The arts, humanities and sciences provide integrating experiences and belief systems for developing out of the Christian mind-set while actualizing a greater range of experience through democratic strategies. Unfortunately, society has substituted consumer gratification and the business ethic for the kind of cultural ideals necessary for producing humanitarian ethical codes in the next century. The exploitive politics of monopolistic capitalism will continue to suppress the rights of non-Western countries and allow big business to ravage the environment under the guise of free trade and Christian morality. Our television-dependent society seems unable to see through the misdirections and propaganda to realize the motives of a political system controlled by the capitalist elite. Ironically, the controlling hierarchy adheres to policies that violate commonly held ideals of equal justice and peaceful coexistence.
Government policy legislates the political agenda of major contributors.
It does not represent the masses, nor does it function on behalf of the people beyond a facade of social responsibility. It is the duty of the artist and other creative people to provide the symbols of cultural revolution for the burgeoning social order of the 21th Century. More than ever before, it is imperative that the creators of culture resist trends toward despiritualization and commercialization. Culture must be regenerated at a local level through programs in education and the arts, and through an emphasis on the family.