The Responsibility of the Artist

The only stories or movies I truly enjoy are those that are coming of age or comedy. I find that stories that offer a reason for laughter or give the audience a message of succeeding, overcoming great obstacles are those that connect well with me. If I am needing to gain something else for my entertainment, I can merely live life or watch the news, which is certain to bring me sorrow or reveal the lower levels of humanity.


This is not to say that I do not enjoy my life -- of course I do but, I don't need to pay someone to make me feel bad or think about bad things. The truth is, I'm very sensitive to things around me. It took me quite sometime to admit this to myself and others. I always thought that people who were affected so much by art or movies were weak. The truth is, most all of us are quite sensitive to stimuli, whether we believe it or not. Millions of dollars are spent each day in the country on small advertisement films, what we call commercials. A company uses short videos that run from 30 seconds to 2 minutes in order to tell the world about their product or service. Why? Because it works! Utilizing that short time allows businesses to grow and gain more and more customers.

If a message that lasts only 2 minutes can have that type of influence on people, imagine how much influence a movie lasting almost 2 hours can have on us? A book that takes a week or so to read? It doesn't mean the movie or book or any other art form is trying to "sell" a product but the message, whatever it is, can lead to influencing us in ways that we are most likely not consciously aware of.

Listening to music that has angry lyrics can pump us up and perhaps reveal something in our lives we are emotionally angry with. When we experience a break up, many of us turn to music. Sometimes we listen to old songs that remind us of our ex or we listen to music that will evoke loving emotions. We tend to wallow a bit in our pain. Sometimes this can be therapeutic but often times, it just gives us an excuse to carry baggage around.

A movie tells an entire story that can resonate with us. Who were the characters? How did they react to certain situations? Were they motivated by emotions, morals, family, peers, faith, politics, etc.? How were they received by other characters? What was the overall theme of the movie? Being aware of how movies influence us can help us make better choices about what we view or what we allow our children to view and we do this because young minds are not aware of how messages can influence them into manifesting feelings, actions, and situations.

What entertainers and artists must understand is that they have great influence on others, directly or indirectly. This power and influence comes with responsibility.

It is interesting to note that when entertainers/artists are confronted with their work and whether it is considered to be immoral or negative, they will often offer a response that suggests it is up to us whether we choose to listen or not. "Shut off the radio, or the tv, or don't see the movie."

Yes, yes, we do have a choice to listen to, read, and watch what we want but as a parent, it doesn't matter how much time I spend with my child, I cannot be there every minute of everyday monitoring what she watches. I can only truly monitor what I view. I must hope that entertainers can accept their responsibility to be good, decent people, who would give themselves only to work that is worthy and inspiring in a positive way.

Example: Specifically the leftist entertainer or artist will advocate justice for certain segments of the population. They may even rally against big pharm or big corporation for example. They demand that people in high level positions act with morality and ethics. They want workers to have good pay and benefits, along with equal or even special treatment. They want products and services that provide value at reasonable rates. You cannot simply respond to these demands by telling them to go work elsewhere or go buy from somewhere else because they will argue that they cannot escape corporations. Yet they fail to see how we cannot escape them either.

It is in all of our best personal interest to be good and make good decisions in our work, which affects others. What people demand from the business world is no different from what people desire from the world of arts.

Art is what makes a culture. Years from now people will look at our work -- our art work, our movies, our books; it is a reflection of who we are. Do we want to be remembered as a bunch of immoral freaks who did nothing but produce pornography and stories that embellished in immorality or hating Christianity?

If artists were to take their role seriously, we would see them reflecting the good inside of our world and not the sad, depressing, negative, hate, etc. I'm not suggesting that sorrowful stories or horror movies do not have some value but I am suggesting that those types of genres should be limited and not marketed to children.

In my lifetime, from my own observations, there has been a steady increase in the sexual messages/images that are directed at our youth. In turn, sex has become something of almost no value to a person, other than for pleasure. Our sexuality is personal and should be given respect by ourselves and from others. While parents are trying to protect their children from exposure to teen pregnancy, STD's, and crazed emotions that can be a result from entering the world of sex too soon, Hollywood is metaphorically passing out sex manuals and condoms and telling us to "just ignore it if you don't like it."

Writers, journalists, and even bloggers like myself have a responsibility to be as accurate as possible. For myself, I've had my blog for a few years now and I've learned quite a bit along the way. I've made mistakes. I always try to take responsibility for them. I realize that none of us are perfect, especially myself, but if I want people to come back to my blog, I need to make sure I give them some value. This is why I post less frequently. I've learned that I need to take more time in the process of generating a post. This requires me to be honest with myself and taking time to research and truly understand what it is I am trying to convey. I am my brother's keeper. I am responsible for the information and opinions I give you. No matter how small or large my audience is, it is a reflection of me and of you.

I do believe that our culture is an important driving influence in how we have evolved and will continue to evolve. The responsibility of the artist is to truly understand how much power they have and to use that power to reflect the inner light of us and this in turn can give us the will to persevere inside any obstacles. An audience deserves to be inspired by the good in this world, not torn down by immorality.