There is a mentality in certain circles that if a society produces anything of artistic merit then they are a sweet gentle loving society with flowers in their hair and probably vegan.
I am not exactly sure why they believe this but they do.
So they have to have the obvious shown to them again and again because they never really believe it.
I’m a student of classical literature. I have not noticed any correlation between brilliant artistic production and ... the kind of place where I’d like to live. (I live in a bland suburb near a Walmart, and I wouldn’t change it for anything.)
The height of Greek artistic production was during the Peloponnesian War, when Greeks were going unspeakable things to one another all over the Mediterranean. Nobody wants to live through that, if they’re sane.
Excellent point.
This is extrapolated into our society for individuals such that any criminal who produces something that can be portrayed as of literary or artistic merit somehow therefore becomes less of a criminal and should be immediately released.
Yeah, but Western art is beautiful, too. Or was, anyway. They never cut the West a break. I’m sensing a pattern here.