Separation Anxiety

How does one separate the work from the worker? The art from the artist?

If one possesses a backbone hardened by principle, each week, it seems, some new entity stakes out an absurd position. The CEO of an airline that cannot run on time takes a position on a state election law. A musician discriminates against his audience based on vaccination status. An athlete blasts a private company with a suddenly controversial logo. People of wealth or name recognition, don’t you see, are blessed with a wisdom surpassing mortal understanding.

It is a relatively new phenomenon that a person or company, having worked diligently to acquire an audience or clientele, would take obvious and calculated steps to divide and alienate that same audience. Maybe that’s what happens to a spoiled and immature society. What is happening now is not a change of artistic direction, but a middle finger to once loyal audience members. When Bob Dylan went electric in 1965, he set off shockwaves in the folk music community. He changed artistic direction. But he did not refuse to sell tickets to people who were unwilling to embrace his new direction, nor did he maintain that anyone who was unwilling to embrace his new sound be doxxed or debanked.

A purge of an artist’s or company’s work from one’s life is a temptation. In some cases it even makes sense, in that little is lost other than frustration. Mac versus PC – big deal. But when a resonant work of art is involved resistance is understandably greater. Memories adhere to things that touch us emotionally. That song or movie never fails to stir pleasant memories of who we were with and where we were in our lives when they touched us. That’s why those things exist. They were created out of human emotion in order to remind us of our own humanity, both of which (humanity and the art it spawns) are beautiful things. More often than not, maintaining those relationships serve us better than tossing them overboard.

Going forward, maybe that artist’s work will land coolly. For sure it will be received in a different light. But like it or not people are allowed to change in ways that don’t suit us. Perhaps you’ve done it yourself. Unfortunately, beautiful things often flow through people who may seem or turn out to be … questionable. That’s just part of the human equation.

It is also true, however, that our journey often requires us to change buses, and there is nothing wrong with that.