Subjectivity, worth, and need.

[Shinova]

Let me add something else to the mix:


Art is what happens when you're bored spitless.

Someone once put up an article that today's society's people aren't bored enough, hence why ancient times had all those famous artists and philosophers, while nowdays we have Charles Manson, the hippies, and those weird "abstract" paintings which are really just splotches on canvas. We have too much to do nowdays and never have time to just sit down and be bored.

Not to mention there's all the stuff like TV, internet, movies, whatnot to fill our need for stimuli. Those are more stuff we could do to avoid being bored. Hence, we never have a chance to really be bored.

[Kuroneko]

Someone once put up an article that today's society's people aren't bored enough, hence why ancient times had all those famous artists and philosophers, while nowdays we have Charles Manson, the hippies, and those weird "abstract" paintings which are really just splotches on canvas. We have too much to do nowdays and never have time to just sit down and be bored.

I disagree; in fact, if anything the opposite is true. We have much more time to ponder philosophical questions now more than ever. In ancient times, those philosophers were either rich or had friends to mooch off. Today, anyone could do so in their spare time (saying nothing of the quality of their output, however...). A very large segment of the population needed to be dedicated to pretty much nothing but just producing food. Today, we don't have this concern to anything nearing to such extent.

Really, put it in perspective. Over twenty-five centuries of philosophers and artists, and how many are actually well-known?