It’s the modernist’s lament. Everyone is so damned happy for the silliest of reasons. If only they knew how miserable they should be, everything would be so much better.

There is no morality in art. There is morality in religion; there are philosophical objectives embedded in politics. The two are intertwined in a society and reflected in its art. When you sever art from its cultural moorings and make “newness” the overriding criterion by which the merits of a work are judged, then anything is possible. This results in crap.