When is art an integral component of civilization?

Question

When is "art" an integral component of civilization and when does it become (as Plato suggested) a dangerous element which must be controlled or annihilated by government?

Answer 1

To make an atomic bomb one must, simply must, be able to one of the following things: make very complex objects with great precision in both material and scale or control utterly the land in which the bomb is to be built because it will be very large.

To build with precision is what great artists do. This is especially true for the "commercial artist" who must reproduce his work over and over again (this is best done by knowledge of materials and the proper handling of materials - just as Eli Whitney needed interchangeability to produce a cheaper yet more effective gun the artist needs the ability to produce interchangeable parts in order to lower the cost of generation of said parts and without which in advanced culture is shunned).

The reasons for such need of precision (in finessed bomb making) are not merely for placation of the tastes of the upper crusts however. One courts the apatite of Mars, the God of War (with a capital W). Particals follow predictable or semi-predictable patterns of behavior. A stuck bit in an innitiator could cause (and very likely would cause) a dud. Not 'good', if you have one bomb and are facing down a billion Chinese on the march.

But, if one knows how to build a bomb, like I do, and one simply marches off into the woods, as I have done twice, you can bet there will be at least one sniper team on your butt like glue. Why? Because cultures do tend to make madmen of genius. Why? Because the hood is always present in Government. Sometimes, like the days since Reagan, it is the Government.

Even in the days of yore, some men were the masters of physics while others slaves to it. Aristotle kept two Roman Navies and very nearly two Roman Armies out of Syracuse for years. But in Plato's mind would you really want to be on any given river on your boat bobbling allong with an uncontrolled Aristotle pointing mirrors at you, setting your craft on fire  and burning it to the waterline???

There were always "nuclear sunburns". But it has always taken an artist to build them.