Stories - The glue that holds societies - 1

Many people know the value of stories - they serve to form a glue that holds a society together. And now that the entire world is a global village - 'one society' - we should make all efforts to exist harmoniously despite differences in the disparate parts of its body.  It may be high time that we began sharing our stories. We need to do this with a great sense of urgency so that we understand and have genuine empathy for each other and consequently establish a harmony that increasingly seems to be threatened in the world of today.

The stories of the 20th Century were largely stories of the grandeur of Science and haven't they been truly impressive! They have had a large scale impact on the way humankind relates to the universe, and this relation, as Man has found out to his detriment, is causing some sort of an anxiety. Think of the 20th Century philosophies spurred on by the advancements in science and the impact it has had on society -  like some pessimistic strains in Existentialism. Think of the theory of the Absurd and the various forms of literature they engendered - especially in plays and in some sorts of fiction. The estrangement that Mankind found itself in relation to the universe in which it was placed, have also been captured in many films too - like those of Tarkovski, others like The Clockwork Orange, Passenger and so many others that I find difficult to list out here. In fact, they all represent stories that humans told each other about the state of the world in the 20th Century.

All one has to do to confirm that the general happiness quotient of humanity has taken a steep dive is to compare the paintings of say, the Dutch School of the 17th Century, specially of Jan Vermeer, Meindert Hobbema, Ruisdale and Frans Hals or even of the French School like Claude Lorrain or Jean Simeon Chardin or Jean Camille Corot and the 18th C English School represented by Sir Joshua Reynolds and Thomas Gainsborough  and juxtapose it with those of the 20th Century like those of Braque and Gaugin. The very hues of the colors chosen itself seem to lower my moods. In contrast, in my house I have two prints of the lively  paintings of the former type - one depicting a happy peasant family and the other portraying an eager young woman with her spritely dog, who has dismounted a horse, expectantly knocking on a door (of her lover?). These paintings celebrate life the way it was meant to be enjoyed. It is certainly more optimistic than the pessimistic depictions of the modern day.

 If you grant it that art tells the story of humanity, then the paintings of the 17th and 18th C seem to tell the story of a happy humanity. Some painters render pictures of a merry humanity, but already in them, you see signs of decay. I invite you to see some prints of Rembrandt.

These stories that the painting of the 17th and 18th C reflect, are of a society not fully corrupted by the Industrial Revolution. With the ascent of science and technology, other stories that cover the realm of an entirely different aspect of humanity has been much ignored and sadly even discredited and in the next few posts I'll try to present some incidents in my life that seek to draw attention that these aspects deserve to be considered too.

                         (To be continued ...)