Hi Dave,
Isn't that poem by Milosz powerful? It gives me chills. I'm glad you liked it.
I read your post to moenmac and was struck by it. Here's a piece:
but in spite of my long-held conservative views, I enjoy poetry, art, literature, and music. Those fields are very powerful forces and I believe conservatives would do well to cultivate them. In fact, I've observed first hand that their disdain of "liberal arts" (if you can stand to call them that) is self-defeating
FWIW, I have a few poet friends-- well-known guys, who are deeply politically conservative, totally pro-Bush, pro the Iraq war, etc. And they're two of the most creative minds writing out there. I don't think one's political beliefs are connected to creativity and openmindedness at all.
I think that the current very liberal crop of writers is more due to the cohort effect, as they call it in social science literature. Meaning that the baby boomers are now around fifty years old and came of age in the sixties and seventies (during the VN war)-- and it's *this* fact that's the reason many are liberal, rather than their propensity toward the arts.
I think the cohort effect accounts for the high amount of liberals in the academy now too. Twenty years from now, the current crop of college students, who are more politically conservative and who grew up in the time of rampant STDs like AIDs, will be running the academy and it'll look very different. IMO of course!
This won't be a surprise to you, but I too think that people benefit from exposure to the arts-- literaure, the visual arts, music. Good art speaks of, speaks to, the human experience. |
