“If you ask me,
Jeeves, art is responsible for most of the trouble in the world.” (Bertie
Wooster)
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Creation, by Carol L. Douglas. Today's illustrations are three paintings from when I was younger and more cynical. |
On Monday, employees at the Mary Cariola Children’s Center received
a package via FedEx. It included cryptic, “ranting and raving” text and a
device that looked like a bomb. Mary Cariola Center is a much-loved cultural
institution in Rochester, because it serves children with multiple, complex
disabilities. There were about a hundred clients there that day. They were evacuated
and the bomb squad secured and disarmed the package.
The package contained
a wooden box with homemade electrical components, including a power source,
switches, a circuit board and lights. It was not a bomb. It was a work of art.
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Man, by Carol L. Douglas |
According to Rochester Police, the package was misdelivered.
Its intended recipient was an arts organization in Rochester. They expected it
and wouldn’t have been discomfited in the least by its message. Those ravings?
They were the title: Baby Go Boom.
No one is going to be arrested for this snafu. No word yet,
either, about whether the package was insured. But I have a grudging respect
for the artist, even if I don’t like the theme. The piece was convincing enough
that, outside the gallery context, rational people mistook it for a real bomb.
Artists have made work from the point of view of the anti-hero
since Shakespeare wrote Richard III (and
probably earlier). Such literature is often uncomfortable, but until recently, nobody
questioned whether it was art. The line was blurred by Eminem. He talked about
drug use, sex, mental illness, poverty and divorce, in language his audience
understood. Still, he seemed to romanticize violence, particularly against
women.
Confusion, by Carol L. Douglas |
Even if Randy Ross is a rotten artist, his School Shooter is probably art, not
threat. I’m not interested in creating art that celebrates nihilism; in fact, I
abhor it. Still, I respect the right to create it.
We’re so focused on the Second Amendment these
days that we’ve lost sight of the Fourth Amendment and the idea of probable cause. For
example, your son makes a stupid joke about a
square root sign looking like a gun, and your house is tossed by law
enforcement. The more we are driven by fear, the more likely we are to ignore the
niceties of our Constitution. Unfortunately, they’re the bedrock on which our legal system
stands.
Set against this is the powerful need to root out violence.
I’m no closer to an answer than anyone else, but I keep coming back to the idea
that a society without values and aspirations is ungovernable. Our culture speaks to the lowest common denominator. Is it any wonder that it is also corrupt?