Better sooner then later
After passionate discussion (please forgive me, dear friends, for bringing back the subject again) over here http://www.livejournal.com/users/zheleznyak/83099.html and in non-virtual world, what struck me most is how much we are driven in our opinions by the pictures our imagination draws for us based on our life experiences.
I remember the argument in ryzh's kitchen where one person said that the talent needs a time and a space for creativity appealing to the fact that in former USSR there were special resorts and villages for artsy crowd where writers and others could spent their time creatively. Here, in USA, Sabbaticals are paid time when people in academics can spend for research, and other necessary work. Not arguing with the statements for a moment I realized how much the image of the guy from the story in my head has been far from the image in that speaker's head. Aha, spending few years in the hippy crowd of St.Petersburg, I remember many personages who would invoke quite mixed feelings in me back then and now - positioning themselves as painters, musicians, writers, these people would live a life-style of gypsies in the worst of its definition and at the same time considering OK begging on the streets and creatively asking for support from the strangers. I don't mention the robbing and stealing from their own mates time to time. With moral values (I know sounds pathetic) so low I could not bring myself to see what these people could do for the society that it would suffer from their absence. And yet those who were really talented have never been falling too low. Somehow they managed to have a decency and a pride. So with this picture in my mind I could not support the statement "потому, что если этих людей не будет -- мы все скатимся в обезьянники. потому, что кто-то -- да, должен поддерживать общий интелектуальный и духовный уровень в обществе. ". Sorry for a long time it took me to realize that we were probably talking about completely different type of people, and, yes, I do think that society has to support art, science, etc. for its own sake even for my (taxpayer) money.
I remember the argument in ryzh's kitchen where one person said that the talent needs a time and a space for creativity appealing to the fact that in former USSR there were special resorts and villages for artsy crowd where writers and others could spent their time creatively. Here, in USA, Sabbaticals are paid time when people in academics can spend for research, and other necessary work. Not arguing with the statements for a moment I realized how much the image of the guy from the story in my head has been far from the image in that speaker's head. Aha, spending few years in the hippy crowd of St.Petersburg, I remember many personages who would invoke quite mixed feelings in me back then and now - positioning themselves as painters, musicians, writers, these people would live a life-style of gypsies in the worst of its definition and at the same time considering OK begging on the streets and creatively asking for support from the strangers. I don't mention the robbing and stealing from their own mates time to time. With moral values (I know sounds pathetic) so low I could not bring myself to see what these people could do for the society that it would suffer from their absence. And yet those who were really talented have never been falling too low. Somehow they managed to have a decency and a pride. So with this picture in my mind I could not support the statement "потому, что если этих людей не будет -- мы все скатимся в обезьянники. потому, что кто-то -- да, должен поддерживать общий интелектуальный и духовный уровень в обществе. ". Sorry for a long time it took me to realize that we were probably talking about completely different type of people, and, yes, I do think that society has to support art, science, etc. for its own sake even for my (taxpayer) money.