"Why do I get the feeling you don't like the arts or artists much?"
I despise most of the self-appointed artistic "elite" today. If not for them, we might actually have some new art to enjoy. For more on that, see the Art Renewal Center's Web site.
"How to address your questions -- Wilson's essay is as good as anything that has been written about creativity. And while I don't buy into his politics, his observations on the arts are astute."
Anything and everything a leftist conceives is tainted and therefore suspect, at best, however glib and plausible it may appear.
"Insurance, small businesses are not generally "creative" as defined by the arts."
Yes, "the arts" are too narrow-minded and self-important to recognize the creativity in any other area. They need to be reminded that in earlier eras they were required to use the servants' entrance.
No, actually, we need to go back to that.
"and the thought processes that go into them are different."
Yes, the businessman is thinking, "How can I create something of value?" and the 21st century artist is thinking, "What can I do that will so outrage society's sensibilities that I can become rich and famous from it?"
"but they are typically not terribly creative. To explain the differences would take an entire book."
You could go on for entire libraries full of books, and you would still be mistaken on that point.
"Despite whatever opinion you hold regarding Shrader, he was remains hugely talented."
A schlockmeister, judging from his record.
"I suspect that if you applied the criteria to most inventors, innovators and artists you'd find an abundance of "crippled personalities" among them."
You'd be mistaken there, too.
Some, certainly, but not the concentration found in "the arts."
You need to get out more...
Taxi Driver and Raging Bull are schlock? Not by any definition of cinema I know. Two of the best films of the last 30 years. The statement about everything produced by lefitsts being suspect doesn't get very far in this subject. Dickens, Stienbeck, Shelley, Faulkner... The list goes on and on.