Tuesday, April 05, 2011

Art in a time of imperial collapse

It seems odd, but nothing seems to inspire creativity more than the collapse of everything you've known all around you. Look at the collapse of the great empires of the past, and you will find great art.

You'll notice that I've not had any shortage of music videos to post here. What gets posted here is only a small percentage of what I come across, there is a lot of good stuff out there in all kinds of genres. Despite the wailing from the music industry about its death, music itself is not dead at all, it has simply retreated to small venues punctuated by day jobs, with the exception of assorted pre-fab acts like Justin Beiber and assorted has-been dinosaur acts playing stadiums. Well, and Lady Gaga, but she's a pre-fab act too, just one that had a hand in fabricating the act.

But then, I guess this is to be expected in a time of imperial collapse, when our entire world seems to be collapsing around us, when our dreams have shriveled and shrunk into tiny barren things that pine for the water of someone else's dreams for just a few moments of our pathetic little lives...

-- Badtux the Pondering Penguin

4 comments:

  1. I, for one, at 68 years haven't lost my dreams. Some have been moved down my list, some have been moved to the inactive section due to increasing age and the resulting inability to perform, and there is a constant reshuffling due to random thoughts and new dreams added from time to time.
    Am I optimistic? Not very, but I'm gonna be dreaming as long as I can do for myself. When age and/or illness prevents me from doing for myself, I'll turn the lights off and my dreams can take care of themselves.

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  2. But most people's dreams have shrunk to tiny shriveled little things. They dream that their children will not turn out to be criminals, they dream that somehow they'll get a better job than the dead-end job they've been trapped in for the past ten years, they dream that they'll win the lottery, they dream that they'll someday have a car that didn't come from Bart's Used Car Emporium with rust as its predominant color...

    Lost are the big dreams, glorious dreams, the dreams that give life meaning. Dreams of a better world, dreams of a better life for all, such dreams aren't spoken today by many, and those who dare speak of such dreams are derided as "socialists" or worse. Our dreams as a nation have sunk to being dreams of snatching the world's few remaining pools of liquid gold first before someone snatches them, killing whoever it takes to assure our access to such... in such a world as we have today, the 1960's Star Trek seems hopelessly naive and idealistic. We will never go on 5 year missions to explore outer space. We have become too petty, too vicious, too... restricted... in our dreams to ever dream such big dreams ever again.

    - Badtux the Wistful Penguin

    ReplyDelete
  3. We're one great plague away from being serfs.

    And most people don't even give a shit.

    Alas, poor USA,
    JzB

    ReplyDelete
  4. How about writing about your dreams,Tux - rather than writing that dreams have all gone away?
    My dreams aren't restricted to fast cars and unlimited cash. I have no problem with dreaming about a future that finds the way to fix this planet's pollution and keep it from becoming a total war zone.
    Are you saying that all your roses have died? If that's the case, why do you bother putting so much effort into your site? The fact that you do put such effort into your posts is the reason I read it daily. And I appreciate it.

    ReplyDelete

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