Support art, invest in business

Such hypocrisy in the world, where art defines and dictates your politics and thought - yet we remain only supporters. I'd invite you to think of two brothers, one who remains uneducated but street-smart and has experience but dreams of starting a business and the other, educated and working as an in-demand artist. We may assume that both the brothers would have had the same opportunities and resources at their disposal. Which child would receive the 10 lakhs and which child would be denied further education?

The question is rhetorical. The way we are designed as a society, we perhaps have never asked this question. Equality does not start in the household - perhaps, the uneducated child would have needed more money, and more support to establish himself, and we look at equity from that lens, but, invariably to make ends meet to support the business-minded child, the artist is suppressed and left to struggle. Where is the equity in that?

Through civilisations, artists have been supported by politicians - the same ones who control the businesses and the rules of the world. The writer behind your president's speeches is a writer! Michael Angelo working for the political Church was an artist. The scribes working on the pyramids were painters/linguists. Must I again mention Shakespeare and the Queen? The voice of business comes through because of the artists around the politicians.

Art and money are invariably interlinked in the larger scheme of our society, there is no denying that - art needs money but through the years - art creates money and how individuals in society may make that money. I'd propose to you an idea, that indeed - art is an investment - an investment into long-term business models. Without travel writers romanticising the iconic places of the world, perhaps Thomas Cook or Makemytrip wouldn't have existed. 

You may argue, that science leads business much further than art; however, the artistic mind and the scientific mind are not very different in their enquiry of the world. Why is Sociology working to become a science if not for the same reason? Why was Leonardo DaVinci examining corpses? Why was Nicola Tesla imagining endless resources if not from the ideas of Eden? 

The imaginative mind, the artist, the true scientist (I don't mean the throngs of rote-engineers) create and what our society needs is creation. Creation of what moves beyond the mundane business of everyday struggle. Equity and progress are not through business transactions - that is maintenance and equilibrium; the artist child would have been able to propel society, alas, 10 lakh rupees worth of suppression isn't worth the struggling business.