Six human needs

Recently I've become a big fan of Ellen Dissanayake and her book What Is Art For?. Dissanayake defines modern art as distinct from the "primitive" arts in that modern art sees aesthetics as an end in itself, whereas humans originally used aesthetics as a means to the end of "making special," or emphasizing the importance of certain important rituals, objects, and occasions.  The reason "we" (really Western elites) invented modern "art for art's sake" is as a method of self-transcendence in a world in which literacy has destroyed the old ("primitive," "superstitious," "magical") ways of transcending ourselves.

Towards the end of the book, Dissanayake speculates about exactly what it is that modern Westerners are missing that makes them need art.  She identifies six "human needs," which are not being well met in our text-centered culture:

• Humans tend to construct, accept, and share with others systems that explain and organize their world as perceived and known, and feel uneasy without such explanation and organization.
• Humans tend to require the psychological (as well as physical) security of predictability and familiarity of knowing and accepting their role and place in life, and feel uneasy without such predictability and knowledge.
• Humans require psychological ratification or certification by others--by being an integral part of a group or family--and feel uneasy without this certification.
• Humans tend to bond or attach to others, and feel incomplete without this attachment.
• Humans recognize and celebrate with others of their kind an extraordinary as opposed to ordinary dimension of experience, and feel unsatisfied without it.
• Humans tend to engage in play and make-believe, and feel deprived if unable to do so.

She thinks that if we reorganized society with an orientation towards meeting these needs, we would all be happier and less alienated.  And, presumably, we would no longer need art, and aesthetics would retreat back into its role as a tool for "making special." 

Even though not needing art would mean we were "healthier," I still hate the idea.  I don't want to accept that something I grew up thinking was one of the big points of life is actually just a symptom of our civilization's sickness.  But then, I'm a classic alienated Western elite, and my feelings about art probably put me in a tiny minority of people worldwide.  Most people are probably better off not feeling a need for art.  And yet, the artification of culture worldwide (see Head-to-toe for my reactionary rant about that) seems to be proceeding at a quick pace.  Before too long everyone may be alienated out of their skulls.

Or maybe the artification trend will reach saturation and reverse itself automatically.  As I mentioned in B.O. is the new perfume, I do think that people are getting very interested in a "New Humanism" which looks to our natural, instinctual, inherent human qualities for guidance as to how we should live and structure society.  So maybe the "six basic needs" will get some attention after all.