A Prototype of a Human Being
The essence of being human is the ability to be creative; to create new responses to new situations; to construct new, significant complexities where they did not exist before; to take charge of the environment and move it farther along the upward trend.
It is true that spontaneous processes within the universe also move in this direction, but the human artist, being possessed of human intelligence, is able to move more directly and more rapidly. The artist can greatly enhance the already inherent tendency within the universe toward meaning, toward complexity, toward independence, toward freedom. The artist is, in this sense, a prototype of a human being.
Harvey Jackins
From “Draft Policy for Artists’ Liberation,”
on page 221 of Start Over Every Morning