Most people no longer behold beautiful works of art at their leisure they binge on an addictive entertainment in their free time.įortunately, there’s an antidote, a transcendent experience for our transcendent-starved population: The Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. These days, what most people call “art” is really just entertainment, and the closest thing people have to “beauty” is the dopamine-induced addiction accompanying that entertainment. At a time ugliness has saturated the world, with trash piping into everyone’s eyes and ears from all directions, it becomes close to impossible to discuss concepts like art and beauty unironically.