The arts matter because they’re the best we have to activate the whole brain. It’s important to use the whole brain and music and art succeeds in doing this without pharmacological enhancements. There are so many more reasons but this is a good start!

The Arts matter for balance! The individuals who have been most successful have some training and a solid appreciation of the Arts in general. Experiences in the Arts bring a balance to the Cognitive Dissonance of the modern political world. The Arts have helped to "predict" the coming changes to various nations and political orders. So they may be serving as precursors to action, and certainly to thought about the things that matter. The expressions from various artistic experiences also serve to broaden understanding between those performing and those experiencing the book, play, or performance. These experiences challenge us to move outside ourselves while internalizing the messages!

Just my .02

Well said, Edward. Thanks for joining us and posting this.. Without the arts these days, all we would have for content in the public arena, besides social media, would be advertising and political propaganda, neither of which are good sources for people to use for reflection on their experience and observations, much less any sort of moral or ethical guidance. Of course, there is also religion and the news media, but don't get me started on all the faults of those institutions these days....

19 hours ago, BobDylan said:

. . . Without the arts these days, all we would have for content in the public arena, besides social media, would be advertising and political propaganda . . ."

Not quite! You're leaving out sports . . . which is touted as unifying people.

I'm not a sports fan -- and that applies to The Olympics, which "everybody" watches -- so I don't buy that propaganda.

20 hours ago, Edward said:

". . . The individuals who have been most successful have some training and a solid appreciation of the Arts in general . . .

Like who, for instance? Names, please.

Donal d Trum p is successful (in achieving his ambition, Heaven help us). Do you think that he has some training in and a solid appreciation of the Arts?

True mac, I forgot sports, which for most Americans, are the opiate of the masses, along with religion. Sports are a religion for some. It does unify them, in a tribal fashion, same as religion, and distracts them from the class war..

Decades ago -- in another lifetime -- I provided some of my illustrations as part of an artists' exhibition. The evening's presentations included dancing, music, performing arts, and . . . martial arts. I balked at the inclusion of MMA in the exhibition. Martial artists undoubtedly would disagree with me.

On 2/20/2026 at 6:33 PM, macphysto said:

Decades ago -- in another lifetime -- I provided some of my illustrations as part of an artists' exhibition...

feel free to drop in some small shots or thumbnails of your work. i'd like to see them, as would others, i'm sure

Thank you for the invitation, V.3, which I will respectfully decline.

When the World Wide Web was new and I was younger and cavalier, I did share my artwork in cyberspace. Then one day -- years later -- I discovered at least one chap had some of my art on his site . . . sans credit, sans permission. Tant pis. Lesson learned.

I don't blame you. Everything on the net is permanent, and out of your control once it's posted..