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Show FOCUS 72 t Art for man by Mark Gustavson J within the Cosmos. The arts - each in their own way - deal with a subject sub-ject that should be our primary concern: the mindspirit of Man. But rather than devote a greater ' 1; Since consciousness first dawned in the mind of Man, there have been certain activities of the hum-s5an hum-s5an spirit that have inspired Man to k look beyond the immediate: to lift t the veil that hides tomorrow, to hope, to dream. Amid the tragedies II; and despairs, the artistic expres-sf expres-sf sions of Man seem to express a ifr missing element in virtually every human society: we have ignored li the things of the spirit and have at mistaken our tools for our goals. j These two mistakes are the causes sfof the myopia that has plagued Man for so long: instead of planning plan-ning only hours into the future, we need long range, wildly visionary ic, ideas of what Man should one day become. As a result of our collective collec-tive stupidity, we have blindly ,r stumbled through the ages, only lS:occasionaly - and even then dimly glimpsing what Man could do with j:his mind. It is apparent that, even with a u-mildly critical appraisal of world .culture, we tend to elevate the non-essentials and demean or ignore j!.those things of intrinsic value: the jarts. Philosophy, music, literature, j .the visual arts are those creative expressions of the human spirit which are aimed at more fully contemplating con-templating existence and our place proportion of our energies and resources re-sources to such study and expression, expres-sion, human beings become preoccupied pre-occupied with things and activities of no value. We can manufacture all of the gadgets and notorious "labor-saving" devices (which do not, in point of fact, reduce labor) with real proliference and proficiency, but we ignore those activities which make life worth living: you will not see, for instance, thousands of eager and receptive people filling a hall to hear a philosopher or artist art-ist discuss his expertise. You will, however, find vast numbers of people peo-ple participating, in an ersatz fashion, fas-hion, in the collective barbarity of football. When I discuss our preoccupation preoccupa-tion with gadgets and paraphernalia, parapherna-lia, my objection is not that they - exist, but in the way we use them: instead of tools to help us conquer the universe, we have allowed them to become our masters. The use of technology can go either way: we can become enslaved to things by thinking of them as ends in themselves, or we can utilize technology and the things it produces pro-duces to aid us in our contemplation contempla-tion of the universe and ourselves. The technology that enables Man to walk the moon has been properly pro-perly used, because it advances Man along a lyrical path that will enable us, if we use our reason and successfully elude barbarism, to become gods. The point to all of this is that we must not mistake means for ends; our technocratic excellence must be viewed as a method and not as a goal. However, the issue of whether or not technology is worthwhile, what its uses should be, etc., is symptomatic of a larger failing: Man, by and large, does not dream. We live only for today and as a result we have failed to plan our future. It should not surprise us when we achieve an eternal reoccurrence re-occurrence of todays that are meaningless, mean-ingless, devoid of goal, stripped of hope. Admittedly, it is not chic these days to speak of the things of the spiritmind. We have become so tied down to the here and now that we cannot save ourselves from the destruction that will come from such lack of foresight. Now, more than ever before, we need to talk about, and aim our energies at, the things of the spirit and an assessment as-sessment of our place in the universe. uni-verse. We need to advance the studies stu-dies of literature, philosophy, art, music and pure science. It is such things, these contemplation, these expressions of our hopes, our perceptions per-ceptions and dreams, that make life worth living and separates Man from the beasts of the field. |