The Ethics of Art?

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Transcript:

Do you have to be a good person to make good art?  Is your art supposed to be a reflection of your moral character?

I think art can be a helpful initial way to examine things we’re afraid of.  And usually, stuff we’re afraid of, inside ourselves, or outside ourselves, it’s usually not the good stuff that scares us.

To me, the best art is the stuff that deals with things that tend to make you cynical and bitter.

Look at the shows we watch on TV or in film.  We don’t get attached to perfect characters.  We obsess over people with flaws who do terrible things to each other.  And you let the actors explore those characters without assuming that’s what they’re like in their normal lives.  People don’t confuse actors with what they portray on stage or on screen.

We watch MMA fighters pummel the crap out of each other.  What’s that about?  What aspect of humanity is that exploring in a controlled way?  People don’t consider fighters to be horrible people after they nearly kill each other in an arena - as long as they abide by the rules - fight fair.  There are still some rules.  Can’t go completely batshit crazy in there.

Audiences don’t have much tolerance for nuance and subtlety when it comes to stand up.  And they’ve been trained to be that way because bizarrely it’s been deemed perfectly acceptable for “journalists” to rip whatever a comedian says out of context and “report” it as factual proof of what a disgusting, reprehensible human being they are.

We accept making movies and writing novels and plays about taboo subjects.  We understand that engaging with those ideas does not have to be interpreted literally.  But somehow we frequently forget this with stand up.  Maybe it’s the lack of respect for the art form?  Maybe it’s the fact that the performance is more immediate and there’s just one person standing in front of you.  But people completely conflate ideas being explored on stage with the exact opinions of the performer and that’s so crazy.  It’s a failure to understand the art.

People worry about safe spaces, and that’s fine and valid to some extent.  If you’re actively being traumatized and you’re depressed and anxious, yea, we probably shouldn’t be stressing you out more and making your life worse.  Go hang out in a safe space.  Get healthy.  Focus on you and taking care of yourself.  That’s important.  You don’t need to be burdened by other people’s crap while you’re struggling in some basic ways with your mental health.  But societally, maybe not for you as an individual, but as a society, we need spaces for controversy.  We need spaces for disagreement about good and bad, right and wrong.  Cuz people don’t agree about stuff.  People need spaces to disagree about stuff in non-violent ways.  With words.  With thoughts.  Thoughts and words that don’t agree with each other need to be able to mix together and get sorted out.

I like artistic spaces for that purpose.  I think they’re better at it than overtly political spaces.

I think art is about pushing us beyond our current cultural constructs.  Art is on the leading edge of thought.  If it’s any good.  If it’s art of any significant quality.  It’s wrestling with ideas in ways that you’ll never hear articulated on the news or on Twitter.

There’s more latitude for experimentation with norms in art, including ethical norms.

Art doesn’t have to be an expression of sincere deeply held beliefs; it can be a sincere exploration and examination of beliefs.  Those aren’t the same thing.  Art can be the open ended journey of the questioning.  It doesn’t have to have the answers.  It doesn’t have to have a perfectly articulated thesis statement that sums it all up and proves how right you are.

It’s a weird time to be doing stand up.  I’ve never had any issues personally with anyone having a real problem with anything I’ve said on stage.  I’ve never had any confrontations.

But, it is so strange to me the way people react to stand up compared to how we react to other art forms.

Part of it is that some people do use “jokes” as a way to cloak saying something mean and shitty about another person or group of people.  That happens.  But I also would never defend that as good art.  Art can also be of low quality.  I would say it’s something you do have to allow, because making good art requires going through a process of making bad art.  No matter what the art form.  You have to accept that a lot of bad art is going to exist if you want the good stuff.

Also, lots of comics aren’t perfect people in their actual lives.  Myself included.  Comedians are flawed people.  We do bad things.  Just like every one of you watching this video.  Human beings aren’t good.  It’s very strange to me that we expect artists to be less flawed than the rest of us.  As far as I can tell, everybody’s a mess, but, maybe I just haven’t met the right people in life, I don’ know.  That whole people in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones thing comes to mind.

Part of the problem is some celebrities do try to cultivate an image of moral superiority, so that does set them up for failure when their flaws are inevitably exposed at some point.  And, no question, some artists’ moral lapses are significantly more extreme than others.  I’m not defending anyone or excusing anyone for morally indefensible actions.  It’s not that I don’t believe ethical norms are valuable.  Being a great artist doesn’t give you any extra permission to behave horribly toward others or violate their dignity.  Of course not.

It’s just interesting to me that we tie the person so intimately to the art they create and there’s this idea that the art and what it was expressing is invalidated by the moral failings of the artist.  Because, art in the first place doesn’t seem to me, to be something that is ethical or needs to be ethical in order to say something valuable or insightful.

I see art as a reflection of the human condition.  And I don’t think human beings are purely good.  I think that there are lots of awful and troubling things about us.  Myself included.  I’m not a good person.  I’m not a bad person.  I’m a person.  And I think art should reflect that.  If it doesn’t, then it’s going to be somewhat dishonest.  Maybe that’s the prime virtue of good art: honesty.  Maybe that should be the artist’s ethical code.  Be honest and authentic in expressing yourself.  The good bits and the bad bits.