To not care about art is on the same level as saying one does not care about history, culture, philosophy, or other aspects of human existence. This is because in many instances we come to know the history, culture, philosophy, and other aspects of existence of different peoples past and present through the art they create. In John Malcolm Russell's essay "Why Should We Care," the author argues that in essence to disassociate ourselves with the art of past cultures is to disconnect ourselves from humanity. This analysis will summarize Russell's reasons for why we must care about art, followed by my own thoughts on the significance of caring about art.
Regardless of what culture we live in or what ethnicity we may be, the art of other cultures and ethnic groups remains part of our collective human experience. Russell (27) maintains that when people destroy art or plunder archaeological sites to profit from the sale of antiquities, the rest of us lose, "The losers are all of us who care about the past as a place where people like ourselves lived and still live in the myriad traces they left behind." When we destroy art, we destroy the values, lifestyle, history, and culture of those who created it, which also diminishes our own richness and potential for development.
Russell provides two main arguments for why we must care about art from past civilizations. The first of these revolves around the fact that art and what we learn of cultures from it teach us a great deal about who we are. Modern Iraqis learn a great deal about their own identity and lifestyle from studying ancient Mesopotamian art and culture. If we destroy this link to the past it diminishes our sense of identity in the present. As Russell (29) asserts, "Without a sense of our past as the core of who we are, we risk being whatever we're told we are." This becomes dangerous in totalitarian cultures, like Iraq, where strong links to ...