It’s all too evident that Millennials and Zoomers suffer from general aesthetic destitution. Unlike past generations, many of them seem unable to engage with artistic works on anything but a subjective level.
A Big Brand X viewer from Generation Y or earlier would say:
“I want to be devoted like Spider-Man.”
“I want to be brave like Luke Skywalker.”
“I want to be a good leader like Optimus Prime.”
But listen to members of the two most recent generations to reach adulthood when they discuss pop culture consumption, and chances are you’ll hear …
“I’m just like (Andrew Garfield) Spider-Man.”
“I’m just like Anakin Skywalker.”
“I’m just like (Beast Wars) Optimus.”
Readers may be tempted to blame this shift from aspiration to identification on a lack of fantasy heroes worth emulating. Contemporary fiction has lapsed into a crisis of virtue, without a doubt. But that failing is a symptom of a more foundational problem.
Just consider the sad state of modern art, which author David V. Stewart brought up in our recent discussion of the VHS tape collectors’ bubble.
Comedian Sam Hyde expounded on this subject with his typical blend of forthrightness and elegance. He has noticed a lack of interest among new artists in putting in the hard work to master their skills. Instead, they obsess over cooking up novel ideas as a means of self-expression. The professional artist he quotes diagnoses their problem as an unwillingness to go beyond easy subjectivism to discover what is beautiful about the object.
That diagnosis rings true from my work as a professional editor. In recent years, my colleagues and I have seen a troubling increase in new writers who just vomit rough first drafts onto the page and pass them off for editors to whip into publishable shape. The rapid-release indie model may be contributing cause, but a tendency to mistake professional writing for a means of self-validation instead of a job is a consistent factor that keeps turning up.
Whether you’re a maker or consumer of art, do yourself a favor and watch Sam Hyde’s video.
The dissident creator’s road is steeper and more difficult than we’d thought. If a parallel culture is to exist, let alone thrive, artists of the new counterculture must first break their subjectivist conditioning and embrace objective beauty.
“beautiful in a grim way. Give it a shot!”
Not only are these so-called heroes ridiculous pop culture fabrications, the “virtues” which they espouse aren’t really virtues. They’re “equitable,” “bold,” and “empathetic,” in every way the culture says they should be. The trouble is that these aren’t real virtues and trying to live them out only adds to our collective misery. They’re what C.S Lewis called “Men Without Chests,” pretending that they’re so very brave for failing to have the courage of their forefathers. Project 86 frontman Andrew Schwab summed it up nicely, “in the end all you sold us was boredom.”
In the ancient world, “without chests” meant “without breath” and therefore without life.
Meaning those without Virtue were cursed to be a walking corpse that would have been better to have not been born because their time on earth is God’s mockery of fallen man.
Or as was stated by the ancient Roman’s and repeated by St Paul:
“Quod Deus Vult perdere, Prius dementat.”
Or as God Himself said of the damned “it would have been better for them to have never been born” than to go to hell.