A Revival of Radical Self-Expression in the Arts

In times of great suffering and social upheaval, all human beings (whether conscious of this fact or not) are challenged to question the very meaning of their existence. Events such as war, economic collapse, pandemics, political revolution, and natural disasters have the effect of shaking men and women out of their day-to-day routines and sense of comfort. As history clearly shows, these ages have also sparked some of the most profound and inspiring renaissances in the creative arts like music, writing, and painting. Difficult ages in history and soulful expression fit together seamlessly. Just as we cannot separate the river’s journey from its destination to the vast blue ocean, so we cannot separate revolutions in the creative arts from their societal contexts. As a case in point, consider the Renaissance of art that took place during the decades of the 1960s and ’70s.

The Hippies and the Last Great Renaissance in Art

Photo of Bob Marley by Bill Fairs – Unplash.com/Creative Commons

In a global context this age had it all. A hugely unpopular and devastating war in Vietnam, the cold war and the looming threat of nuclear devastation, independence movements in Africa and the civil rights Movement in the United States, women’s Liberation on both sides of the Atlantic, as well as multiple indigenous rights protests in the Americas. In short, for much of the world, social revolution and war came to define that period’s external landscape. Unquestionably, the escalation of extreme government violence amid a backdrop of mass protests and growing existential fears gave rise to an inspiring movement of higher consciousness that became embodied by the hippie counterculture. At its core, the hippies were at the forefront of a spiritual movement that sought to promote a more soulful and natural way of living in harmony with the whole of Creation. On the surface, they saw an external world marked by widespread fear, greed, mindless conformity, and hypocrisy.

In response to society’s madness, the hippies turned within through such inner outlets as meditation, the use of psychedelics, and communing with nature. This great period of inner searching saw an explosion of raw creativity that simultaneously served as a deep social commentary on the unjust nature of society while also sharing hopeful visions of transcended states of awareness.

The hippies’ powerful merging of an outer world critique and an inner vision of untapped hope, peace, and unity found its soulful expression most powerfully through music. Household acts like the Beatles, Bob Marley, Jimi Hendrix, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, The Who, Jefferson Airplane, Janis Joplin, Bob Dylan, Neil Young, The Doors and the Grateful Dead communicated the hippie ethos through the vehicle of sound. But this era’s renaissance in art was not limited to music alone. Beatnik poets and counterculture authors like Alan Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, William Burroughs, Ken Kesey, and Gary Snyder accomplished through words what musicians did through music. And who can fail to mention (perhaps) three of the most impactful and sage-like writers of that generation: Baba Ram Dass, Aldous Huxley, and Alan Watts!

Into a New Age of Creativity

Photo by Simon Noh – Unsplash.com/Creative Commons

In our post-pandemic world, humanity is primed for the latest renaissance of art. Many years from now when we look back on these times, we may even come to find that the art renaissance currently under way eclipsed the creative genius of the hippie counterculture. There can be no doubt that the pandemic has provided the ultimate context and fuel for a tidal wave of radical self-expression. While the pandemic proved terribly tragic in terms of both sickness and death, it was precisely the presence of death’s very public face that sparked inner reflection on our own mortality. In truth, it forced much of humanity to confront that one mysterious yet omnipresent constant that colors our very existence. For the first time in decades, many of us were suddenly forced to examine tough existential questions that are typically buried beneath our society’s obsession with techno-consumerist distractions. Some of these questions are ones that have consumed the minds of philosophers and the souls of mystics from every spiritual faith: “Who am I”? “What happens when I die”? “Will I be reborn”? “What is my purpose here on Earth”? “Who or What is God”?” Undoubtedly, many beings have felt drawn to the creative arts to express their own answers to such deep questions revolving around life and death.

In my own case, I can honestly say that I have felt a deeper yearning than ever before to express my admittedly limited understanding of each of these questions to anyone willing to listen. I feel that my own personal experience during the pandemic filled me with a greater sense of urgency to convey such universal truths. In the wake of COVID-19, I have witnessed this same sense of urgency to express start to emerge in so many other artists as well. And most remarkable of all, I have encountered more artists than I can ever recall meeting who have adopted ingenious methods to communicate their message. Beyond the now mundane world of social media, I have seen street performance art re-emerge, participated in more spontaneous music gatherings and drum circles than I can ever remember, and I have found myself laughing hysterically at socially and spiritually conscious improv comedy events.

There is an additional layer to the pandemic that has lent itself to an age of radical self-expression in art. In their desperate attempts to contain this virus, governments around the world carried out unprecedented shutdowns of several key industries. The impact caused by those lockdowns had far-reaching and unforeseen consequences for humanity. On the one hand, the massive shutdowns facilitated the full-scale meltdown of the global financial system and led to an unemployment crisis not seen since the height of the Great Depression. Predictably, the shock to the economy also exasperated our collective fear and inflicted significant hardships on the majority of workers and the poor. On the other hand, due to subsequent rounds of “social distancing” and home quarantining, most of the world’s population found more time for solitude than ever before. This added alone time proved to be a catalyst for spirited self-reflection. Inevitably, remarkable works of art have been one outcome of sustained periods of social isolation. While such solitude can undoubtedly induce depression and mental health problems for many people, it can also spur remarkable works of creative expression in others. In fact, the suffering that one both acknowledges and experiences in periods of extended solitude may itself prove to be a catalyst for the greatest creative works. Just think for a moment of all the writers, painters, and musicians who retreated into solitude following painful life events to convey their sense of understanding and meaning. The list of such artists is too numerous to count!

The vast social injustices that the pandemic exposed has also proved to be a fertile ground for a renaissance in the arts. As the world has grappled to cope with the fallout from the pandemic, deep and long-standing systemic problems have been fully revealed for us all to see…. further fueling revivals in art, music, and the written word. Such problems include the continuous tax-funded government bailouts of greedy corporations, politicians who use their elite insider knowledge to profit amid periods of crisis, soaring wealth inequality between the rich and poor, continued wars of aggression (See Russia’s invasion of Ukraine for example) environmental degradation and the disturbing pattern of pathological lies peddled to the public by self-interested media outlets. In short, the pandemic helped to dramatically reveal that immoral values like greed, violence, fear, and division that currently underlie the foundations of the global system.

In the days and months ahead, we can expect many peaceful souls to do what their forebearers did during the hippie counterculture. The era of a new renaissance in creative expression is upon us. To all artists and creative souls, the time has arrived to do what you do best: CREATE, MOVE, and INSPIRE! Through your art, reveal the absurdity of organizing our societies around the worst aspects of the human condition. Even more important…. convey through your creativity the hope that exists in recognizing that death is not to be feared, that love will always prevail, and that all things in this universe are intricately connected as one. In these times of shared suffering, the reality of our eternal oneness has never been more apparent than it is now. Always remember that conveying the truth of our cosmic unity serves the highest and noblest aims of creative expression. The artists of this generation are poised to become some of our greatest warriors in the spiritual war that is now upon us.