However, we can be thankful that there are some artists out there who are scouts,who give us stories of goodness to live by, scouts who live without alcohol, who show us a path to follow. Buffy St. Marie speaks about how she doesn't use drugs or alcohol; Ricard Wagamese is proud of his sobriety and sanity. In The Reason You Walk , Wab Kinew writes of how both he and his father left self-destructive behaiviours behind choosing instead to live without alcohol. Tracey Lindberg, author of Birdie, and Richard Van Camp, author of The Lesser Blessed, share their words of abstinence with us in letters near the end of this story. [You should read the book.]
There are starting to be more and more artists. If these and other artists go out, scout for us, and imagine a future without intoxication, give us art and stories that are more than about sex, drugs, and violence, stories where ethics and morals and values are more important than immediate gratification and making money, perhaps the rest of our people can and will begin to move in that direction.
I know enough about the current culture of the arts to know that in any group of artists of any size any expression of the responsibility of artists to anyone but themselves will be met with derisive and cynical mockery and the declaration that artists have no responsibility to anyone but themselves.
That is certainly a consequence of the culture of materialistic scientism I brought up yesterday, which, though it started in the 18th century and grew into dominance among intellectuals in the 19th century (realism) found its most developed form as an artistic expression in 20th century modernism. And as a direct consequence of rejecting morality or even social responsibility during the rise of electronic media, art increasingly became no different from the culture of business, advertising and maximizing profits by appealing to the worst weaknesses in the buying public. The substitute for morality in secular republics, the law, was hardly unaffected by that same program of amorality. I've pointed out any number of times that his own intimate friend and secretary, the lawyer and Nuremberg judge Francis Biddle described that most unlikely of legal heroes. anti-saint of free speech, free press, Oliver Wendell Holmes' enthusiastically adopted view of life was in line with what George Orwell described in the passage I posted below.
But many or even most artists isn't all artists, some are not self-seeking sociopaths. I generally find that's most true of those from communities and of identities who are not advantaged. Harold Johnson is entirely right, those efforts by writers and artists such as the ones he named to present people with the material they need to imagine themselves as happy and sober, happier, able to respect themselves, able to be respected and loved without needing to consider conditions that anyone who gets drunk will inevitably require being overcome, need to be promoted and encouraged. When I read his emphasis on People needing to be able to imagine themselves in new ways, better ways in order to become better, he is absolutely right. They've been encouraged to imagine themselves as violent drunks, as sexually violent, domineering thugs by writers and directors and producers AND ACTORS WHO ACT THOSE ROLES. They've been encouraged to by celebrity endorsements and product placement and advertisements of sexy men and women. You're not going to get out of the results of that as long as peoples' imaginations are formed by those ubiquitous media images. Peoples' imaginations and actions are formed from those images they take in. Anyone who denies that is either too stupid or crooked to take seriously.
I'm going to post some of those authors, starting here with the late Richard Wagamese
More about him, here.
Inevitably, Medicine Walk will also highlight Wagamese’s lifelong battles with post-traumatic stress disorder and alcoholism, both of which figure prominently in the book. In March 2010, Wagamese was arrested and charged with three counts of driving under the influence of alcohol. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced in Kamloops provincial court on Nov. 21, 2011, to six months of house arrest, 50 hours of community service, and a 10-year driving ban.
Wagamese says he was ready to tackle alcoholism in Medicine Walk because he’s moved past it: “I’ve been sober for multiple years and I’ve been beyond PTSD issues for multiple years, so now I have clarity.” If a work of fiction puts his personal story under the microscope, so be it. “I can actually offer my sons and offer my friends and offer anybody clarity,” says Wagamese. “I couldn’t do that before.”
That's the best thing about doing this kind of thing, I find new things to read that I haven't read yet.
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