Re: a pause for thought.....


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Posted by Sean Chisham on March 12, 2003 at 00:28:22:

In Reply to: a pause for thought..... posted by Micky Wrobleski on March 11, 2003 at 23:06:51:

Artist

art-ist \'a^:rt-est\ n
(1581)
1a: one who professes and practices an imaginative art
1b: a person skilled in one of the fine arts
2: a skilled performer; esp: ARTISTE
3a obs: one skilled or versed in learned arts
3b archaic: PHYSICIAN
3c archaic: ARTISAN
4: one who is adept at deception

Athlete
ath-lete \'ath-,le^-t, /'ath-e-,le^-t\ n
[ME, fr. L athleta, fr. Gk athle^-te^-s, fr. athlein to contend for
a prize, fr. athlon prize, contest]
(15c)
:one who is trained or skilled in exercises, sports, or games requiring
physical strength, agility, or stamina

Why have art? It serves as a distraction from the rest of life and at the same time can add new thought and ideas to what could otherwise be a mundane existance. It provides mental pleasure. This is much the same reasons why professional sports exist. It provides for a leasurelly pleasure while also giving the audience something to thing about, converse about, and take part in. Sports make more money because, in general, there is less mental investment needed on the parts of the audience to appreciate what they are watching. There is some thought of course. I hate football. I find it boring. A large part of that is probably because I don't understand the sport and have little interest at this time of doing so. This is almost the exact same attitude shared by many of the people who I speak to who do not like classical music.

It comes down to education. People raised to have some level of understanding of art when they are very young will most likely have an appreciation for it when they become old enough to pay money for it. Sports has a much stronger fiscal base because there are millions more people who enjoy watching them even though the vast majority of those watching get no real tangible benefit from it besides the mental entertainment. Same goes for most forms of art. Although some professional teams may indeed fold and go on strike and have occasional ticket sales slumps, in general they are very stable financially. Does anyone really believe that MLB or the NFL or the NBA have any real difficulties ahead?

School systems and colleges use sports as a way to build school spirit. This is a type of interscholastic patriotism which many of the students, faculty, staff, and locals use to rally together. A way to join together in a pack to share successes and mourn losses. Part of this comes from the physical demands of sports verses say music, painting, or dance. The people playing the sports are the Alpha males and Alpha females. They are generally larger physically and therefore seen as leaders or authority figures to be respected or at least feared. This works especially well in younger children where a fist fight with a larger person winning the bout ends up in perhaps suspension for a day or two at worst instead of the adult world where it involves prison time.

A survival instinct is for animals to pack together. Strength in numbers. The physically stronger pack is going to be the athletes, not the musicians, or painters, or dancers. Students want to be like the quarterback, or the pitcher, or the point guard. You won't hear them discussing how well Barney sounded on his bass clarinet solo at last weeks concert. They will talk about how Mack nearly decapitated the quarterback of the visiting team in the second half of yesterday's homecoming game. Any animal understand violence and physical competition. Even gorillas compete physically for leadership positions and respect. For them to instead use higher mental processes such as artistic endeavors to win respect would take a level or mental agility posessed by few apes.

This use of sports, almost exclusivelly, to instill pride in students continues into adulthood where they latch onto professional sporting teams. The lack of education and lack of environmental boosting of the arts as a source of pride for people translates into a general ignorance of the mental benefits available.

The reason Pops concerts do so well is because most people watch TV or go to movies. The use of music as background material for cinema allows some level of exposure for the masses without as much of the mental process needed when say just listening to the music by itself. How many people 40 years ago would have enjoyed listening to Also Sprach Zarathustra? Today, everyone "knows" that tune and most enjoy listening to it, or at least the opening. Same goes for Ride of the Valkyries. Once Bugs Bunny used it, everyone "knows" it and you even hear it on people's cell phone ringers. Exposure and understanding go hand in hand. As Pops concerts have shown, once people are "educated" in classical music they begin to enjoy it and pay money for it.



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