How do we see? Not through eyes but through culture and trained belief systems. This is the central idea that drives a very good and very convincing book.
As an artist, this is something I feel people need to examine. A superb place to begin this examination would be John Berger's exceptional Ways of Seeing.
Progressing from the rise of renaissance oil paintings all the way to how advertising works on our desires, this short book is full of some of the most intensely accurate observations I've read in a long, long time.
I found the section on advertising and modern culture (which Berger refers to, interestingly and probably more accurately, as 'publicity') an utterly spellbinding discussion. It is perhaps one of the sad by-products of our super-paced society that we are caught in a loop where we cannot slow down and so we do not get the chance to find balance, real balance, in a world where it is so sorely needed.
Art is important is such societies. It is important because we need the spaces where art lives to distance ourselves from the maddening rush. It is important because art in itself gives us pause. It is important because it is a way to examine our society.
Berger's discussion looks at how these tools have been corrupted and utilized for commercial and personal gain.
But as Berger says in the television series from which the book was adapted, treat his representation of the facts with skepticism, since it's his version of the facts trying to sell his version of the content. I see that as an open stance on a subject matter too full of hidden agendas and 'mystification'. It is unusual. It is refreshing. The book is an eye-opener. Bravo.