In Response to Davion

In response to Davions Post:
http://hartphilosophy.blogspot.com/2011/02/with-great-power-comes-great.html#comments

Interestingly enough, I would say that you are right about the fact that art can be one of the most influential things that humans as individuals can create. When it becomes a question of power though, the answer is substantially more difficult to come by. For I would be put in the position to say that Art is only as powerful as we let it become.

Now strangely enough, the thing that makes this conversation interesting is that I feel there is at least one other variable to attend to when considering the power of art. For when you think about it, if we were to assume that this sort of power can be derived from art, then there must be something that seperates one piece from another.

To me, the answer is all about the masses. The dangerous, powerful artist is the one that can create a piece of work that convey's the same emotion to the largest number of people. If an artist can create great pieces of work that influence masses of people to believe in and follow their ideals, then art would be just as strong as any other form of influential communication. This would be a scenario to which the use of art would be to much power for people to control. Once this has been determined though, would we consider things like advertising to be a similar threat?