The power of creativity

(Nimue)

Here in the UK, the government has long encouraged working class children not to get into the arts on the basis that it’s not good for your job prospects. There’s no sense that the arts have anything to offer of use or value. Although I’ve noted before that getting into the arts is definitely something more affluent children are allowed and sometimes encouraged to do.

Science shows that music is good for us. The benefits of singing have been noted for years. Singing improves your breathing, is good for your brain and good for you socially. Music can be used to help people with dementia. The role of music in socialising and feeling connection to others is really important. Dancing is a great and accessible form of exercise, you can do it with whatever parts of you will move. To dance, you need music.

Every form of creativity helps people process their own emotions and empathise with other people. Creativty is also good for relaxing and for low cost ways to enjoy yourself. When we’re creative, we get to imagine things that did not exist before. We imagine difference, alternatives, solutions to problems. Creativity encourages questioning and originality, and finding your own way.  It’s not hard to see why right-wing governments might have a problem with this. 

There is a quote from Ursula le Guin that seems especially pertinent here: “After all, dictators are always afraid of poets. This seems kind of weird to a lot of Americans to whom poets are not political beings, but it doesn’t seem a bit weird in South America or in any dictatorship, really.”

Following the bard path is a choice that has political implications even when you aren’t being overtly political. Creation is subversion and the more your culture tries to suppress subversive ideas, the more subversive it becomes to create anything original or to express yourself on your own terms.