Read any Jane Austen novel, and you’ll find that young ladies were often asked to sing and play the piano to entertain family members and guests. Even those who didn’t have particular musical talent, such as Elizabeth Bennet, were encouraged to share what they could. It didn’t matter if one didn’t have a voice like Celine Dion or a smash record — friends and acquaintances enjoyed playing for each other.
Likewise, in The Lord of the Rings trilogy, Frodo and the Fellowship passed their traveling time by telling stories, poems, and riddles of their own creation. Unaided by playlists of professional musicians or studio-recorded audiobooks, they relied on each other for intellectual stimulation and entertainment.
These classics reveal humanity’s unwavering ability to create art and entertain. Has mass media damaged our ability to do so?
Nowadays it is more likely that friends will get together for a movie night than to tell stories around a fire. They might share Spotify playlists, but rarely their voices. Part of this is because the expectation to be exceptional has never been higher. We are surrounded by professionally produced entertainment, invoking the question, “If you can’t be good enough to be professional, why do it at all?”
Striving for excellence is a virtue, but not all of us can be Michelangelo. Yet the point of art isn’t to be legendary, but to bring meaning and joy to ourselves and our community.
Lack of Small Communities
In 12 Rules for Life, Jordan Peterson explains, “It
