Latin Empire - by Krzysztof Tyszka-Drozdowski
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Latin Empire<br>New Aesthetics will come from Hispanoamerica
Krzysztof Tyszka-Drozdowski<br>Aug 17, 2026
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Older synthetic cultures must give way to newer synthetic cultures – Tyler Cowen, Creative Destruction
Western exhaustion is the great theme of our times. Stagnation in technological progress, except for the narrow cone of IT and AI. In the sphere of the political, it’s gerontocracy, or democracy trapped by the old electorate. In culture it’s sterility, or endless repetition. This essay will deal with the last aspect. I argue that cultural pessimism may soon be attributable to a lack of sufficient alertness. We should pay attention to Latin America.<br>The combination of economic growth, insulation from the cultural production of the Anglosphere, a wealth of literary traditions, and the basic aesthetic orientation - la douceur de vivre, as Kojève called it1 - will result in an artistic bloom across Hispanoamerica.<br>In the last few years Latin America has seen electoral victories of pro-growth forces. The pink tide has retreated, and socialist ideas have lost their appeal: no one wants to become another Venezuela. Latin America is beating inequality mainly thanks to education and accelerating growth, not redistributive policies. The agenda of 'law and order' is gaining popularity and effectiveness, and if spread widely, could further normalize economic life. After a long era of 'malign neglect', as Elbridge Colby put it, America is reviving its interest in the Western Hemisphere. Redirecting its attention will mean, in the end, redirecting flows of investment and credit2. American intentions to curtail Chinese gains will offer an opportunity for the countries with the wherewithal to become the geopolitical swing states of the Western Hemisphere3. The Western impulse to reindustrialize and the insatiable appetite of the Chinese manufacturing sector will drive up the prices of commodities. This need not be destabilizing for long-term development, as Chile and Colombia prove4. Growth has a future in Latin America.<br>The pro-growth coalitions across Latin America, if sustained, promise a trajectory toward an even brighter future. When it comes to cultural creativity, keep this in mind: “The overall story,” Tyler Cowen explains in Creative Destruction, “is one of poor societies that develop new styles, methods, and genres as they become richer.”<br>For Anglo readers the idea that economic growth can have a positive influence on artistic flourishing doesn’t seem contradictory. For continental intellectuals, on the other hand, art and economic growth are enemies. The latter contaminates the former. Wealth alters the intentions of most artists, exiles them into poverty, and turns society away from creative endeavors toward greed. The anti-capitalist reflex is part of being an artist in Europe.<br>The bohemian is, under further scrutiny, an anomaly. As Tyler Cowen observes in his underrated In Praise of Commercial Culture, Renaissance artists were first and foremost businessmen. Pick up Cellini's autobiography — money was his main motivation. The composers forming the canon of classical music didn't exist on some celestial plane, content with the pleasures of expression. As we read the letters of Mozart, Haydn, or Bach, we realize that remuneration was as important as the articulation of the artistic impulse5.<br>An art market narrowed to a small aristocratic elite of patrons means a narrowing of the range of possible art. How would the talent of Velázquez have developed if he weren't reduced to painting for King Philip? Consider: some catalogues count eighty-one portraits of the ruler alone. He had a patron, but not enough customers6, Cowen rightly points out. Decentralized financial support — a network of potential customers growing in step with society’s wealth — gives liberty to the artist by opening niches of taste.<br>Acceleration of growth can cause, or assist, accelerations of artistic experimentation. Take the example of Paris, where the expansion of art market stretched the range of possibilities: impressionism was followed by post-impressionism, nabism, fauvism, surrealism, abstraction and new incarnations of classicism.<br>The proliferation of new styles is, to a large degree, an effect of rising wealth. As William D. Grampp argued, when incomes rise the marginal satisfaction derived from the same goods declines. Customers seek novelty, putting a premium on what is different. While there are no iron laws of creative fertility across history, and economic growth isn’t a sufficient condition for artistic invention, it does seem to be a necessary one.<br>Great art flourishes in great cities, themselves creations of rising wealth. Across the history of art, creative blooms have happened in places where clusters of customers, distribution networks, and artists combined to leave their mark on culture. Cities in Latin America are getting...