THE WARHOL COOKIE JAR SYNDROME

Looking for a reliable signal of cultural decline? We don't know what to collect anymore. People with money to burn are buying junk and expecting it to be valuable someday. Like truly awful modern art that sells at auctions in New York and London for tens of millions.Or even sillier, the costumes of movie stars. And not even stars in good movies, but eye-candy like "Spiderman,""Batman" and the "Harry Potter" series. This is what comes of a popular culture -- pardon, "pop culture" - - that no longer distinguishes between what is great and what happens to be playing. Four or more hours a day in front of television may have blunted in Americans the sense of what good is. Maybe trendy movie reviewing is to blame, the pressure to praise what ticket-buyers will flock to anyway. Or could it be our public schools, which don't teach critical distinctions anymore? "Esteem" has to be for everyone and everything. Which, of course, they don't deserve. Rap music is not and never will be up with Bach. Jasper Johns sells at higher prices but is not in the same room with Vermeer. He is just "in" until we eventually grow ashamed of ourselves.Given a chance to acquire the manuscript of a song by Schubert, in his own hand, or a T-shirt worn by a Bob Dylan, which would a baby boomer choose?

-www.redorbit.com
August 16 2008