Post #363058 by bigbrotiki on Sat, Feb 23, 2008 2:16 PM

Allow me to point this out (and I am NOT trying to interpret everything along the lines of "my agenda"--I don't have an agenda, I have my own perspective, though):

This example IS at the very essence of what I see as the distinguishing quality of Tiki culture, and what I wanted to express in chapter 12 of Tiki Modern, "The Contemporary Idol":

While Baudelaire was examining a small carving, the naval officer, eager to draw his attention to something else, referred to the object in Baudelaire’s hands as “merely a native totem”.
The poet raised his hand and said, “Take care, my friend, it is perhaps the true God.”

This little anecdote from the turn of the 19th century is not intended to suggest that primitive effigies should replace God, but that they have a creative power to relativate entrenched belief systems, adding fresh perspectives and broadening our horizon to other worlds of perception..

As I described in Tiki Mod, at the turn of the century, the Moderns used the "offensive" potential of primitive art to challenge the stuffy, established art style of the previous century and created the Modern Art movement. And as this recent incident shows, it still has this power today. WE here have made that leap of perception described above, and see Tikis as cool. But many still see them as "bad taste", or as politically incorrect for one reason or another. But I am not offended by that, I am proud when I am called the "Bad Boy of Bad Taste" in the new Atomic Ranch article, where I get to outlay my perspective, (which is akin to that of the Moderns):

To me, the consensus consciousness of "good" taste is boring, it puts me to sleep. "Bad" taste at least creates a reaction, it makes people take notice, wakes them up and makes them think.

This perspective is at the core of why I root for "true' Tiki, and against mediocrity.