What if I find out a Republican owns the orchard my apple came from, and he flies a Trump 2024 flag? Should I stop consuming those apples? I mean the apple is literally going into my body and we are what we eat. Right? Why would I want my body polluted with something created by a right-wing lunatic?!
And what about ideas? I really like the freedom of speech concept. But weren't those ideas created by white men who owned slaves? Or they at least wrote them down. In fact wasn't the whole Declaration of Independence and Constitution written by people of questionable racism? Maybe I should list out all of the ideas in those documents and reject them on grounds that I cannot separate the idea from its thinker. Bye-bye rule of law, freedom of speech, equality by nature, Natural Law, the republic, etc.
What's next? I need to purify myself of all contaminating items created by contaminated people. Wait a second. I have a better idea. Let's just eliminate the contagion by eliminating the contagious. That would be easier and allow me to eat what I want without worrying about its origins and who created it. Then we can come up with new ideas by the right kind of people and adopt a new ideological package that isn't contaminated with history. It will be a tough road, and some people will not make it through this...adjustment. But the society we create in the end will be worth it.
You can't make an omelette without cracking a few eggs, right?
And what about "art?" Is it any different? Can we separate the art from the artist? Should we separate the art from the artist? Those are different things for sure. Hold on a second. I think I just answered the questions.
If there are two different words then they must have two different definitions and thus be two different things that exist on their own. Art is not an artist just as an artist is not art. If I burned all of Monet's art, would he still be an artist? Well, of course. And the opposite is true as well. A Monet hangs on my living room wall even though he is long dead, but his art exists for my eyes to see daily.
Focusing on the artist instead of the art, as Jung stated, "takes us away from the psychological study of the work of art, and confronts us with the psychic disposition of the poet himself." It turns us into pop-psychologists instead of art critics.
Again, Jung addresses this by stating that "the work of art is something in its own right, and may not be conjured away."
Although, there is a connection. I may feel a twinge of annoyance knowing his ideas are...unacceptable. To be honest, I keep skipping Will Smith songs on my personal playlist. After slap-gate, Summertime just didn't hit the same. (Pun unintended.)
So what about Kanye, or "Ye"? (Is that in any way related to my kids "yeeting" each other?)
To be honest, I thought about looking around online and figuring out what he said, as to understand the current controversy and why Adidas and others are distancing themselves from him. But I really don't care that much. I'm sick of this game where we waste time dissecting words and putting people into ideological boxes.
And it's not that I think anti-semitism isn't a problem. Quite the contrary. I think it's a deep psychological problem that permeates the psyche of a whole swath of people looking to reject the very nature of reality. But I digress.
I just don't want to spend any of my time trying to figure out what Mr. Ye thinks about it. Why would anyone do that?
Anyways, to understand motivations can be tricky. But someone once said (Freud or Jung, I can't remember which one) that we can understand motivations by looking at the result and inferring the motivation.
In this case, the result is the diminishing online presence of Kanye West, which is something I'm not that concerned about on an influencer level. His ideas about the world, to me, are not that interesting and I find his interviews to be cringey.
What concerns me is the tool - the effectiveness of the tool to be specific. I'm not so naive as to believe that tools like this are only used on people I don't agree with or dislike.
So if individual people want to skip Kanye, or Ye's music, go for it. But let's make sure that it stays a personal decision for each individual. I may one day forgive Will and want to assure sure his jams are still searchable when I need them back.
Great music, important ideas, and crisp apples exist on their own, outside of their origins, and we forget that at our peril.