"Ars Gratia Artis." Ewww! How 19th Century!

In our technology- and rationality-besotted postmodern era, nothing that lacks proven utility — utility backed up by hard, quantifiable data — has any real value. Aesthetics? Don't be absurd. "Beauty is truth, truth beauty"? Have you lost your mind? Beauty (capital B) and Truth (capital T) are abstract, squishy-soft, unquantifiable concepts, and therefore inadmissible in considerations of value. And what about that most abstract, squishy-soft, and unquantifiable entity of all: music? In itself, it's a non-starter according to the UK government-sponsored Music Manifesto says writer Frank Furedi in an article for the online magazine, Spiked:

[T]he UK government-sponsored Music Manifesto pays lip service to the idea that "music is important in itself" but only as a prelude to treating music as a means to an end. So, after praising its alleged educational and therapeutic benefits, the authors of the Music Manifesto assert that "we believe that music is important for the social and cultural values it represents and promotes, and for the communities it can help to build and to unite". Apparently music is also good for business and economic wellbeing - as the Music Manifesto declares: "We also recognise music for the important contribution it makes to the economy." The manifesto has little interest in music as such; instead its energy is devoted towards promoting the political, social and economic merits of music.

RTWT here.

(Our thanks to the always indispensable Arts & Letters Daily for the link.)