The Manifesto of the Social Aesthetic Party

Painters, Writers, Musicians, all Artists, all Creators of Beautiful Things – for too long our individualism has been our weakness. We have always refused to surrender our independent opinion by completely conforming to any bureaucracy, and while all other castes of society were uniting to work for their benefit, while the businessmen and farmers and proletarians have formed lobbies and parties and unions, we have sat back and mourned the death of the Artist’s significance.

For fear of losing security in our distinctiveness, we have refused to unite and therefore become frozen, starving and affronted. But if we just sacrifice a bit of our self-righteous uniqueness in order to promote not only the welfare of Artists, but the glory of Art, we can regain a society compatible with our dream. Therefore I urge all Artists to join the Social Aesthetic Party and adopt this manifesto as, not necessarily a vow of complete intellectual compliance, but as a proclamation of unification.

The Social Aesthetic Party upholds three main ideals:

1. Economic Socialism

Poverty is the greatest hindrance to a Painter, Writer, or Musician. The choice of many Artists is to give up on the vocation of art and pursue it as a mere hobby, often to their detriment as an Artist, and always to the Art’s degradation as a full-time vocation, as this increases the tendency to label those struggling full-time Artists as “unemployed,” and, lacking a way to legally distinguish between the full-time Artist and the unemployed, those who employ this label cannot be disproved.

Therefore, it is in the best interest of the Artists that the State should provide sufficient government aid to all those who are legally “unemployed,” in order to allow for full-time Artists.

2. Promotion of Art

However, in addition to government aid, the State should also work to promoting Art in particular, through the federal funding of art museums, theaters, orchestras, and other such programs to reward the Artist for their work with both an economic incentive and a stage. In addition to rewarding Artists, it would help to distinguish between true Artists and those who use Art as an excuse for laziness and unemployment, thus exalting the Artist and preserving the dignity of Art.

3. Postmodern Morality

It is the official belief of the Social Aesthetic Party, in accordance with the postmodern perspective, that no set of ethics can be objectively proven to be the “right” set of ethics. The State, therefore, should not denounce any activity as “wrong,” and therefore should not deem it illegal, unless this sort of activity directly harms another individual. Laws should be aimed towards the protection of individuals from harm, and no law that merely limits the liberties of one person should be passed in order to promote a particular lifestyle.

However, since our lack of ethics is just another set of ethical beliefs, the Social Aesthetic Party will not deny membership to a fellow advocate of the rights of Artists solely for upholding a particular set of morals. The Social Aesthetic Party, as previously stated, is not an exclusive organization of dogmatic principles but an organic grouping of people who desire the welfare of Artists and the glory of Art.

Questions and Answers

1. The Democratic Party has very similar ideas about a welfare state and about not enforcing morality (e.g. gay marriage, legalization of “soft” drugs). How is the Social Aesthetic Party different from the Democratic Party?

First of all, the Democratic Party has a much more rigid set of beliefs, while the Social Aesthetic Party is much more flexible. Rather, the unifying theme of us Social Aesthetics is our mutual goal, the welfare of Artists, and the glory of Art. Thus, we are not limited by any sort of dogma, like a Democrat is. Second of all, the Democratic Party has no such priority as “Promotion of Culture,” while that is one of three of the Social Aesthetic Party’s primary ideals, and perhaps it is the most important one. For an Artist, or even an Art devotee, this distinction is a quite important one.

2. Why do the Social Aesthetics choose to work as a political party, rather than a lobby?

Because lobbies are corrupt, underhanded, and bureaucratic, which we idealistic Artists generally oppose. Working as a third political party, we can still support politicians of other political affiliations that share our ideals, without associating ourselves with the corruption of lobbies. Also, as a political party, we allow ourselves to be supported on a grander scale, for simply by being a member of the Social Aesthetic Party, one works towards spreading our ideals. If the Social Aesthetics formed a lobby, the only support that Artists could show us would be through donation of labor or money, which limits our capacity to be supported.

3. Then why not a union?

First of all, many Artists, particularly Writers, are part of other trade unions, so forming a separate union would require us to compete with these organizations, to work against these writers’ unions. Being a political party, we can instead work to support such unions. Second of all, the power of unions comes from their lobbying and striking. However, neither of those would accomplish our aim because, as previously stated, we Social Aesthetics do not wish to entangle ourselves in the web of corruption that is lobbying, and because a strike of Artists would be ineffective, as the Painters, Writers and Musicians who are struggling the most have no employer, so their cries would not be heard.

4. The “Social” in “Social Aesthetic Party” refers to Socialism, as one can tell by looking at your first ideal. Why do you support Socialism when it has done so much bad in the past?

Socialism is often equated with Communism, when there is a slight distinction. Socialism is the belief that a democratic government should be more involved in economics, while Communism is the belief that the proletariat class needs to revolt and create such a government. Furthermore, Socialism does not imply a form of government, but rather a political philosophy that can be applied in a democracy, while Communism is a form of government that cannot be applied within the boundaries of democracy.

Most of the reputation of Socialism is due to the mistakes of Communism. The Socialism that the Social Aesthetic Party advocates is not the Communism that has been used in the Soviet Union, China and Cuba, but rather the Socialism found throughout Europe and in Canada.

5. Why should a non-Artist support the Social Aesthetic Party?

What if your brother, sister, wife, child, grandchild, niece, etc., had the calling? What if they had the ability and the desire to Create Beautiful Things? By supporting the Social Aesthetic Party, one supports the goal of creating a society compatible with Painters, Writers and Musicians, in order to promote their paintings, their novels, their songs. The glory of Art is irrevocably intertwined with the welfare of Artists.

6. Does the Social Aesthetic Party aim to create a society ruled by Artists?

I suggest you ask a similar question about the aim of teachers’ unions, AARP or the pro-Israel lobby. Do they aim to create a society ruled by teachers, elderly persons, or Jews, respectively? Or do they simply want to make sure the wishes of those groups are represented adequately? Additionally, there will never be a separate class of Artists because anyone who dips a brush into paint, or puts a pen to paper, or rubs a bow against a violin, anyone who does that and knows they are doing what they were born to do, is an Artist.

Epilogue

“Those who find ugly meanings in beautiful things are corrupt without being charming. This is a fault.

“Those who find beautiful meanings in beautiful things are the cultivated. For them there is hope.

“They are the elect to whom beautiful things mean only Beauty....

“One is excused for creating a useful thing as long as he does not admire it. The only excuse for creating a useless thing is that one admires it intensely.

“All Art is quite useless.”