The Importance Of Arts In Yo-Yo Ma And Rhys Southan

Art plays a huge role in the world we live in today, particularly in more developed countries. It is seen in everything from culture, to hobbies, to expression of ideas. Art is seen in everything and has an overall outstanding effect on many things in daily life. Even in countries that have very little material comfort, art is still a prevalent form of expressing ideas and capturing imagination in a material object. Some may think that art is more wasteful than it is beneficial to the world, but many would agree that art has a very important impact on many aspects of life, and in turn, is an overall beneficial use of time and energy. Yo-Yo Ma and Rhys Southan both have very strong viewpoints on the importance of art, on almost opposite ends

In his essay, Southan talks about his trip to a small cottage on the English countryside with a group of people who dedicate their lives to charity, called Effective Altruism. The members of the group call themselves EAs and strongly believe that there is nothing more important in life than helping those that are in great need. On this trip, he learned a lot about the values of the EAs and adapted many of his values to match more of what the EAs believe. Before his trip, Southan enjoyed writing scripts and even planned on finishing one up during his trip. After a quite dramatic change in beliefs, he now urges people to realize how wasteful art can be. He asserts this in one very forceful quote: “As EAs see it, writing scripts and making movies demands resources that, in the right hands, could have saved lives” (436). He firmly believes that art has no purpose other than to take away from those who are very needy in underdeveloped countries. Southan previously thought of it as a hobby until one of the EAs asked him whether or not the script he was currently working on would be one of the best scripts ever written. He explains that he wanted to say yes but at the same time, he knew that it was not true. After this moment, Southan began to realize that to the EAs, art had not real meaning and it was not worthwhile. He also started to understand their reasoning behind the idea that art has so

There is no reason to specifically target art when there are so many other things that are much less productive, many of which can even be harmful. As Southan states, art could be considered wasteful because of the ways in which it uses so many materials, so much time, and often so much money, but art also serves a variety of purposes other than taking away from people that are in need. For many individuals, similar to what was stated before, art can be a way to find serenity and express one’s innermost thoughts and feelings without ever having to actually say it outloud to another human being. It can even be a way to cope for many. In contradiction to the comforting aspect of art that many people find useful in their daily lives, Southan makes the somewhat disturbing claim that artists “paint the beautiful landscape in front of them while the rest of the world burns” (437). This is a very blunt statement that shames artists for pursuing either their career or hobby of making art and unfairly deems the artists as wasteful and inconsiderate. He also unfairly makes the very critical argument that in all anyone does, “the only good that counts is what you accomplish over and above what the next person would have done in your place” (436). The EAs use the concept of