Rick, you crack me up! I wish I had an editor in my head. Wanna volunteer?
So anyway, I’ve only watched half of the documentary so far because I’m kinda busy right now. But before watching it, I looked up TUB’s definition of beauty which is simply the discovery and integration of reality, the intellectual recognition of the harmonious unity of the cosmos as a reflection of the Isle of Paradise. We’re also informed that the Spirit of Truth is the Spirit of idealistic beauty. Since the Spirit of Truth is all about relations, relations between personalities and things, it seems that he is the best harmonizer of reality we have going for us. Does the world know about him? I think not.
That being said, there were a few things that Roger Scruton said that peaked my interest. He claims that greed and self-gratification have become civilization’s goals rather than the value of beauty. Here he is talking about the lack of inner beauty, I would think, as the cause of our derailment. Since all values have their source in the inner life, I have to agree that an ugly mind will only create ugliness.
Roger did, in fact, say that art reflects modern culture and has become a “cult of ugliness”. We also know that the ideals which drive culture have their origins in the inner life as well. We’re told in TUB that we are in a dangerous place right now, as we transition from one level of culture to another, and that religion is supposed to provide stabilization (99:1.3) However, there has been a tidal wave of revolt against religion, and that same mindset has also fostered a revolt against beauty and art, against the historic standards of culture. And we should not be amazed at that, since most of our religions have dominated culture for eons.
This “cult of ugliness” is a form of rebellion. Getting rid of art and beauty translates into getting rid of “the Church”, since it is the moral values established by religion that have been blamed for stifling imagination and creativity. I more or less disagree with this movement. I agree that it exists, but I disagree with the claim that “church” morals are stifling, but that is another conversation altogether.
Another point that Roger made is that modern culture has emphasized utilitarianism as a value in place of beauty. Besides a cult of ugliness, we also have a cult of utility. Utilitarianism is cold, factual and lifeless. It’s no wonder that it decays and crumbles. When did beauty become useless? I think one of the things we can do as leaders of the search for truth is to expose the usefulness of beauty. In a world where the inner life is defined as what you eat and how you feel, it’s no wonder that only physical things and their usefulness matter.
Okay, I’ve said enough. But one last thing . . . I absolutely loved what Roger said about beauty giving us a glimpse of the transcendental. He stated: lust is taking while love is giving; lust is ugly while love is beauty. I think lust as a feast for the senses is what most folks think art and beauty is. But love . . . now that is a feast for the soul, the true inner life.
