The Tapestry
April 29, 2007 entry: Born in Violence
It has been four years since The Tapestry’s last online entry- January of 2003- however, being that she is celebrating her 10th anniversary this year, I felt that it was time to resurrect her into cyberspace and continue along our path of enlightenment and evolution. Although she was experiencing a self-imposed break from the Net, I continued to weave The Tapestry, lecture and teach about the Arts and Culture to generations of acolytes.
It is because I am devoted to academia, that I was deeply affected by the Virginia Tech massacre. Our 21st century Western society and breeds violence. In fact, from time immemorial, there has always been bloodlust, blood sacrifice in the name of certain deities, war/conquests and vanity. One would think that, in a world where more people are exposed to higher education and internationalism, violence would be expected and thus, people would be more prepared to defend themselves. But to admit that Life is brutal would be to destroy a fantasy of utopia. It is because escapism seems better than reality, we fail to recognize, check and incarcerate threats to society. When medical and legal systems are more concerned for protecting the privacy/rights of certified mentally ill or criminal individuals, innocents suffer. I cannot adequately express my sorrow and disgust over the killing of the Virginia Tech students and faculty and the incompetence of authorities who were aware of the killer’s history, but now, legislation and tighter security measures must be enacted for the benefit and protection of law-abiding citizens.
The Tapestry ended on an S&M note expressed through the examination of the Andreas Serrano photo, “America”, 2002: we see society echoed in the portrait, an epitome of 21st century life: bound and insulated, we adapt and become malleable and more focused on experiencing our Dharma… It is important to rein in our personal sensibilities in order to master the SELF. Since the 2003 update, America has been bombarded with saccharine, asinine pop. Hollywood has always produced brain-draining situation comedies that have had the power to wipe-out one’s sense of SELF and replace it with a need to lead a fictionalized and controlled lifestyle that is promoted on TV- a la Farenheit 451- which in turn, turns big profits for the executives, fringe businesses and untalented actors.
Escapism is more dangerous than a fictional violent movie because the movie is a movie. The attempt to escape reality is an actual act. Friends, American Idol, Sex in the City et al have battered and caused an enormous amount of discord and problems, in that the American landscape has been altered from the “tossed salad” to a poached cauliflower image. Everything and everyone is the same, or wants to be like what is popular on TV: whitewashed in body, mind and spirit. Instead of using their innate intellectual abilities to distinguish themselves in society, most people fake it and prefer to live a lie, and lies lead to trouble and destruction i.e. the surge in the dysfunctional family structure, lusts and greed, current mortgage meltdown/foreclosure epidemic and deep debt that has ripped many people to shreds. So many were so obsessed with an “upgraded” lifestyle that they refused to face reality and live accordingly. Then LIFE slapped them back to reality.
The dumbing-down of America has been successful and it is now time to recover. When the status quo has fowled-up the natural state of existence i.e. living a lie instead of experiencing LIFE, it becomes difficult, but not impossible, to recover.
It is time for a changing of the guards, the current powers that be are failures and we can no longer accept more propaganda and brainwashing.
Academia is a more valuable commodity than entertainment. Financial profits are more evident in entertainment, but at what cost to society? Why do we allow our souls to be slaughtered by vacuous sit-coms and glossed over, mind zapping talent shows? Did we evolve in a saccharine covered age? How did we allow idiocy to infest sensibility? Instead of continually feeding a bloated beast, it is time to severe all connections and return to logic.
I was surprised to learn about the current traveling exhibit, Situation Comedy: Humor in Recent Art. As an Art History Lecturer, I have always experienced problems with students who like being the clown or comedian or prankster. It is especially vital that academia remain serious, on guard and focused. The art world should never permit entrance to something as weak as comedy. Life is not about comedy; I have never experienced what is portrayed in popular sit-coms. Art imitates Life; to drop comedy into the mix is to cause a distraction from LIFE. A befitting current exhibit is emergenze: when art and culture look at reality- Milan – March 25 to May 27, 2007. As art professionals, we have the power to detect, examine, control and ameliorate negatives in society so that our canvas can remain diverse and sophisticated and not blood splattered as the ad for emergenze so explicitly depicts: Open your Eyes. This is not Action Painting.
Gabrielle Lin