Oh how we battle in our minds with reason. At one moment logic seems to be the answer to our collective follies and then it seems as if reason is befouled by the very creatures that use it, our limitations as a species being embedded into the core structures of logic, so that what at one time could seem to liberate us, at another seems to chain us into our place. Sometimes I think it might be only our imaginations that can free us from this dilemma, but the roots of the imagination lie in the subconscious mind and that may itself release monsters.
Goya wrote a caption for his famous print "The Sleep of Reason produces monsters", it stated, "Imagination abandoned by reason produces impossible monsters; united with her, she is the mother of the arts and source of their wonders". The two parts of the title sum up the quandary we find ourselves in.
'Los Caprichos' is a body of 80 etchings published in 1799 wherein Goya responded to the political, social and religious abuses of his time. As is often the case with great artists he was also responding to the changing materials of his craft; aquatint had just emerged as an etching technique, allowing large areas of tone to be quickly and relatively easily built up within an etching plate and it could be used to develop dark areas with an emotional register alongside the etched line work. It was as if this new technique could carry the feeling tone as well as the tonal value of our dark subconscious reality.
The title, "Imagination abandoned by reason produces impossible monsters; united with her, she is the mother of the arts and source of their wonders", is an affirmation that Goya as an artist understood that imagination should never be totally renounced in favour of the rational. Our conscious and subconscious selves need to find a balance if we are to attune ourselves properly to life; logic without the imagination that reveals its consequences, breeding war. However, without imagination in combination with reason, we would also have no innovation. Goya's title is often shortened to "Imagination abandoned by reason produces monsters" and is used to argue that we need to be more rational in our approach to life, an approach that echoes the rise of the Enlightenment view. Building on the principles of science, this view advocated the application of rational principles to social and political reform. There was a belief that the evils of war, poverty and ignorance could be eradicated by scientific education. I notice that this belief lies behind a new attempt to seek an escape from our current seemingly irrational social and political woes. A new report by the World Inequality Lab aims to be the most comprehensive attempt yet to navigate the crises that are pushing the world toward climate breakdown, political extremism and ever greater economic and social tension and division. At its core is the concept of sufficiency – the idea that people can enjoy a prosperous, healthy life without constantly striving to consume or accumulate more material possessions, a process that degrades the natural world on which all life depends.
The authors envisage three interrelated moves. "More than halving average working time from 2,100 hours a year to 1,000 hours, roughly equivalent to a two-and-a-half-day working week; encouraging people to eat less red meat, which is the main driver of deforestation and ecological destruction and refocusing the economy toward low-consumption activities by more than doubling education spending to £7,250 a person" as well as increasing the healthcare spend. I was interested in the fact that the report has an understanding that more education leads to lower consumption. This link between education and rational beliefs is I believe similar to the one propagated during the Enlightenment. Before the First World War, educational rates had improved but the associated technological advances that were a consequence of scientific thinking led to the development of war machines that had unbelievable consequences in terms of mass slaughter. My grandfather was still suffering from the effects of having to fight in that war, continuing to relive his experiences of 1917/18 trench warfare while he was living with us in the 1960s and early 70s. He refused to speak about his time in the trenches and would occasionally be found beating his head against a doorframe, in a vain attempt to remove the still active visions of a Hell that remained in his mind. I would like to think that this new report would guide us towards a better world, but am sceptical, as it seems to rely too much on rational thinking and fails to take into account the unpredictable nature of people's desires. I sometimes think we all need counselling and to be given time to confront our dark inner recesses and only then will we be able to escape the landmines that we set in our own backyards.
As an artist Goya reminds us of our worst impulses. The Inquisition took an interest in Capricho No. 23 entitled 'Aquellos polvos...trajeron estos lodos.' (Those specks of dust...brought this sludge). The caption referring, not to the prisoner as it seems at first glance, but to the way court processes had been hijacked by the then religion dominated government. In a time of fascist aggression, any small transgression can be taken up and used by legal processes to frame innocent people, especially those who happen to think differently. In Goya's print the accused is framed in pure white, while the court and the accusers are collectively made grey by the covering aquatint, suggesting that mob rule, led by the man reading the accusation, will prevail when sentencing any individual who has been seen to speak of or represent an alternative truth.
The far-right used her testimony to galvanise hatred and fear. Bloggers, influencers and right-wing journalists spread ideas of an associated racist conspiracy. As they did mainstream politicians and magazines were sucked into the argument, giving the initial off the cuff, often racist social media posts more credence; an initial confused statement, now becoming a 'fact', around which was being stoked racial hatred.
In those nine days, the Surrey Police were in the uncomfortable position of investigating a crime that hadn’t happened and this became a gap in time for the far-right to work up its arguments. Angry protests were organised online, white Englishmen it was stated would soon be forced to do “very, very bad things". The Surrey police it was claimed were demonstrating the “epitome of two-tier policing", a claim I see again being put forwrd in response to the more recent Southampton stabbing.
The Spectator gave space to an article about the anger of locals and the article strongly implied that the perpetrators of the assault were brown migrants. The article again complained about two-tier policing. Robert Jenrick, who was now a Reform party member, but who had been a former Conservative Secretary of State for Justice, lectured the police from a position on Elon Muck's platform X, to insist they “communicate ASAP” about “the horrific rape.” Something of course that never actually happened, but which by now didn't really matter, because thousands of people believed it had happened and not only that they had been fed a very clear message as to who the perpetuators were.
Notice how the arguments escalate, all without any grounding in facts, taking advantage of a gap in information, in this case using the nine days that it took the police to find out what had actually occurred. Thank goodness the police did find out that nothing actually happened, in a more pressured future, would they have been able to hold a proper investigation? They may well at another time, under the eye of a more right-wing government, be coerced to make a snap judgement, based on populist sentiment.
This is the other side of "the sleep of reason", Goya's observations still ringing true after many years have passed, human nature it seems is not changing. This is why his work is still important, it is a reminder of who we are and who we might become, a warning and a wake-up call.
The Global Village was a term coined by the theorist Marshall McLuhan, it was a sociological concept describing how the world had been brought closer together by electronic media, thus making distant events feel as local as if happening in the village, but it is also a reminder that even though communication systems were now global, our instincts and ways of operating as human beings remain rooted in the past. McLuhan developed the phrase before the rise of internet hosted social media platforms, communications now being even more global and almost instantaneous. Not that long ago there were devastating waves of violent pogroms taking place in villages in Eastern Europe. Some of my family arrived in England at the end of the 19th century as a result of those now nearly forgotten events. I really hope the global village doesn't have to suffer it own similar events in the future, especially as there may be no open-armed England to escape to.
See also:
Freud and drawing invisible forces
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