Crisis of Culture

During the Prague Writer's Festival 2009 the poet Adonis spoke of a crisis of culture. He mentioned the fact that people were defined by the cultures and yet they had no appreciation of it. To illustrate his point he asked the following question: 'If Beethoven and Michael Jackson were having a party at the same time, who's party do you think most people would attend?'

Although I cannot disagree with him that there is a certain under-appreciation of culture, I think it weak to hide behind this statement. He makes it too easy for the artist to give up, to find refuge in the fact that culture is under appreciated. Rather than this, the artist needs to engage the public, tear their gaze away from mindless entertainment and make them want to listen to his message, whatever medium it may take.

A crisis of culture is not to blame on the general public, but on the artists in the millions for not being able to engage their audience.