecture and buildings "ugly" but it's not without reason. I would sacrifice beauty for society to affirm my neurodivergent and disabled identity in an instant.
>>2269432the interior of the old buildings were definitely not up to standards for disabled ppl yeah but we are talking about the exterior look
You can build modern standards buildings with old school facades
>>2269063Sample-based music is reactionary by its very nature. Not only does it make music more generic but it also destroys the communal nature of music. Classical music takes an entire orchestra to perform. Folk music was meant to be played live with audience participation. Music stealing AKA "sampling" makes the producer an absolute oligarch which is furthers the alienation of the working-class from music.
Th working-class never asked for hip hop or electronic music. Those genres were specifically created by the lumpen for the lumpen and promoted by cultured elites because said elites prop up the lumpen in order to weaponize them against the actual proletariat. The same people who think J Dilla pushing buttons on a sampler was “innovative” are the same people who think Jackson Pollock splattering paint on a canvas was “innovative.”
You think China gives its youth MPCs and tells them to sample? No. They give their children legitimate instruments and teach them classical music, which is what socialists SHOULD be doing.
>>2268987>Hip hop, electronic music and other sample-based “music” creates a sense of distortion in listeners.>When people are surrounded by ugly “art” and “music” they start to see the world as innately ugly. When this happens they start to become withdrawn and lose all sense of solidarity with their fellow man. It leads to social isolation, resentment, confusion and distortion. Anger. A breakdown of love. And it makes people feel as if they have no stake in defending society because all they see society as is ugly and alienating.>Art under socialism is different. The USSR banned jazz (some of the first degenerate “music”) and China bans hip hop. China also bans graffiti and punishes it with jail time. Real socialist nations do NOT celebrate the gutter but promote beauty as a way of festering solidarity between working people. This is what we must return to.You're not fooling anyone, /pol/yp.
Art doesn't necessarily have to evoke feelings of solidarity and hope, sometimes people are allowed to convey despair and their feelings of despair.
Trying to monopolise art and destroy it for being "degenerate" is the stupid shit that the Nazis tried to.
Art can disturb the comforted and comfort the disturb. People have a right to break and challenge traditional conventions and social norms. A renaissance painting has equal value to Marcel Duchamp's "fountain" either due to their aesthetic and technical expertise or that they have been able to challenge the very notion of art itself.
If you truly believe that capitalism is the route cause of all suffering, then why do you disparage art movements or art that encapsulates said suffering?
You'll get beauty and solidarity by physically creating institutions from foodbanks, collective canteens, boarding houses, communal gardens, quality public education, and being able to teach civillians how to manage their affairs and to be politically vigilant. Then, and only then will you see "beautiful" art.
>>2269497>The same people who think J Dilla pushing buttons on a sampler was “innovative” are the same people who think Jackson Pollock splattering paint on a canvas was “innovative.”Except the kind of art and music you're talking about isn't at all what the current hegemonic culture is feeding us. You know that saying: "The opposite of love isn't hate; the opposite of love is indifference"? I'd say the opposite of beauty isn't ugly; the opposite of beauty is blandness. The problem isn't that everything is "ugly" nowadays but that everything is bland, generic, and personality-less. What mainstream culture promotes nowadays isn't chaotic and distorted art and music but lowest-common-denominator minimalism that lacks any real personality. Yeah, you may say the paintings of Jackson Pollock ("the CIA's favourite") or the beat tapes of J Dilla ("the intellectual elites' favourite") are "ugly" but you'd be hard put to deny they have qualities to them that make them distinct.
Look at the Billboard Top 100 and you won't find many songs that involve layering samples upon samples upon samples. Look at the art used as home decor and you won't find much that resembles Pollock. Hell, look at modern home decor in general and you'll notice how much contemporary living spaces look like dentist office waiting rooms or Apple stores. Fashion too has become incredibly dull. Everything is white, beige, and grey with zero funky colours anymore.
That's largely because art, music, fashion, home decor, architecture, etc. is all about efficiency. The years of selling fantasy are over, now it's about mass production via social media. Nearly everything is about catering towards social media.
Also, sampling IS a legitimate form of making music. All those Joe Hill songs you sing every May Day used melodies stolen from church hymns.
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