We should not encourage everybody to pursue the arts. But a society that disregards the importance of the arts (one symptom of which is that the pursuit of the arts as a career/way of life is inviable) then the society as a whole will -- 100% absolutely guaranteed -- suffer as a result. The arts are the means by which the unconscious comes to consciousness. Music is a means by which the sublime, and of course even various mundane psycho-spiritual-emotional states -- become accessible for the vast majority of people who can not access said states without aid.
In the absence of that, neurosis is certain to flourish.
So, it is not an economic matter but a matter of the psychodynamics of society. For the sake of the health of the whole, some members of the whole must be able to bring in certain vibes, patterns, states of mind, ideas, etc. And without the ability to pursue that and only that skillset, they won't be able to succeed at that. And it is required for the functioning of the whole.
It's a bit akin to the way the entire body depends on the cells that process ATP. If you eliminate all cells that serve that role, the entire body dies, even though they are a miniscule aspect of the entire operation. That is where the animating spirit comes from.
Well sure, but he asked "should we expect the pursuit of the creative, beautiful, and transcendental to be a career?"
My answer is no not necessarily. One can pursue it in their free time. Whether it should be a career or not is honestly an invisible hand question (aka capitalism). I'm normally not pro invisible hand such as in the case of healthcare, but when it comes to stuff like this, I totally am.
It might be beneficial to have dedicated people to do this, but a lot can be accomplished by free time.
I direct you to The Society of the Spectacle, a postmodern marxist critique of capital and its infinite growth, which, due to man's limited resources (free time, life span, etc), inevitably encroaches upon man's ability to pursue such things.
If we do not explicitly carve out a space for the arts and other transcendental pursuits, capitalism eats them. And then the cancer grows.
So it is a moral imperative to make it possible for SOME of us (obviously, not everyone is called to such things) to pursue these things exclusively.
In the absence of that, neurosis is certain to flourish.
So, it is not an economic matter but a matter of the psychodynamics of society. For the sake of the health of the whole, some members of the whole must be able to bring in certain vibes, patterns, states of mind, ideas, etc. And without the ability to pursue that and only that skillset, they won't be able to succeed at that. And it is required for the functioning of the whole.
It's a bit akin to the way the entire body depends on the cells that process ATP. If you eliminate all cells that serve that role, the entire body dies, even though they are a miniscule aspect of the entire operation. That is where the animating spirit comes from.