do you guys think that there’s an Art for everything?

like, we can agree there is an art to dancing, and singing, and acting. most would probably agree there’s an art to cooking, maybe even an art to working on cars and cleaning the house.

pretty reasonable takes. but here’s the thing, where do we draw the line? where’s the PETA chart for Art?

because if everything has an art, that means there’s an art to pissing in public, or throwing up on a train, or passing out at the bar.

worse, this means there’s an art to genocide and slavery. and war. and black-market weapons sales. and drug trafficking.

is this a Harry Potter moment, where of course there is an Art (magic) for everything, but some are Dark Arts (dark magic)?

seems likely the case but who’s to say.

I don’t know, man. I don’t know!

That’s really the thing, is that I do not know.

I do not know.

I’m just here asking questions! questions that I think would lead to a lot of uncomfortable conversations about the nature of morality! but again, I don’t know anything!

I suppose though that all this fundamentally depends on one’s opinions on the importance of art. like, ok, if there is an art for everything, even the really bad stuff, like, ok, it’s just art? it’s not that important? I’m sure there are some very pragmatic (not necessarily complimentary) people that operate like this. some real “who cares as long as The Right Stuff gets done” kind of people. I don’t know, that sounds like an oversimplistic and poorly executed existence, frankly.

anyway, you guys know my steez by now. I’m pretty big on aesthetics and etiquette. like, almost all (if not all) social activity stems from those things.

is it beautiful? how do I tell people about it in a way they understand its beauty? that’s really what we’re all arguing about, isn’t it?

“these behaviors are ugly. here’s how we should fix them…”

there. right there. we see the appearance of aesthetics (things that are ugly and need to be changed) and etiquette (how we as a civilized society should go about changing them).

glancing back above, this of course begs the uncomfortable question: if you made slavery and genocide and war and pissing in public and domestic abuse and throwing up on public transportation pretty enough, would people be cool with it?

I’m sure someone somewhere somewhen has already thought of this and made tight arguments for their perspective.

I’m just an eepy sleeby boy, so I’ll leave it as an exercise for the reader.

go on, then. think.