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, November 10, 2014
The Real Lesson of World War I for Today
Today (November 10, 2014) the BBC headlines told of the appalling attack on a school in Nigeria, in which scores of young people were killed and maimed. Tomorrow is Remembrance Day in the UK, marking the anniversary of the end of World War I.
After 100 years, the world is still rife with prejudice and cruelty. And it doesn't have to be. Here are two instances of writing that give evidence for that statement:
1. A report by Lynette Abel of a lecture Eli Siegel gave in which he took up The Miracle at Verdun, Hans Chlumberg's moving, critical play about World War I.
2. Leila Rosen's article "Poetry as Justice: Through the Aesthetic Realism Teaching Method, Aesthetics Defeats Contempt"
--AND, two websites replete with knowledge that can comprehend and effectively combat prejudice are these:
The Right of Aesthetic Realism to Be Known, Online
The Aesthetic Realism Foundation itself, with descriptions about the new way this great education sees a wealth of subjects, including poetry, art, music, anthropology, archaeology, acting, photography -- and much more.