If I combine my post at #8 and yours at #9, I would say this:
1) Art can make you admire the Creator
2) Art can make you admire the Creation
3) Art can make you admire yourself.
I think they have now gone beyond even “I will defend to the death your right to your opinion, and I will no longer disapprove of it" to
“I will defend to the death your right to your opinion, and I recognize that my personal opinion isn't worth anything at all.”
And they perversely take great Pride in this humility. You see, I am so enlightened, I am so Modern, that I recognize that my opinion doesn't matter. Pretty slick of me, huh? Yes indeed, not many people are as sophisticated as I am. I can boldly state that my opinion is no better than yours. THAT'S how awesome I am.
I admire myself, because I refuse to say that crap is crap.
I disagree.
They have the very highest opinion of their own opinion. It's the opinion of "the other" (hicks, rednecks, bourgeois, middle class people, Americans, etc.) they despise.
In fact, the very highest compliment they can give each other (they think) is that a particular piece of art (or music, literature, etc.) is "transgressive," which means it offends the groups listed above.
But these folks are the antithesis of humility.