If you’ve read the first installment of our 3-Part Series for Artists, then you’ve met one of three monsters that killing the souls of artist today.
The first monster was Irony…the speech you tell yourself that says:
“I am such a meaningless loser. Everything in life is a meaningless joke. If I don’t laugh about it, I’ll blow my brains out. I hate myself.
Ready to meet the second monster?
It’s called the “Zeitgeist.”
“Ignorance Is…What?”
If there’s one law that rules intellectual life for artists today, it’s this:
“We can’t really be sure we know anything. Therefore, being ignorant is being smart.”
This intellectual law is today’s Zeitgeist…a German word for “Spirit of the Times.”
Call it Postmodernism, call it Post-structuralism, Deconstructionism…call it whatever academic name you want…
It all boils down to “Ignorance is Intelligence.”
The Truth is, we can be sure we know a lot of things…especially about people!
Why?
Because people act in repeatable patterns….patterns that are fascinating and deep and rich and colorful…and relatable!
Open up a history book…people have been motivated by the same passions, loves, hates, fears, and courage since the dawn of time.
These patterns are relatable because we all live by them…it’s what makes us human!
Around The Block
In our last installment, we talked about feelings everyone gets in their lives:
“When somebody hurts you, it hurts like heck. When somebody betrays you, the pain feels like a knife. When you screw up, you feel like we should be banished from the world.
“When you love somebody, the passion is as as powerful as a tsunami. When you help out people, the feel like your soul’s sitting by a warm fire. When somebody has your back, you feel like you got the cover to take on the world!
“When you love something…an activity, a job, an action…you feel alive, alive like nothing ever before!”
Chances are, you haven’t felt those feelings only once. You’ve felt them many times.
That is because they are patterns. And if you’ve been around the block long enough, you know that you’re not the only one who has felt these things.
Everybody has.
The fact that we all operate by patterns is what allows us to be inspired by a piece of art created by another person…even a person from another time, another culture, and another station in life.
Our ancestors have been recording these patterns since the dawn of time, and they’ve figured out what King Solomon knew so well…
“What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun” (Ephesians 1:9).
The Price Of Ignorance
What happens when we ignore this? What happens when we ignore these timeless, universal patterns of human behavior, and try to reinvent the wheel?
What happens when we believe that “Ignorance is Intelligence”?
when we throw out the universal patterns observed by every generation before us, we’re like little kids who have to learn everything again.
That is very scary! It makes us very anxious and afraid.
Sure, we may put on a “fly” face and say: “We got this. No big deal.”
But deep down inside, we know we don’t “got it”…and it’s only a matter of time before somebody calls our bluff.
This fake face born of ignorance makes our lives harder…and harder is no fun.
Harder is stressful. Harder sucks the life out of you. Harder destroys your creative drive.
I don’t know about you, but I like to smarter, not harder!
Easy’s my friend. Hard’s my enemy.
And the hardest things of all is Ignorance masquerading as Intelligence.
Now you’ve met two of the three monsters killing artists’ souls today.
What’s the last one?
Find out next week in our latest installment:
The Mind At War 