I always wonder why most people lose wonder and joy in their lives, but then I think about today's reality and how bleak everything looks. All forms of art in the modern age have become soulless and commercialized, social media despite uniting people has made everyone more distant and apathetic and as always we humans have the tendency to destroy ourselves further. Despite all that, what everyone who has lost the joy of living needs most of all is a change in perspective. Art, science, biology, history, all facets of human knowledge and art are more accessible than ever in the modern age, independent art has experienced a massive boom and has become more accessible than ever, we are simultaneously further and closer than ever to finding true joy in this world and getting to see how beautiful this world is, yet most of us remain trapped in this loop of self-deprecation and hopelessness, which is exactly what the big corporations want us to do, only consume mindlessly everything that is produced only making you more jaded, and with the rise of AI art and products only further diluting one of the most important things about the human soul, the joy of creation. The joy we feel upon expressing our feelings into something tangible, something we can share to others who can relate, something that will be preserved and seen until the end of time, that joy is something that has driven us to do incredible things and is one of the main reasons our history, our mistakes, who we used to be are remembered to this day, as you can't talk about history without talking about art as well, they are interlinked and will always be. In today's world, we can live our whole lives without ever experiencing this joy, only consuming and consuming without ever sharing anything back to the world, and I can't say from my experience if that is a good or bad thing, but it upsets me profoundly, looking at people who have never tried creating something in their lives in fear of being "bad at it" or the rejection of others, when the entire point of art and creating something new is practice and to express your own feelings without concern for what others would think of it.
In my perfect world, art would be free to the masses and everyone given the budget necessary to create their dream work, be it a masterpiece or something awfully written. Of course, that would have its own set of issues and would never be viable today or possibly ever, but it's still something comforting to think about. What matters in the end is that you express yourself. Changing the subject, I also feel that all sense of whimsy and joy has left art and people's hearts for some time, ever since the 2000's I'd say. If you look at works meant for children back then there was such heartfelt joy, whimsy and "naturality" in those that stimulated the sense of wonder and adventure present in us humans since childhood, and nowadays what do they have? Colorful, overstimulating and headache-inducing internet videos with no underlying lesson or nothing to be gained, only a distraction from reality while their parents go do some shit, I don't want to sound like a boomer but come on, it's been proven these are awful for kids' minds and can result in several issues down the line. I can only wonder what the next generation of kids will look like, having grown up with stuff like this. It's not like my generation's any better having grown up with Newgrounds and YouTube brainrot and "dank memes", but at least some of what I saw had some artistic value to it and wasn't made in some Belarusian factory. Even regular works have been subject to this, with everyone pointing fingers at the MCU and similar-written works for ruining sincerity in films, videogames, tv shows and many other artforms. I don't think the MCU is solely responsible for stuff like this, it has been a trend for some time and does not seem to be stopping anytime soon. It's very difficult nowadays to find modern works that have still have things like sincerity, whimsicality and charm in them, and even then we now live in a world where anything slightly sincere or out of the ordinary is called "cringe", "corny", "childish", among many other adjectives, people seem to be afraid to find joy in childlike things and that saddens me.
A work that has really changed my perspective on the world and many other aspects of life, and that I have discussed ad nauseum but that perfectly exemplifies my point, is "One Piece". One Piece is so full of all of the elements that are missing so often in today's art that it has become a breath of fresh air for so many people, including myself. A work where characters can laugh, cry, party and have fun as kids would in a world so full of childlike wonder but also the terrible and all-encompassing darkness of our reality. It is able to perfectly strike a balance so present in our world, the comedy and tragedy of life. This is for me one of the main reasons why this work has become so universally beloved, climbing up the ranks to become the most sold comic book of all time, it is something so sorely missed in today's art landscape and also so important. I feel like this is also one of the reasons why independent art has become so popular nowadays and the rise of fandoms around said works. We need sincerity, joy, wonder, these are essential emotions we humans must feel and have always felt, and art as well as creating art is one of the main sources of those emotions, that should be cherished and protected at all costs. Art is beautiful, the world is beautiful, life is beautiful, despite all flaws (and oh boy how many flaws there are) beauty should always be found in the smallest and biggest of things in existence, or at least that's what I think. Thank you for listening, and I love you. Fighto on nanodesuyo~ !!