Just at the start of the Industrial Revolution, Thomas Malthus articulated the principle that starvation, disease and war have been, are and always will be the limiting factors on the growth of human populations. It is a sad commentary on humanity that, although technological development has proceeded apace since that time, little in the last two centuries indicates that our political leaders are aware of the long-term dangers inherent in their shortsighted policies. We seem unable to reconcile the facts that we are both slaves to our cultural world and creatures of nature.

The chronic starvation in Ethiopia is a tragic example of the stupidity a simple culture can impose upon itself. There, agricultural techniques which sufficed for ages became ineffective as the environment changed. The problems of coping with extensive droughts were compounded by the contrived polices of the government to meet the crisis in a manner based on the Marxist ideology of Colonel Mengistu Haile-Mariam—policies which proved to be at least as maladaptive as the traditional means for providing food. It is noteworthy that no one in a position of real authority did anything to promote birth control as a long-term policy for preventing future famines. Presumably, famine acts as a Malthusian form of birth control since this matter is too important matter to be dealt with logically by informed, intelligent leaders.

Although the commitment of any civilization to its way of life may be irrational, it may also be regarded as quite efficient, if the same society provides the standard for measuring success. The hidden pitfall is not so much what that standard may be as what it is not—not what it includes but what it omits. In technologically advanced societies, the commission of machines to help people is clearly desirable, but the omission of people from the calculations of computer programmers is indicative of a cultured failure to perceive that people are not here to help machines. The social impact of technology and scientific ideology is commonly treated as an incidental spinoff from numerous, specific projects, each developed by single-minded engineers. However, the parts do not add up to a whole; they add up to a lot of parts. The material success of a technologically oriented society may impress those who revel in quantified analysis, but human and spiritual values have been sacrificed to the point that mostof us cease even to wonder if life has any meaning beyond our self-constructed, self-destructive world. Today's overdeveloped nations insist on perceiving themselves more as thriving in their own technological present than withering in a spiritually and aesthetically sterile future.

Beyond the purely material and social dementions of the human condition, there is a universal artistic dimension to culture. Through techniques developed for the manipulation of the senses, people seek to express and communicate emotional experiences. Unfortunately, art is often judged to be stupid by many rational, articulate people who fail to appreciate it as essentially an emotional medium. Art serves to heighten and intensify feelings by making them explicit, thereby making us self-consciously aware of who and what we are.

As a special creation, a work of art is both a part of and apart from reality. Through artistic expression, people affirm their potential to transcend and improve upon their immediate conditions. This creative impulse is undeniable, although its specific manifestations may be regarded as destructive by those who fear change. The greatest cultural contribution art can make is to promote a sense of faith in the human capacity to control change of superficial aspects of life so as to confirm or confront fundamentals. If the way people react to art is indicative of the way they feel about life, they will continue to embrace the idiotic as well as the barren in their historic attempt to both express and deny themselves.

stupidity.net

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