that skepticism attaches to art. Art's skeptics regard it as little more than “snake oil,” a grift or a con, playing on the gullibility of the dullard and the bias of the predisposed fool. Vision indeed is a battleground, in practice, as forces in conflict struggle for territory in the domain (of vision-projection). Why? Because the mediator of the human “heart” and mind is vision, which arises from the visual and visible, but is more; vision is accompanied by narrative and faith, and the status of being for those of us “chosen” to receive it. Vision can be a bridge to the divine (the sublime), for a believer. Prophets have visions. Saints and holy people have visions. (so do schizophrenics, the psychiatrist of the 20th and 21st centuries might point out).

Here, we ought to probably again note the power of vision to mobilize people to collective action. It is safe to say that those among us who, for whatever reasons, fear collective mobilization and action* (effects) display a certain caution towards visionaries, artistic or otherwise.