Effective Altruism

The concept of art has been around since the stone age, and has majorly progressed and improved since then. Art may have started as a simple line marked on a cave wall by a rock, or the concept of music may have strived from banging two objects together to make a sound in a specific way. In the United States, art is not a mandatory part of the core curriculum in schools. Some schools have music and art classes available as electives, and are encouraged to explore outside of the mandatory math, science, and English classes. However, when budget cuts occur, school systems take away from the arts.

Art enthusiasts, such as artists or musicians strive to keep the arts within the educational system, and for children to even explore the arts outside

Southan writes about his experience with Effective Altruism (EA) and meeting with Effective Altruists. Effective Altruists strive for the goal of doing as much good as you possibly can with your life. What EA often comes down to is working hard to earn money and then giving as much of it as you can to the needy. Replaceability is a core concept in Effective Altruism where the idea can be transcribed into doing as much good as you can, so the next person can do even better than what you did. It almost comes down to a competition or a ladder of what’s the best thing someone can do for another. This is where the idea of art being a waste of time is introduced. Southan states in his article, “artists, meanwhile, paint the beautiful landscape in front of them while the rest of the world burns” (437). What EA’s beliefs can be transcribes into the statement of: if you are not doing any good in the world, then what you are doing is wasteful. As Southan quotes, “Artists are operating on some questionable values. Is your self-expression more important than human lives and suffering? Would you rather contribute to the culture of rich societies than work to reduce the suffering of the poor, or future generations?” (438). What Southan’s quotes, can be broken down into briefly stating that he believes that artists are wasteful; they could even be considered selfish,