Venkatesh Rao

Interestingly artists themselves rarely seem to be primarily concerned with aesthetics, let alone the theory of it, at a conscious level. It’s something that falls out of pursuit of some other prime concern, like an idea, theme, emotion, mood etc.

This is a tendency connoisseurs, aesthetes, etc (of any kind, whether of apple pies or wine or paintings or comics) are more likely to exhibit than artists. Many turn into critics or ideologues. But you don’t need to cultivate a refined taste, merely prioritize it in life.

If you’re broaden the definition of “conservative” to anyone invested in traditions with long histories, the claim gets stronger. Eg. the “modern” labor movement is 150 years old. People invested deeply in it tend to be conservative in psychology even if we don’t call them that.

Maybe a less controversial way to say this is people who are primarily concerned with the quality of sensory experiences eventually get invested in some tradition or the other. Tradition becomes their true north in seeking out the quality of sensory experiences they seek.

With high probability, novelty will disrupt quality expectations of sensory experiences. The new tends to be “not even ugly” (by analogy to “not even wrong”). Novelty is pre-aesthetic. If you’re excited by it, you discard notions of quality and approach it. If not you retreat.

An ongoing conservative project is to either accommodate novelty in a harmoniously expanded understanding of a tradition-linked aesthetic, OR code it as ugly. Both require understanding the tradition more than the novel thing threatening it.

Conservatives are ofyen more courageous than non-conservatives. But they tend to lack a specific narrow variety: The courage to understand the new in its own terms, and perhaps eventually uncovering a latent aesthetic within it that is at odds with their sense of quality

Non-conservatives don’t have this courage either. The difference is, they tend to have nothing to lose, and nothing to fear from understanding the new on its own terms. So they don’t need courage to do so.