| I'll admit that I used to be jealous of my | | | | their most sacred identities taken away--their |
| compadres who were minorities in my BFA | | | | cultural or group identification.There is enormous |
| Creative Writing program. The rest of us were | | | | associative power in group identification--that is |
| just crusty white kids with no rhythm.So, I used | | | | why we are constantly being told to choose, in |
| to be a little jealous of the amount of anger | | | | the moment, which social group we define |
| material these minority writers had access to. | | | | ourselves as--black, white, gay, christian, |
| There is a lot of inspiration in one's cultural identity | | | | conservative, liberal, rich, poor, etc. There is a |
| but if that inspiration doesn't allow the artist to | | | | certain amount of creative inspiration to be |
| create works that break past the illusory bonds | | | | derived from one's social group, but if you |
| of time and space to that oneness that unites us | | | | examine this inspiration closely you will see that |
| all then the art won't last and won't have quite | | | | the majority of art that comes from this source |
| the impact the artist hopes it will. In fact, here is a | | | | is usually so infused with the anger that comes |
| definition of good art you can copy paste into | | | | from the tallying of group suffering that it has no |
| your brilliant quotes file. This one comes from | | | | breakthrough into the transcendent mystery |
| yours' truly, Uncle Josh:"Art (with a capital A) is all | | | | which lies beyond time, space and our petty egos |
| about using the contemporary forms of time and | | | | (which only last as long as we draw breath; the |
| space (people, objects and their relationships) to | | | | spirit is eternal and therefore incorruptible or |
| blow apart the phenomenal differences that keep | | | | haven't you got that memo yet?).So, while |
| us each locked into what appears to be an | | | | minorities may have a lot of inspiration to draw |
| inescapable prison (our own egos which are | | | | from that produces some great Saturday Night |
| composed of our experience and emotional and | | | | Live and Dave Chappelle skits, most of these are |
| intellectual reactions to the present moment, from | | | | without any true breakthrough; they are improper |
| which we project the future)."But it is in this | | | | art, using the artistic aesthetics put forth by |
| projection of the future where humanity's | | | | James Joyce in A Portrait of the Artist as a |
| greatest certain unalienable right exists--the right | | | | Young Man.In-group anger can only take an artist |
| of the choice about how to act this moment. It is | | | | as far as they are willing to ultimately let it go |
| freedom of choice about how to act in the | | | | completely. Only by willingly letting go of our social |
| moment (in other words, creating their reality in | | | | identify and, ultimately, our individual identities in |
| the moment through sheer will) that allowed | | | | the moment, can we touch the true source of |
| people overcome atrocities like The Holocaust | | | | inspiration which lies inside each of us like a |
| where every bit of security involved in associating | | | | platinum encased diamond nugget at the centers |
| through one's cultural identity was removed | | | | of our being.In fact, this is the exact message |
| completely and the individual was reduced to a | | | | that I wrote about in my short story Pyrite ( |
| scrounging animal. This is the point where survival | | | | spent a lot of my late teens and early twenties |
| of the fittest and preservation of self becomes | | | | being angry for other groups of people because |
| king and the social morays simply drop away like | | | | my group identity (middle class white kid in a sea |
| burning paper mache.I have studied The Holocaust | | | | of other middle class white kids) was the system |
| passionately now for sixteen years. I completed | | | | of oppression and the source of much of their |
| course upon course in college and have read book | | | | anger. But I'm through being angry and I'm |
| upon book about those twenty years in Germany | | | | through defining myself with abstract concepts; I'll |
| that saw Hitler's rise to power and a decimation | | | | leave that to the hacks and has-beens. I'm going |
| of a culture almost as old as humanity's recorded | | | | to do my best to teach this concept of artistic |
| existence.I have long asked why when thinking | | | | aesthetics to other talented artists so that they |
| about the Holocaust. This is a very hard question | | | | too may find that thorny and weeded path inside |
| because you are essentially asking for a sum | | | | themselves that will take them to the platinum |
| value of millions of peoples' lives in terms of a | | | | crusted diamond that waits for them within.Joshua |
| historical lesson (and what historical lesson could | | | | Minton is President of an Internet publishing and |
| be worth the lives of over 150 million who died in | | | | business consulting corporation, Family Bliss |
| a World War which was the direct result of one | | | | Enterprises, Inc. He is also author of two novels, |
| man and his dream team of terror?).But here is | | | | several short stories, poems and articles on art, |
| my why from The Holocaust--individual freedom | | | | philosophy, politics, sociology, science, popular |
| emerged intact despite the fact that untold | | | | culture, business, health insurance administration, |
| masses of individuals were murdered and had | | | | internet marketing, blogging and personal success. |