Make the Good Greater—A Call to Artists in Crazy Times
After last week’s post Thursday’s Child I got a message from some other substackers It’s Thursday Again. Here was the message…
Hi Cecil - nice to discover your writing here. A friend suggested I look at your ‘Thursday’s Child’ because we are 3 artists based in Scotland (1 American, 1 Austrian, and 1 Scot) posting work online every Thursday. Similarly, we started this weekly practice as an act of resistance (by way of artistic creation) to the damaging extremists in power throughout our current political world. Check us out if you have a moment.
Based on my comment back I wrote the following article.
Make the Good Greater—A Call to Artists in Crazy Times
We’re in some crazy times. Crazy enough that even artists - long content to work quietly in their studios, minds deep in the inward cosmos - are starting to poke their heads out the window and wonder what the hell is going on.
And rightly so.
Because the world we make our art in is the same world everyone else wakes up in. And if it burns, we burn with it. There’s no sacred bubble anymore - no reliable refuge from the noise, the lies, the unrelenting machinery of power and dysfunction. But here's the thing: we’re not just victims of it. We’re makers of it - of the world.
I’ve always believed that if humanity wants to survive, it must make the world safe for its artists—its visionaries, thinkers, builders of meaning. Not for our egos, not for applause, not even for culture’s sake, but because we are the ones who imagine the shape of the world before anyone else sees it. We model the soul of a society. We’re the early warning system, the dreamers of what could be, the ones who craft the language, imagery, and forms that everyone else ends up living inside.
So yes, life is always a struggle. That’s the human condition. But why make it harder than it needs to be? If you work in government - hell, if you work in any form of public service - just do your damn job with everyone’s benefit in mind. Not for the lobbyists, not for the donors, not for your party or your team - for the greater good.
And that’s where we artists come in again.
Because the greater good has become a foggy concept in this age of algorithms and outrage. People toss the phrase around like seasoning, but who’s actually defining the greater good? Who’s mapping it out? Who’s showing what it looks like when lived? We need to make that part of our job again. Not to preach - but to illuminate. To remind people what kindness looks like. What truth feels like. What integrity sounds like. What justice could resemble in the texture of everyday life.
And let’s be honest: bitching about the world isn’t helping. Venting has become a lifestyle, a soundtrack to inertia. It just adds more noise to an already screaming world giving cover and justification to the shenanigans going on. And every minute we spend pointing fingers at each other is a minute lost that could’ve been spent pointing the way.
That’s what this moment is asking of us: to point the way. Not to solve everything. Not to fix the unfixable. But to take a step, draw a line, write a verse, sing a truth, raise a hand—not in accusation, but in offering.
Let’s make the good greater. Let’s start there. Every day. In our work. In our words. In our communities. With optimism, compassion and dignity. Because if artists don’t help reimagine the path forward and start walking it, who will?
Excellent message here, Cecil. As artists, if we are compelled to do so, we can protest whatever our hearts deem as unfair by the art we do, the messages we reveal by the expressions of what we've created. So often the spoken words won't come to me eloquently/articulately but in my art I can deliver a message, a protest, a 'shout out' with a louder punch.
I think we have forgotten what it means to be kind, regardless of politics, social standing, manners, sympathy, compassion, most of the stuff you write about. I also think as time goes on, our children are not taught these things. As a society, we think less about sharing kindness than becoming rich and famous. We care more about being inflexible and "right" than finding a way to acknowledge people as part of the human race, maybe not agreeing with them, but saying I still honor your right to your opinion, and opening a door for them. I know, it's hard when people are led by power rather than love.
I remember in the second grade class I taught my kids were always getting into fights on the playground. I finally asked them if they ever were taught to have manners and they all looked at me like they didn't know what I was talking about. I explained to them that if they accidentally bumped into someone on the playground, they needed to say they were sorry. Would they get mad if someone bumped into them and they apologized because it was an accident? They all said no.
I got them all in a line, and gave them a little exercise to do. They were to bump into me, then say, "I'm sorry I bumped into you, it was by accident." They thought it was pretty funny bumping into the teacher, but every child did the exercise. After that, the fighting pretty much stopped with my kids because they understood what manners did.
It would be wonderful if people learned how to be kind again, even to the ones we swear at because they cut in front of us. Once kindness is demonstrated, it is often repeated, but where I live it's almost always "me first". I think we need to help people remember how lovely it is when we are considered and acknowledged by others.
Perhaps we have forgotten that peace is not a solitary activity, that peace is to be shared. People now seek peace in needing to be alone, not to be bothered, to pay more attention to our phones than possibly making eye contact. We have been taught to keep our distance from others, to fear others rather than trying to recognize the kindness that is still inside them. I know, it sounds Pollyanna-ish, but when I remember, it makes me feel great, and hopefully it gives others a lift, too. And it doesn't cost anything except a little humility.
Wouldn't it be great if there were a national "Let Someone Else Go First Day," Think how many people would think about what kindness feels like. Maybe they had forgotten. Communing with others about the beautiful day or wishing each other well, feels really good. This is our natural human nature, IMO.