Why Artists Tend To Be Liberal, Made Simple

 

"Voting Is A DUTY" by Herr D on Paint3d.

Are you prepared now?

[sigh] Yes. Some guy I didn't know was in line at the post office with me--You were picking up the package your employer sent you for?  [startle reaction] Yes. Why did your company not receive it directly?

[shrug] The new guy at the security desk, I think. Nothing earth-shattering. My clearance is confidential, so it's high enough. Anyway, he was grumpy, looking at his phone, and heard something about how a band doesn't want Trump using their music, and he complained, approximately, "why are most artists liberal?"

I didn't even realize I snickered out loud until he looked up at me. He said, "Do you know?" He was thirty or so, and I'm obviously older than that. At first I thought just nodding was the right thing to do. Then he looked at me funny and demanded, "why?!"

To which I said, approximately: "The very first ingredient for being a successful artist is to understand or perceive reality so well as to mimic or emulate part of it. That way, your carving actually looks like a frog, or whatever, or your words or the notes you play evoke the emotions you want."

He looked at me funny, so I explained, approximately: "An artist can get that way by insight or determination, but the important part is the second ingredient interacting with the first. The second ingredient is understanding how to make things better. If an artist wants to depict a beautiful woman, but can only afford a model that's, say, a six or seven, he still has to depict her as an eight or nine if he wants people to buy it. So he has to understand how to IMPROVE her beauty while keeping it recognizable as a real woman." Did he understand this explanation?

No. He stood there for a moment, and asked, "What's that got to do with being liberal?"

And I said: "Knowing the reality of now and knowing and wanting it to be BETTER and having some idea of how to MAKE it better is what a liberal IS. I know change is never easy, but in our growing technology, it is absolutely necessary."

He looked at me funny and said, "Change. But weren't Republicans the ones that ended slavery?"

I nodded and said, "Yes, they did that back when they were the liberals."

Someone behind me gasped and got out their phone to check on that. If they DID it right, they found out I'm right about that. The guy wasn't happy to hear any of this and probably didn't learn much, but at least he knows why all really good artists are at least partially liberal. Thank you.