"}@shinnegamitensei replied to your post \u201c@shinnegamitensei replied to your post \u201cWhat is the most beautiful painting in the world?\u201d ah. Iove a good Armagritte. he was\u2026\u201d
wow, you hate art? you live like this?It\u2019s a learning experience!
I\u2019m a big fan of Christopher Alexander\u2019s \u201cGreat Man\u201d theory of history, in particular that short article Death dealing (part of his \u201cScholarly Treachery\u201d series). Alexander seems to be having fun with the idea of people accusing intellectuals of being too close to power, by showing that you can be too close to power if you don\u2019t have any actual ideas, and showing that even if you do have ideas, those ideas are fucked up. The argument is pretty similar to \u201cthe power corrupts,\u201d but he explores it through academic practices instead of ancient writings or whatever.
That said, I don\u2019t have any problem with art being very good (or even being usable in a philosophical sense). A lot of the things I enjoy are things that are very well made and well done (or very understandable, in the case of video games). Art just uses my brain in a fun way, and I can\u2019t argue that it doesn\u2019t contribute to human culture by having large-scale circulation.