The TED talk that I chose to compare to Rhys Southan’s “Is Art a Waste of Time?” is the with Benjamin Zander sharing his thoughts on classical music. After brainstorming and comparing the texts, I feel that art is not a waste of time. I agree with the beliefs and ideals of the Effective Altruists in the sense that they want to bring world happiness and end hunger/poverty, but I also think that this can happen alongside the creation of art. One connection that I found was that the EA wants to do as much good as they can and have world happiness while Zander’s thoughts on classical music are quite similar. Zander says that he “considers music to be a transformational experience” which leads me to believe that it can bring out deep emotion in people and help them through hard times. I think that the EA can work alongside art to achieve their goal. One EA member even said that he wanted to see more artists involved in their organization to help spread the word of their cause. “I would love to have some artists. We really need visual designers. It would be great to have people think about how Effective Altruism could be promoted through art” says Robert Wiblin in Southan’s essay. Perhaps music could be a means of promoting Effective Altruism.
There is one quote from Zander’s TED talk that I decided to use in my essay and it reads “So when Benjamin Zander says music is transformational, he doesn’t necessarily mean it can change the world for the better but that it has the power to change us from within.” I think this could be used to change us for the better and to be more motivated to do good in the world. I have decided that the best way to bring change is to integrate many ideas into one and therefore I believe altruism can coincide with art.
Your brainstorming session looks fantastic. You sound like you are developing some concrete opinions. Perhaps Southan is mistaken when he argues that the EAs believe art is a waste of time. Maybe there’s a better way to articulate the EA’s opinions on art. I encourage you to continue to do the hard work of getting to the bottom of this! 🙂