Scientists vs Artists in Society

The concept of society stays afloat by the common belief that each member must and will willingly contribute something to the community in return for its benefits. Safety, comfort, access to goods and services and a sense of unity keeps us working towards the betterment of a whole group, rather than the success of a single individual. Each person has the right to choose what they bring to the table in this arrangement. The thing is, today, the work of some is more valued by society than the work of others. An imbalance can be easily felt between two, could be said, opposite sides of the spectrum – scientists and artists. So which, if either, contribute to the society more, and which do we value more than the other?

I believe, first of all, that true value of an individual or a group to society cannot simply be measured, but depends on what the evaluator deems most valuable in the first place. In the age of rapid technological advances, daily leaps in science and integration of more and more modern innovation into our mundane lives, it would be easy to say that science has a whole head over art. Scientists create our future and shape our present. Without them, we’d be stagnant. They work on everything from mind-boggling innovations in theoretical physics that try to help us understand our world, to the coffee machine that keeps us going through each day. Scientists make something from nothing. For all of us. But who else does that? Why, an artist! And yet saying you are one could get you many distasteful looks. While both scientists and artists wield the most important ability in the modern world – creativity, art for the sake of beauty and entertainment is still undervalued in the eyes of the commoner.