tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6495563887923175838.post8516844378113815834..comments2023-07-25T03:43:22.825-04:00Comments on Atlas Insight In Sight Site: Why I'm Bitter: Cruelty of StarvationDifferentiAtlashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00637842321733475127noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6495563887923175838.post-87818738434627467072008-05-08T09:04:00.000-04:002008-05-08T09:04:00.000-04:00I love your point about the ONE child. Does it rea...I love your point about the ONE child. Does it really matter whether the number is 17 million or 50 million or 100,000, if even ONE child is unfairly starving in the world and we have enough to help that child? Statistics are helpful in glimpsing the extent of the problem, but they fall short of actually igniting any moral courage in even the most perceptive and bitter (as you use it) individuals. In the human psyche, it only takes one, oppresively tangible example, rather than millions of intangible examples, to start an internal war.<BR/><BR/>Having said that, what the viewers of this art form clearly lack is PRINCIPLE. We can't visualize the one child or the 17 million children because we have a hard time extrapolating and extracting abstraction from what we know to be true. We are impulsive and reactive to what we take in with our eyes, especially when it is unexpected and out of place: "That starving dog belongs in the street where he blends in and we'll see him but we won't reflect on him." <BR/><BR/>Therefore, I think the failure of the art form is that even in a room with white walls and endowed patrons passing by, where the abstract principle is literally handed to your eyes in dog food and dog flesh, the artist underestimates how reactive we can be. Whereas he might have thought that the shock of such a presentation would compel us to stop and consider that we are ALL to blame for this tragedy, we actually go for the "easy" reaction which is to blame the artist directly for not preventing this. Really, all he did was move the inevitable to a more visible location. I'm sure he predicted a strong reaction to his work, but he may not have predicted how thoroughly distracting this reaction can be to the necessary abstraction and reflection required to instill principle and mobilize real change.<BR/><BR/>But then again, he's not finished yet...and neither are we: the reaction-distraction destroyers and principle promoters.WiddydiploMatthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05276297808989312245noreply@blogger.com