Should Art Carry the Weight of Shaping our Values?

post by Krishna Maneesha Dendukuri (krishna_maneesha-d) · 2025-01-28T18:43:32.517Z · LW · GW · 0 comments

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Lately, I’ve engaged in numerous discussions with family and friends about the role of art in shaping our worldview or even values for that matter, but I’ve yet to reach a satisfying conclusion. I thought sharing my thoughts here might help me clarify my perspective, so here we go! I truly believe that films and media possess a remarkable power to influence our worldviews. While this is a widely recognized idea, I just wanted to put my thoughts out there for anyone who may be interested.

I fully understand the argument that art should have its freedom. Writers and directors, for example, deserve the liberty to express their stories as they wish! Nonetheless, people may react in unexpected ways to what they see, not always positively! It ultimately depends on the audience and their interpretations; what they choose to learn or take away from it! Art can at max serve as a trigger for people to take it as an inspiration and do something violent or just something unexpected! After all, everything probably just boils down to “art is subjective!". Therefore, art shouldn’t bear the responsibility of maintaining social order - that’s what world leaders and the education system are for! Much of art is a reflection of society at a certain point in time! ALLLL that is absolutely fair! I acknowledge and respect this notion, albeit with some reservations.

Now here’s the paradox: people do form their worldviews based on movies and stories! Not everyone has the luxury of experiencing a wide variety of things in the world due to various limitations - responsibilities, time, financial constraints, or other factors! It is still most certainly impossible to experience everything in the world! Consequently, many of us learn vicariously through the stories we read or hear or watch! That sounds a little extra, but maybe subconsciously? Perhaps the issue lies not in overly dramatic or over-the-top cinema, but in the ‘relatable’ characters who engage in destructive or troubling behavior - essentially doing extremely messed up things that are 'easy' to apply to one's day-to-day lives, such as domestic violence.

Well, you might be wondering if I even have any coherent thoughts at all? Surprise surprise, I do! Let me take you through a few of those:) I came across the idea that “acting is reacting!” And what that necessarily means is that an actor reads through the script/documentation to first understand where the character is coming from or what its vibe is. And once they do, the rest of the job is to react to things happening to or around them (in the shoes of this character)

Now, I also noticed the idea that "survival is a reaction!” which suggests that when we're in survival mode, we find ourselves merely reacting to things in our lives rather than actively shaping them. And this connects with the idea of being passively involved in our own lives, the kind of passivity we often pick up in school. (Paul Graham talks about this in his essay)

And these concepts intersect in a very interesting way in my opinion! If most of the world is only living their lives in a survival mode, i.e. if we are only passively involved and reacting to things happening to us, we are at risk! Risk of just living life like a video game, we just get better at reacting to things, even building reflexes maybe! But what happens when there is an unexpected challenge, something that is a bit out of distribution? We might seek help, drawing from our subconscious minds - a treasure chest of experiences! We’re now trying to recall; have we seen someone around us go through it? How did they react? Would that reaction make sense here? Maybe not! But HEY! I remember this very “relatable” character, that “looked like me”, and has had similar life experiences. And that character goes through this exact same situation, maybe I could try emulating that response? ….. And there it is! ( It’s not like that is always dark, there could be positive implications to that too! ) (Also I want to note that I have loosely used the terms 'art' and 'movies' interchangeably throughout this text.)

I understand these are quite a few scattered thoughts just glued together but if there’s one takeaway I hope to convey, it’s this: Be mindful of your own thoughts! Regularly check in with yourself to understand and observe why you think what you think and even question your own worldview as and when needed! You wouldn't want your treasure chest to hold garbage, would you? (I also acknowledge that it's quite challenging and takes significant effort to reprogram one's subconscious mind, and sometimes you turn to art simply to relax or unwind - but I suppose practicing intentionality in everything you do will eventually become easier?) Maybe just let artists express, let art BE! Be more intentional or actively involved in what you learn/take away from a piece of art:)

A special thank you to everyone I discussed these ideas with - you've all inspired my thoughts!❤️

Feel free to reach out and share your thoughts or experiences around this, I'd love to hear:)

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