Kultur macht frei

    What is a “guilty pleasure”? We read on Wikipedia that a guilty pleasure is something one enjoys and considers pleasurable despite feeling guilt for enjoying it. When it comes to art and tastes, then, why should anyone feel guilt? Calories are not involved, and guilt cannot be associated with any wrongdoing towards other human beings in this context. If it gives you pleasure, why should it make you feel guilty? And why should you feel so exposed and insecure admitting that you really enjoy something you consider low quality? Two articles I read recently made me ponder on these questions and the possible answers to them.

    The acclaimed Greek journalist and author Alexandra Tsolka has dedicated one of her past articles on the tendency of imposing “good taste” and sneering at what we think is bad taste, commenting on the participation of Greece in the Eurovision song contest and the outcry it usually causes among local “cultural elites”. In her article, she comments on the aphorisms of the “cultural elite” towards categories of people that happen to enjoy the lightness and kitsch of the Eurovision song contest or Hollywood production musicals, by labelling them as “superficial” and “ridiculous”. The so-called “cultural elite” often launches Spanish Inquisition-like assaults on everything that is happy, colourful, youthful and gay, by any means of the term. She goes on to provide a historical and social comment on such behaviours: “In societies in crisis, like the Greek one right now, the sullen Robespierres and defenders of Stalin and Goebbels shall prevail; people that excommunicate other means of expression that don’t match their taste. In these societies, anything diverse, even if it’s just a whisper, is dangerous. It’s just an excuse for them to insult and feel superior to others that enjoy listening to ABBA, Celine Dion, Johnny Logan or Domenico Modugno.” She concludes by reminding us that times change: “The ones who label music should bear in mind that cultural elites through the ages where with the side of Salieri and not Mozart, with the Beach Boys and not with the blues that, at the time, were considered underground music for poor and marginalized.”

    Indeed, times change. These are times of multiculturalism. On Wikipedia, we read:  “Multiculturalism is seen by its supporters as a fairer system that allows people to truly express who they are within a society, that is more tolerant and that adapts better to social issues. They argue that culture is not one definable thing based on one race or religion, but rather the result of multiple factors that change as the world changes.” In an ever-changing world, where different cultures co-exist and can be found as close as the office next to yours or the flat opposite yours, how can it be explained that there still are people that condemn and aphorize the cultural and artistic tastes of others?

    This kind of unflinching dedication to “good taste”, where every exception is a sin, and the need to indoctrinate all “infidels” to its mysteries or else spiritually pelt them, is akin to another kind of fanaticism, I am sure many members of a “cultural elite” would abhor: religious fanaticism. I have seen fanatically secular people living under the influence of these remains of religious guilt, where the God of Good Taste ordains and they have to obey. I have seen young people apologizing  for having danced to or sung bubble-gum-pop music, because for a moment they chose not to listen to their favourite alternative rock band and decided to have some light-hearted, light-themed fun for a change. I have seen people vehemently renouncing soap operas in public, but then stealthily enjoying them on their couch.  In these cases, superficiality is usually punishable with one week of self-flagellation and non-stop listening to death, loss and social isolation-themed music.

    To be fair, one should undoubtedly recognize the hard work of all people that get involved in the Arts, either professionally or as amateurs. One should admire the countless hours that art-lovers and artists spend and all the toil and effort towards achieving their goals, be it a piece of music, a sculpture, a movie or a painting. I’ve been there: several years of amateur involvement in Arts as demanding as e.g. classical ballet have taught me that nothing is achieved without persistence, hard work but, above all, belief in what you are doing and its artistic value.

    And it’s maybe the awareness of this artistic value that slightly or largely blinds people to a very important distinction: work is work and fun is fun. Even if a piece of art seems to us “easy” to produce, we should never forget that man-hours of work are behind it as well. And we should not forget, that after work, comes the fun. Important works of art are characterized by the fact that they can search into the depths of our existence and make us think. But don’t we need a break from all the soul-searching? Isn’t it getting too dark some times? What about then? As Alexandra Tsolka puts it in her article, are we expected to wake up in the weekend mornings and kick off our day with some Béla Bartók?

    I recently read another opinion reinforcing the work/fun distinction. A question was posted on the column of a popular Greek blogger and columnist, submitted by a young musician, to the following extent: after the description of her studies and qualifications in music, she asked whether there is a generally accepted definition of aesthetics or this definition is subjective.  The reader gave an example asking “can we consider Bach and Miley Cyrus as equals just because certain categories of people listen to them?”, stating that she gets upset when people reply that “it’s a matter of taste”. The musician also quotes her father as her source of inspiration, whose answer to that particular question is “let the people have their fun.” The answer the columnist gives I found particularly telling: there are and there have been people much more qualified than us here that have given answers to these general, philosophical questions so maybe we should try to keep a lower profile regarding our studies and qualifications. The responsibility of the young musician is not towards the “people” but towards music itself. So, we should let people have their fun even if we might not like it. Nobody wants Crusaders and martyrs of “good taste”. And, may I add, as the Monty Python have succinctly put it, nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!

    But some will object: what if I can’t have fun with pop music? What if I can’t relax and enjoy myself with rom-coms? The answer is simple: live and let live. My right to abhor David Lynch is equal to your right to abhor Britney Spears. It doesn’t make you or me an inferior person or even a person with inferior tastes. Oscar Wilde in “The Soul of Man Under Socialism” says: “Art is the most intense mode of individualism that the world has known.” Aristophanes puts it even more laconically: “Let each man exercise the art he knows”.

   Very common is also the tendency to automatically label anything commercially successful as an artistic product for the “masses.” Why so much eagerness to distinguish ourselves and self-elevate to the Pantheon of the “cultured people”? And if it is that we hate anything commercially successful, can we then sincerely believe that we respect humankind? As Leo Tolstoy puts it in his essay “What is Art?”: “Art […] is a means of union among men, joining them together in the same feelings, and indispensable for the life and progress toward well-being of individuals and of humanity.” I am not saying here that commercial success is synonymous of “good taste” or high artistic value. As Immanuel Kant was saying, “good taste cannot be found in any standards or generalizations, and the validity of a judgement is not the general view of the majority or some specific social group. Taste is both personal and beyond reasoning, and therefore disputing over matters of taste never reaches any universality.” Montesquieu summarized this argument very well: “Art provides the rules and taste the exceptions.”

    As is obvious, many great thinkers have given us answers on what constitutes Art, Good Taste and Aesthetics but of course no general consensus exists. Let’s use this as a reminder next time we feel the tendency to berate a person or an artistic product as culturally inferior and let’s try to be as respectful as possible. Nietzsche said that: “We possess art lest we perish of the truth.” Art is an escape route from our levelling reality; choose your own and let others ramble freely on theirs.