Economic velocity and artistic creativity are the balancing acts of progress only when both move together. But there are many things missing in the mad rush for prosperity in Asian views of progress.
“So how do you see the zeal of such determined nations and their people?” I asked a professor of Humanities, my guru. He is familiar with cultures and general psyche of the industrial nations of Asia: He critically studies their cultures and progressive aspirations. The following ideas sum up what we tried to critique.
For such nations, the destination is visible and can be reached with confidence and determination. Nothing can deter them from the paths of glory. The future is promising. Everyone works hard, diligently and with purpose. Produce and sell is the motto! But amidst such madness to progress, one observes, something essential to civilization and culture is disavowed.
If one takes example of the European nations, one may realize that amidst the zeal for progress, its roots were rarely forgotten. Modernity of the eighteen century Enlightenment had carried its tradition in the domains of knowledge and aesthetics. The application of scientific methodology did not marginalize the arts and the humanities. Nineteenth century European nationalism had its political aspirations but did not ignore the revival of its folk consciousness. Germany and other nations glorified the uniqueness of common cultures and people. Then twentieth century modernism of capitalistic and technological kinds evolved around the avant-garde arts and literary movements. They had and have respites in such aesthetic domains whether they failed or succeeded in economic progress. There are many such values to rest upon whether economic progresses pace forward or not.
One does not thus conceive progress disavowing the domains of art and aesthetics. Economic velocity and artistic creativity are the balancing acts of progress only when both move together. But there are many things missing in the mad rush for prosperity in Asian views of progress. Europe is not an exception in the material story of growth but there are scopes and avenues of ethics and aesthetics. History is evident of its grandeurs of art and culture despite its ugly faces of colonialism.
Extreme economic measures blind men of their human sensitivities. The economic Asian giants sometimes seem to be desensitizing men around the missions of rapid economic growth. The loss cannot be easily seen around capitalistic and late-capitalistic consumerisms but the idea of loss is seen to be a useless rhetoric.
Those nations have been consistent who have understood the idea of organic evolution, the ideas of progress that take man ahead in a holistic way. Someone asks where you would look for if nations fail economically. The recession almost forced the idea of progress to self-critique people and nations in terms with human nature. After all, it is the greed which threw nations into recession. There may be immense conceptualizing and theorizing about the recession but one cannot reject the simplest of the causes of mega crisis – the greed – making money as fast as possible.
The velocity and rapidity of economic progress sometimes considers values of art and beauties of aesthetics as comic impediments in the path of progress. You may have heard people saying: Let us be rich first and when we have money we will take care of art and music, ethics and aesthetics. Such desires are the characteristics of economically-oriented progressive enthusiasts. Art and values can wait.
There are incongruous instances when arts and literatures accompany the idea of progress. You may have seen fanfare, performances and musical spectacles in East Asian television channels. I sometimes wonder why one does not take them as examples of art. They look beautiful, illustrative and decorative but evoke fleeting satisfactions only. They look like the elements of economy and consumer spectacle.
Such spectacles are alienated from life because you as a viewer watch them on stage or television screens but do not participate emotionally. Intellectual contents are lost and art turns into economic bonanza. I understand now why Edward Said in Music at the Limits is harsh on some of the best western composers of contemporary times. Their performances are incoherent, preposterous, undistinguished and forgettable but successful due to media hype rave reviewers. This may be what art has come to around the velocity of economic growth.
Economic pace and human economic zeal of nations and people ignore the intellectual content and aesthetic dimensions of art and culture. The professor said: It may be that there is a difference between the progressive approach of China and India. The latter seems to have locations of art to talk about and the former does not care much to talk about. Such ideas in our conversation are propositional in nature but they seem to be cogent and necessary to be critiqued.
pallabi@pallabi.wlink.com.np
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