I heard somewhere that the country of Holland had once based its entire economy on tulips. Then one day, someone said; “Wait a minute! They’re nice and everything, but they’re only flowers!” And starting on that day entire fortunes were ruined, companies went into receivership, and the economy took a long time to recover.
It won’t be the whole economy by any stretch, but there’s bound to be wailing and gnashing of teeth the day after someone with the right credentials says; “Wait a minute: any art student can do better than Warhol! There’s no need to pay $71m for a crummy painting of a wrecked car!”
That’s even sillier than spending $1m on a violin (which doesn’t sound any better than another violin costing $10k, but has a famous name). On the other hand, money is just pieces of paper, isn’t it?
Well, it’s not about actual value, but the perceived value it endows when your life is based on conspicuous competition.
How would the idle rich distinguish themselves from the rabble if they didn’t engage in this type of competitive hoarding?
$71M. What could that have endowed to Wikipedia or PLoS?
That is a great idea – I’d much rather be distinguished that way than by being known as the owner of a crappy painting.
You still have your chance. Still, the need to be distinguished in this way makes it sound futile to many.
If I give $100 in the annual fundraiser, or if I give $40 quarterly, it’s not much to distinguish me from others that give nickels and dimes in the collection bowl. I could wait till I earn enough so as to be distinguishable (plop down the millions scrawled on a big, oversized check, to camera flashes), but heck, I don’t even sign my name to crap I post around the internet. (Likely, because it’s crap.)
I really think that some people are wired to have a need to be distinguished from the crowd. Others are OK with the notion of consciously being itinerant motivational speakers trying to flag down groups of one or two. You know—living in the trailer, down by the river, eating gov’t cheese…
This article begs the question why people even bother going to “contemporary art” and “modern art” museums………. I might be able to understand why such museums exist in areas of the country where the wealthy live, but why bother in places such as Peoria, IL or Birmingham, Alabama?????
By the way, the opium poppy is only a flower, too!
:coolhmm: Drugs, not flowers, run the Dutch economy today.
I think shipping & industry mainly run the Dutch economy now. They have one of the busiest ports in the world there, and are an educated industrial society. Of course, drug tourism doesn’t hurt them either…