Arthur Miller: On Progress




Interview with Arthur Miller
Conducted by James Grissom
Hotel Carlyle
New York City
1998



Progress in the past thirty or forty years has been almost entirely technological. It has decidedly not been intellectual or artistic. We are, in fact, regressing in those two areas, primarily because we value the expression of ideas and artistic endeavors to an almost moronic degree and are afraid to pass judgment upon them. Judgment is so elitist, of course, and it is better to sit through hours and hours of bad theatre, bad music, bad film, and God knows what else, than to hurt anyone's feelings. And yet the bad news comes to us so quickly today, twenty-four hours a day, non-stop. And we can share it so rapidly. And we move on--even from the work that is good, that is noble, that is attempting to matter--to the next thing, the next photograph, the next sound bite, the next bit of pornography. We are, more than ever, a blur on the horizon.



© 2014 James Grissom

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