STEWARDSHIP
|
To preserve the best of humanity requires the ability to glean through vast sums of information and preserve the valuable things which will contribute to a heightened environment.
Roger Scruton, a renowned philosophical thinker of the twentieth century, once said, “The culture of a civilization is the art and literature through which it rises to consciousness of itself and defines its vision of the world.” (Culture Counts)*. In essence, the ideas that art manifests are what allow humans to understand themselves and the context in which they live. The creation of this kind of art, however, is not enough to engender a robust culture. For the development of a strong society, art must be supplemented by an appreciation of the past that informs the present, a preservation of excellence in something through the conscious act of stewardship.
Venerated and celebrated and equally denounced and criticized, history is an unavoidable facet of human life. Hegel believed that history possesses a spirit, one which through time guides mankind ultimately to some end. Though it might seem nice to believe history has some unreproachable bent, the reality is less high-minded and certain. As men, we advance through education and the inculcation of treasured values. Each generation strives to surpass its antecedent. Perhaps trite, the expression of we stand on the shoulders of those before us rings particularly true. Nevertheless, the transcription and preservation of history for future generations is imperfect. Seemingly every day scholars discover some new insight into the past: an overlooked artwork, some esoteric meaning, etc. To preserve the best of humanity requires the conscious act of stewardship, the ability to glean through vast sums of information and preserve the valuable things which will contribute to a heightened cultural environment.
The principal place of stewardship is within the city. The city is a dynamic place, one marked by the seemingly endless flow of people, businesses, and institutions. As Aristotle remarked in the Politics, the city is the complete community, a place that reaches a level of full self-sufficiency.
The city exists by nature. Though each city possesses the same unifying characteristics, they are not all the same. In fact, each worthwhile city is different. That should come as no surprise as one travels throughout Italy and comes across different expressions of the human sentiment. Milan exhibits a different character to that of Florence or that of Lecce.
It is within each of these cities that ideas collide manifesting into some expression of the human condition giving rise to some larger sense of self.
It is the job of the steward to identify and curate these learnings and ensure that they are remembered and not forgotten, treasured and not forsaken.
Tempio di Esculapio in the Villa Borghese gardens, Rome, Italy
In today’s society stewardship is difficult, and it is exacerbated by the role of capitalism. In the economies of the western world, capitalism dictates the flow of capital in a two-fold manner. First, the allocation of capital flows to those enterprises best able to market themselves, by making themselves or their product seem highly desirable. Second, this flow of capital is affirmed or propagated by superior execution of the business value proposition. In fact, this system tends to work quite well for most goods.
Art and the ideas that those artworks enshrine, however, are often unfairly penalized by this system. In each artform, gatekeepers, also known as elites, decide the ‘winners’ in a vacuum removed from the wisdom of publicsentiment. These winners then go on to become the economically viable darlings upon which capitalism bestows its favor. This system is problematic because it imperils the preservation of art, traditions, and ideas fundamental to the cultural binding of people. Thus, the steward cannot simply curate that which is excellent.
The steward must also labor within the framework of the market and bypass the ‘gatekeepers’.True stewardship in today’s modern context is possible only through the allocation of a modern interpretation to a traditional value.
*Culture Counts: Faith and Feeling in a World Besieged (Brief Encounters) (2007)
