There is a peculiar pressure that comes with making something for other people: the temptation to make it acceptable to everyone. A writer softens an opinion, an artist follows a trend, a creator abandons an unusual idea because it may not appeal to a large audience. The pursuit of universal approval can quietly turn originality into compromise.
More than two centuries ago, German poet, playwright and philosopher Friedrich Schiller offered a very different philosophy of creative work. For Schiller, art was never merely decoration or entertainment. He regarded aesthetic experience as deeply connected to human freedom, morality and the development of the individual.
