> The average consumer is basically a vacuum cleaner.
Yeah, this has been the hardest pill to swallow, as a creative and person that enjoys art. They know it's all least-common-denominator bullshit and they like it anyway. A lot of people truly just don't care about the meaning or any message in the art, they just like explosions and pretty people.
And that's fine, I guess. There's nothing wrong with it. It just... makes me feel a little empty inside.
We’re all tasteless and unrefined morons for something. You enjoy art and have developed a sense of taste, and that’s valuable and valid, and I would assume brings a lot of depth and meaning to your life. Could you differentiate mass-market vs lovingly handmade beef jerky? Or do you want to spend the time researching the precise-to-certainty best vacuum cleaner (ha, did that subconsciously) for your specific apartment, average particulate size and volume and texture?
I’m really trying not to make a value judgment here—tbh I also care a lot more about artistic integrity (in the arts I’m in a place to understand and judge, anyway) than beef jerky. Just landing on: the mass market is there to satisfy the majority of people that don’t deeply care about the particular slice that the mass market serves, because we’re all mortal and can’t be arsed to refine our tastes and decisions on everything.