Post: #1

Roger Scruton is an English philosopher who specializes in aesthetics and political philosophy. His documentary, "Why Beauty Matters", is about how the ugliness in modern art and culture is eating away at our souls in the West; how we need beauty in our lives to sustain ourselves. He confronts post modern artists in the film, challenging them on the works they promote:





While there is something to be said for the abstract treatment of the question "What is art?", there is nonetheless something deeply disturbing about modern art when taken as a whole. Increasingly, it makes statements which would be better left unsaid; statements that are barely true, and erode the value of our being.

I made two response videos to the documentary, which you might also find interesting:

The Imperative of Beauty
Without Beauty There is only Lust

The documentary is very life affirming, and I believe that all of us could use some more beauty in our lives.

Post: #2

From the "Communist Takeover of America" as published in 1963:

http://www.rense.com/general32/americ.htm


I skipped to the pertinent goals regarding American and western art:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Communist Takeover Of
America - 45 Declared Goals



Communist Goals (1963) Congressional Record--Appendix, pp. A34-A35 January 10, 1963


22. Continue discrediting American culture by degrading all forms of artistic expression. An American Communist cell was told to "eliminate all good sculpture from parks and buildings, substitute shapeless, awkward and meaningless forms."

23. Control art critics and directors of art museums. "Our plan is to promote ugliness, repulsive, meaningless art."

24. Eliminate all laws governing obscenity by calling them "censorship" and a violation of free speech and free press.

Post: #3

Enjoyed. Thanks for posting.

Post: #4

Looks interesting. Will watch the videos.

Post: #5

This is very good, helps put into words the unease you get around modern architecture and art. It's easy to forget your surroundings and see how modernists have made our world ugly.

Post: #6

Post: #7

This is an elegant and considered rebuttal of the absolute shit which has replaced our artistic ancestry and traditions.

Post: #8

(07-02-2017 04:43 PM)Sombro Wrote:  

These two are even better:









I appreciate the elegance in Scruton's writing, but PJW just speaks my language.

Post: #9

(06-27-2017 09:42 PM)robreke Wrote:  From the "Communist Takeover of America" as published in 1963:

http://www.rense.com/general32/americ.htm


I skipped to the pertinent goals regarding American and western art:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Communist Takeover Of
America - 45 Declared Goals



Communist Goals (1963) Congressional Record--Appendix, pp. A34-A35 January 10, 1963


22. Continue discrediting American culture by degrading all forms of artistic expression. An American Communist cell was told to "eliminate all good sculpture from parks and buildings, substitute shapeless, awkward and meaningless forms."

23. Control art critics and directors of art museums. "Our plan is to promote ugliness, repulsive, meaningless art."

24. Eliminate all laws governing obscenity by calling them "censorship" and a violation of free speech and free press.

What's funny, and telling, is that even China's CCP, after decades of massive development with architecture that makes little to no sense at all and just outright ruins cityscapes and neighborhoods, has caught on to the dangers of promoting this hideous nonsense and put out a directive stating that all new buildings and architechture that deviate from classically accepted forms are to be denied building permits.

Post: #10

(07-03-2017 10:33 PM)J_Sway Wrote:  

(06-27-2017 09:42 PM)robreke Wrote:  From the "Communist Takeover of America" as published in 1963:

http://www.rense.com/general32/americ.htm


I skipped to the pertinent goals regarding American and western art:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Communist Takeover Of
America - 45 Declared Goals



Communist Goals (1963) Congressional Record--Appendix, pp. A34-A35 January 10, 1963


22. Continue discrediting American culture by degrading all forms of artistic expression. An American Communist cell was told to "eliminate all good sculpture from parks and buildings, substitute shapeless, awkward and meaningless forms."

23. Control art critics and directors of art museums. "Our plan is to promote ugliness, repulsive, meaningless art."

24. Eliminate all laws governing obscenity by calling them "censorship" and a violation of free speech and free press.

What's funny, and telling, is that even China's CCP, after decades of massive development with architecture that makes little to no sense at all and just outright ruins cityscapes and neighborhoods, has caught on to the dangers of promoting this hideous nonsense and put out a directive stating that all new buildings and architechture that deviate from classically accepted forms are to be denied building permits.

Got a link for that? I would very much like to read about it.

Post: #11

I don't think modern art always needs to be bad, some of it is cool and worth a watch.

It's the lack of traditional art that's the problem. That traditional art is considered done and over with.

Post: #12

(07-03-2017 11:10 PM)nomadbrah Wrote:  Got a link for that? I would very much like to read about it.

Had to do a search to find it, this was the top result:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/keithflamer...4415271f2d

Notice their wording in the article, "curbs creativity", "curb free expression", "Forbidding... magnificent structures", all fancy buzzwords which basically mean "attacks on free speech".

In all fairness, I don't agree with the heavy handed, top-down approach that the gov't uses here to deal with a lot of things while turning a blind eye to other more important things, but they also do a lot of things right when trying to reign in a lot of the post-modern bullshit that is destroying Western society.

Post: #13

Post: #14

Sombro, thanks for posting both of these videos. The PJW video above was pretty incredible, probably my favorite work of his yet, having just spent two weeks in England and two in Europe. Bath and Edinburgh have to be seen to fully appreciate the video.

I saw the transition in music in the late 80's/early 90's. As a young guitarist in the 80's, I wanted to be like Steve Vai or EVH, or any of the masters that came before.

Then, when Nirvanna hit, and punk inspired bands took over, guitar playing became about just playing punk basically. While there is a lot of beauty in this music(shoegaze, etc), the technical skills I learned in the past were all thrown out the window. I feel like I never achieved my full artistic expression playing in bands like these, writing and playing music like this.

I watched a documentary on BBC 4 last week about The Sex Pistols. They are the product of the council towers. The beauty was in the rebellion, but when does the rebellion result in something.

And then this article came out last week;
https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/...ce451fca15

I cant say I am surprised. New music is mostly garbage these days. Bands automatically sell out, there is no true artistic mastery, and we are fed total shit. I just saw Guns and Roses and they played for 3.5 hours straight with no break, they completely killed. We need new bands that can top that. EDM to me is chic music, i.e. music for the mall, and its why most men go to these festivals and listen to this music. Its another form of male feminism.

In the past few years I started practicing and playing Guitar like I did in my teens. I can say I am actually better than I was then. And I was the best in my city and taught most of my friends how to play then. As long as my hands stay heathly, Ill be playing, writing and recording now for years to come, playing and writing the music I enjoy.

(07-04-2017 05:41 AM)Sombro Wrote:  

Post: #15

Brief but good breakdown of how liberal, progressive forces are using modern art as a weapon to undermine and demoralize western society and traditions:

Post: #16

I guess my sensibilities are close to "hyper-realism" although some impressionist works. . .impress me. The minimalism characterized by some Asian art is also great IMHO. Keep in mind that "realism" doesn't necessarily mean you portray real things that actually exist.