MORALE
What is an aesthetic morale?
A morale is a principle that is incorporated into, or inferred from a work of art. The story of “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice” has the morale “be careful what you wish for” or alternatively, that “technology that is used before it is understood is not amenable to control,” both of which, in this case, amount to the same thing. Is the morale of the Hannibal Lector stories that “a psychopath can actually succeed with predation and avoid apprehension” or is it what Hannibal himself articulates at one point, namely “use him, or kill him, but make up your mind.”
The presence and legitimacy of morales in art is a very controversial topic. In Ayn Rand’s novel “Atlas Shrugged” a cohort of creative people goes on strike against the remainder of American society to get the recognition and the remuneration they think they deserve. In the novel they actually succeed – in real life this outcome would be very unlikely, because, as in other strikes, a group of strike-breakers would cross picket lines and undermine the efforts of the strikers, the President would undoubtedly declare Martial Law, and the Military would operate the basic infrastructure as a police state. Many creative and community-oriented people would probably be more than happy to cross any picket line that counteracted a conspiracy of this ilk against the rest of society. My main question here however, is “what is the moral of this story?” Is it “individuals have a right to protect and control the entire output of their minds, and no one has the right to deny them this opportunity” or is it “sociopaths can actually succeed with predation and avoid apprehension”? Nor surprisingly, fans of Ayn Rand would opt for the first interpretation, whereas those with a community-orientation would support the second – and there isn’t much room to negotiate between these two morales. More important than this particular disagreement however, is issue of the heavy-handed moralizing that authors like Ayn Rand, Taylor Caldwell, Ron Hubbard, and many other ideologically motivated novelists practice. The unintended results of this kind of “moral broadcasting” may be to expose the implications of their intentions, just as with public officials who "say too much" when interviewed on talk shows.
How are morales used?
Right-wing novelists claim their moralizing is just a contribution to restoring the moral fibre to American society (turning the clock backwards to the Social Darwinism of the 19th century). Left-wing novelists claim that moralizing is just a contribution to establishing the normative structure of a new America (pushing the society forward to a collectivist existence in which everyone is equal, and the smoothest egalitarians are more equal than others). On the other hand, the morale vacuum of Andy Warhol’s art and Mike Myers’ movies is no more appealing. Fortunately there are enough substantive offerings that popular culture is not a complete wasteland.
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