Cowen says that such a position is historically myopic. The market brings crowd-pleasing artists such as Michael Jackson or Steven Spielberg . . . Cowen chalks it up to cultural pessimism, or the belief that the world's best days are behind it. The modern age is often compared unfavorably to some earlier time, such as the classical period, the Enlightenment, the 19th Century, or even the early 20th Century. But earlier periods also had good and bad art.
People compare what they see today to the best of the past.
They forget that what survives is the best. We don't see the junk. We see Shakespeare, not bear-baiting, which was equally popular. The debate over direct government subsidies to the arts soon may be obsolete, he believes. Art is being revolutionized.