Aesthetic Realism is the greatest opponent of injustice I know. (That is why a few selfish people are angry and lie about it). It explains we have two opposing drives all the time, one towards respect & seeing meaning, the other for contempt. Eli Siegel, the great poet, critic & educator who founded Aesthetic Realism, identified contempt as the addition to self by the lessening of other things. It is the root cause of racism and war. The study of respect & contempt is an emergency.
Monday, July 09, 2012
Aesthetic Realism : Jobs, Feelings, & Philosophy
Racism in the US has been exacerbated by worry about jobs, with so many millions of people desperate for jobs. The latest issue of The Right of Aesthetic Realism to Be Known is a must-read on this subject. I admire so much what Chairman of Education Ellen Reiss writes there. It is the clearest, kindest argument for economic justice in 2012 that I've seen. And the way of seeing people expressed in this article is the complete opposite of prejudice.