Just recently, I have started to think of the power that art can have over people. Whether it’s a political painting, a sad song, or a satirical play, art has the ability to make people maintain a certain belief or experience a certain feeling. When I was young, I would instantly adopt the belief system of any billboard or political poster I saw. This obviously seems like a situation that only occurs with small children. However, I am aware of people who are easily manipulated into blindly adopting the subliminal messages that are being projected within art pieces and performances. For example, I saw “The Book of Mormon” with my family over Thanksgiving break. Although it is clearly a satire on all of the false stereotypes of Mormonism, my brother began to develop his own misguided stereotypes about the religion. I realize that this was not the intention of the play, but it was unfortunately an unintentional side effect. Green Day also provides a good example of art manipulating the minds of its audience. In our younger days, I am sure I speak for many people when I saw that we sang a few Green Day songs at the top of our lungs. Some of us may have just liked them for their catchy, exciting music, but they had an underlying rebellious political message in the vast majority of their songs. These songs, such as “American Idiot” and “Minority”, seriously had an impact on the minds of the malleable youth of that time. I am not saying that every adolescent and young adult became violent anarchists after listening to a Green Day album, but their inner belief systems and overall character were definitely affected subconsciously. In summation, it is impossible to argue that art does not have the manipulative power to subliminally alter people’s opinions on certain situations. This is apparent in the mass media and overall structure of how art is portrayed in today’s world.
