Artists and Politicians

I disagree that artists and politicians stand at opposite poles. Wright writes that the artists "enhances life by his prolonged concentration upon it," and the politician attempts only to place men into categories regardless of their personal feelings. This is not true because both individuals take on these traits. Books and paintings are often directed to specific audiences. The artist attempt to draw his chosen emotional response from he chosen group of people, which means that he has targeted a category. The politician does the exact same thing. While campaigning, President Obama spoke to audiences, changing his message according to the crowd. Politicians often spend their whole lives trying to understand what the people need to figure out how to change it, just as artists try to discover this and have it reflect through their work.

Wright thinks of himself as an artist, but he is putting men into categories, which is what he criticizes politicians for doing. He believes that an artist is not a politician and a politician is not an artist. This demonstrates how similar politics and art are according to his definition.