Word Watch: Disrupt
It's fascinating how “disrupt” has become a term of generalised commendation.
“Creative Debuts is a platform on a mission to disrupt and democratise the art world. They focus on championing artists from marginalised communities and provide a wide range of services” – announcement by the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, November 2024.
Fascinating how “disrupt” has become a term of generalised commendation. This “mission statement” by a traditionally rather conservative and “Establishment” arts organisation, the Paul Mellon Centre, exemplifies the way the creative arts have been taken over by a left-wing ideology. It is explicitly political, as though creativity and social “disruption” were necessary partners.
It banishes centuries of great art in which the talents of some of the supreme geniuses of civilisation were in the service of authority, seeing no need to criticise or attack it. The creative skills of the artist, in whatever medium, are surely independent of political opinion - indeed have been suspected of corruption whenever they have been seen to be influenced by an ideology.
The exception here is of course religion, which has always been the most important theme of art. It’s hard to imagine any great civilisation without a religious foundation, colouring and flavouring everything it produces. Not all works of art are “about” religious matters, but even the most secular of statements reflect the moral and ethical context from which they spring. We might well question the moral and ethical context of “a mission to disrupt and democratise the art world”.
“Democratise” likewise becomes suspect. It’s not as straightforward a case as “disrupt” but “democratic” is generally seen today as a benign expression embodying the good faith of a system that admits all.
Let us take it in that spirit; but I don’t see how “disrupt” can ever be read in that light. It’s always going to be awkward, with the sense of “disruptive” at its centre. There may well be occasions when that sense is uppermost, but I should be sorry if that were to become the primary meaning of the word “democratic”.