On Art, Courage, and Our Collective Responsibility in Dark Times
As we witness the devastating conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East, and witnessing the rising tide of authoritarianism worldwide, Doris Lessing's 1957 reflections on the artist's role become more relevant. Since the 1960s, the world has moved from testing nuclear weapons to stockpiling large arsenals, while simultaneously creating an ecological time bomb. Today’s conflicts starkly put nuclear power nations against aspiring ones, while environmental destruction threatens all nations regardless of their arsenals. Writing in the shadow of nuclear testing and the cold war, she understood something profound about how we face civilizational threats—and how easily we retreat into either "the pleasurable luxury of despair" or hollow platitudes. Her words remind us that in times when madmen hold switches of destruction, artists, writers and individuals bear a special responsibility: not to turn away from the nightmare, but to help us imagine what living might look lik...