By Crystal Salazar
When America dropped atomic bombs on Japanese cities in 1945 human beings were brought face to face with the possibility of total extinction. The atrocity killed around two hundred thousand civilians and was defended by many people of those times as, 'necessary'. Such events might be behind the use of the word 'imperative' in writings of Phillip Romero about the value of art in human survival.
The fossil records show that in the history of our planet plant and animal communities have flourished and then vanished altogether. Not only the Mayan civilization, but also dinosaur remains and plant fossils show how life forms flourish and then fade. Had the economic theories of Karl Marx had any scientific credibility the world might have ended during the twentieth century. Russia and China might have had the economic strength to confront the western world and an ensuing Third world War would have accounted for us all. It would not have been the first time for a species to destroy itself by its own success.
It was the people and not the politicians who saved the world from catastrophe during the Cold War era. Russian and Chinese people suffered terrible privations. In some cases they were reduced to eating roots and grass. Their attention was focused on survival. In the West the Hippie movement engrossed the attention of many people intent on making love and not war.
The sixties peace movement was quite sensible in some ways. Young people refused to allow themselves to be used as cannon fodder as their grandparents had been during the First and Second World wars. This was courageous, but many people were not at all courageous or idealistic but simply opportunistic. They saw in the slogans of the time ways to indulge themselves and seek oblivion in drugs and sex.
Parallel with the artistically inspired fashions of the post modern era there were more conventional and convergent intellectual trends. Science and technology had made great strides on the back of war mongering. Many baby boomers did not put flowers in their hair and grow long straggly beards. Instead they labored at science, technology and business theory. They carried on believing only in what could be proved and dismissed arts and humanities students scornfully as inferior beings who did not know 'science'.
Leonardo da Vinci did not see the discrepancy between the sciences and the humanities. He would possibly have been surprised to learn that some people could make a division between the two because for him art and science were simply different aspects of a single approach. There are people who dismiss humanities on the grounds that they do not arrive at the truth by means of scientific method. Such dividing of academic endeavor into discrete divisions can be seen as a kind of restricting bigotry.
Many people believe that the twenty-first century will be the era of the artist. It is not only that science and technology has run its course and come up against the reality of environmental ruin. Beyond that there is wide realization of the need for creativity, for divergent thinking and for freshness in facing economic and scientific challenges.
Phillip Romero is a scientist who has spent many years searching for the power of art. In the twenty-first century when the need for creative solutions is becoming imperative his writings are relevant.
The fossil records show that in the history of our planet plant and animal communities have flourished and then vanished altogether. Not only the Mayan civilization, but also dinosaur remains and plant fossils show how life forms flourish and then fade. Had the economic theories of Karl Marx had any scientific credibility the world might have ended during the twentieth century. Russia and China might have had the economic strength to confront the western world and an ensuing Third world War would have accounted for us all. It would not have been the first time for a species to destroy itself by its own success.
It was the people and not the politicians who saved the world from catastrophe during the Cold War era. Russian and Chinese people suffered terrible privations. In some cases they were reduced to eating roots and grass. Their attention was focused on survival. In the West the Hippie movement engrossed the attention of many people intent on making love and not war.
The sixties peace movement was quite sensible in some ways. Young people refused to allow themselves to be used as cannon fodder as their grandparents had been during the First and Second World wars. This was courageous, but many people were not at all courageous or idealistic but simply opportunistic. They saw in the slogans of the time ways to indulge themselves and seek oblivion in drugs and sex.
Parallel with the artistically inspired fashions of the post modern era there were more conventional and convergent intellectual trends. Science and technology had made great strides on the back of war mongering. Many baby boomers did not put flowers in their hair and grow long straggly beards. Instead they labored at science, technology and business theory. They carried on believing only in what could be proved and dismissed arts and humanities students scornfully as inferior beings who did not know 'science'.
Leonardo da Vinci did not see the discrepancy between the sciences and the humanities. He would possibly have been surprised to learn that some people could make a division between the two because for him art and science were simply different aspects of a single approach. There are people who dismiss humanities on the grounds that they do not arrive at the truth by means of scientific method. Such dividing of academic endeavor into discrete divisions can be seen as a kind of restricting bigotry.
Many people believe that the twenty-first century will be the era of the artist. It is not only that science and technology has run its course and come up against the reality of environmental ruin. Beyond that there is wide realization of the need for creativity, for divergent thinking and for freshness in facing economic and scientific challenges.
Phillip Romero is a scientist who has spent many years searching for the power of art. In the twenty-first century when the need for creative solutions is becoming imperative his writings are relevant.
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