“Pizzaonia Emerging 2” Courtesy of the Pizzaonian Art Institute, Abe Straction, Curator
A funny thing happened on the way to Utopia - dilettantism ceased to be a favored way of life.
Conjectures of a recovering dilettante……
I cannot help but think how much better your world might be if this had not happened. Many years ago, a dilettante was considered a “lover of the arts.’ And we all know that “lover of the arts” do not wage war.
Now, unfortunately, a more popular definition became the norm. A dilettante became an amateur, a dabbler – a person that no one should take seriously. Come to think of it, this sounds a lot like your politicians. And, they do wage war.
Here in Pizzaonia, we honor our dilettantes. We consider this to be a byproduct of the truly curious who are so awed by the wonders of the world they live in; they become literally like “kids in a candy store” - unable to stay with one thing without soon being attracted to the next wonder they see. They may never become what you would call experts, but they do end up knowing a little about a lot of things.
The experts in your world, as they live their lives, fill the box that holds his or her life experiences with one item, the subject that they came to know so well.
For the dilettantes of our world, their box of life experiences is like the child’s toy box, filled with many wonders and delights – sometimes so filled with wondrous toys they have a hard time choosing which one to play with next.
We will leave it to you which one you would rather be.
Certainly, here in Pizzaonia we know you need experts. No one wants to be operated on by a brain surgeon who dabbles in surgery. But, what about all those times when you don’t need a brain surgeon?
And this is the point when a funny thing happened on the way to Utopia. Your world decided to make education vocational training instead of "education."
As your way of life requires you continually to spend more - having affluence and money to spend becomes critical. You cannot have a market economy without customers.
Your largest national economy, the United States, is the obvious case in point. As the technical and digital world emerged, you needed programmers more than you needed philosophers. Nevertheless, we should not have programmers at the expense of the philosophers.
Philosophers should not be relegated to the universities to teach the one philosophy course college graduates will be exposed to in their lives.
Don’t misunderstand us, even a pizza driven economy like Pizzaonia needs its technical experts. However, since we are an alternate universe, we can be whatever we want to be. Ironically, this is what you claim any of your citizens can accomplish – to be what they want to be. Or as you say, follow your bliss.
Well, if following your bliss means you are going to be unemployed the rest of your life, that becomes very unblissful in a hurry.
From our perspective, you have always confused earning your living with your vocation. We know there are the favored few who make a living at what they love doing. However, let’s face it; they are the selected few. Most people are happy to have a reasonable job that will pay the bills.
For these favored few, if the job does not occupy their entire lives, they can afford to be dilettantes.
Question to think about. To what extent does the scientific perspective that now dominates your world create a myopian perspective?
Till then,
Brother Giovanni
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