Reflections on freedom and art
When we speak of freedom, we mean freedom of choice. We exercise freedom when we decide to choose one alternative out of two or more alternatives to the exclusion of the others. A free choice is a choice made.
Choices are of three types:
1) Choice of action: a man tormented by thirst in the middle of the desert is not free. Not because he cannot quench his thirst, but because he has no choice to drink or not to drink.
2) Choice of evaluative judgment: good or bad, true or false, beautiful or ugly, absolute or relative, obligatory or prohibited.
3) Choice of authority: which god, which person, which organization is to be believed in, which one to obey and which one not to obey. Here the case is exactly the same: where there is no awareness and no possibility of choice, there is no freedom.
The desires of man’s soul are radically different from the desires of his nature, such as hunger or sexual desire.
Art as a game
One human attempt to satisfy both of these desires is the gratuitous criminal act, breaking the law for the pleasure of breaking it, where the law adds significance and breaking it adds freedom. Another such attempt is a game, where the player abides by the rules because he himself has set them. Ultimately, any form of art, any pure science, any creativity is in some sense a game. The question “what is art” and the question “why does an artist create” are different things.
The rules of the game give the player significance by making it harder for him, testing him and requiring him to prove his innate talents or acquired skills. Provided the game is morally acceptable, the decision to play it or not depends solely on whether one finds enjoyment in it or not-in other words, whether one is a good player or a bad one. If you ask a great surgeon why he works, and if he is honest with you, he will not say, “Because it is my duty to save people’s lives,” but “Because I enjoy my work.” He may hate his neighbor, but he will still save his neighbor’s life for the pleasure of using his skills.
It must be said that in the deepest sense of the word, art and science are frivolous endeavors, because they depend on the special talents that chance gives us. The only serious aspect is that which we all, as human beings, possess – the will, which says that one should love one’s neighbor as oneself. Here we do not have to talk about the talent to love, nor about pleasure and pain.