Artistic Freedom

When Socrates came up with wild new ideas, the Greeks put him on trial. When Galileo presented his discoveries he was shut down. When Handel’s Messiah was performed there were fistfights in the Church parking lot…when organs came in, they were called the Devil’s instrument by some…when the Beatles started to play, many people wanted to ban them for their radical new way of playing music and some did.

Now, if the efforts at censoring these people had been completely successful, we wouldn’t be able to enjoy these works of art today. Wouldn’t that be a shame?

Great artists explore new ways of playing music…writing books…acting and painting which some people take as a threat. Some ideas are threatening, and we certainly need to be aware of those…however, we need to allow freedom to discuss and explore ideas…because we don’t want to lose the great ideas and innovation that can come from free discussion.

Many times a great artist will draw attention to uncomfortable truths that society would rather forget. It is easy to censor these voices…but wouldn’t it be better if we considered what they had to say instead?

Wouldn’t it be better if we matured to the point where we weren’t afraid and offended by anything and everything? An immature personality hides from the world in an effort to keep themselves safe, a mature person has learned to test and discern between good ideas and destructive ones and grows stronger through this process.

The horrible truth is, many times it is other people who possess the knowledge we need to grow…if we censor them because we want to keep ourselves safe, we end up harming ourselves…because we prevent these other people from sharing the wisdom that we ourselves need…to grow as an artist…and as a person.

Is our best friend the one who tells us what we want to hear or the one who boots us out of our comfort zone by telling us the truth?

Humility is the beginning of learning because in humility we recognize that other people than ourselves have something worth saying.

Freedom is the foundation of artistic and scientific innovation…because freedom allows people the freedom to seek the truth, not to conform to what is already known…but instead, to venture out into the unknown.

Innovation is the path to progress…because only by learning something new can we do the things we haven’t done yet.

The truth is only a threat to people who want to live a lie…let’s preserve the freedom to seek it.

Let’s pursue maturity instead of a childish life bent on preserving its own safety from a challenge.

Let’s resolve to be bold as artists…and as people.