Lost at sea

When I had a piece going to an exhibition one person asked what I was thinking of doing, and so I explained briefly the symbols I attributed meaning to and which I wanted to put in my work; another person listening in then said "No! You can't plan it out, you have to let it flow and put your feelings out in your art!". My response in disbelief was "Sorry, that's not how I work."
Don't get me wrong - I like art. I like music, drawing, painting. My great difficulty is this generalized feeling that anything and everything is art, much which came from the dada artistic movement and has survived many decades.
Over the past century, artists have been putting a lot of effort into removing the need of a reference in art - paintings no longer had to look realistic, or based on the physical reality; music no longer has to be bound by the rules of what constructs harmonious sounds; poetry does not have to have structure, rhythm or even relevant content; contemporary dancing is a general mixture of feelings and concepts. The efforts put in by artists certainly have been paying off, art is no longer bound by rules, structure or even thought.
However the great issue in this that I see is: I wonder if old forms of art are still considered art at all. In an attempt to relativise and remove rules, that which is according to rules by many is no longer considered art. The effort of the 'brain' is not as valued as the effort 'of the heart'.
 I strongly believe that art is merely an accurate reflection of a struggle that our society is in. Currently all things are tolerable, to the extent that the only thing intolerable is intolerance. In an insane attempt to make all things right, the definition of 'right' has been lost. There is so much 'freedom' to think, that, unless you 'freely' think with opinions that also relativise concepts, you are no longer free to think such things.
My line of thought may have become confusing, thus I will explain with the first example I presented, the one about my painting. We have been investing so much on labeling all things, even without structure and merely feeling art, that when there is structure and no feeling, it is no longer considered art. In a second example, we have put so much effort into being able to think anything (or nothing) that often I wonder if we have been thinking at all
The feeling I have is that absolutes and rules are an island that bound us for very long, and we were always told we oughtn't travel out of the land because it was too dangerous, and it was 'the wrong' thing to do. Because we knew what wrong was, we had no issue with that and the majority of the people lived their quiet lives on the land, never knowing what lay beyond the shores. A few thinkers, philosophers, adventuorous people over the years did explore the shores, and did so progressively more. Over the 1960s, crowds of people invaded the sea. They decided they were no longer going to be bound by the island and wanted the freedom of exploring the sea.
Now, I have no issue with thinking outside what we are told. Questioning, wondering, even seeing other islands to decide what we see as right, wrong, good or bad in accordance with our beliefs. However, what seems to have happened is that we have gotten lost at sea. In leaving the island, we have gotten lost in the vast nothingness surrounding us. And, not only that, we also shoot down anyone trying to swim to any island. We believe so much that the sea is the ultimate freedom, that in order to 'protect freedom', we prevent people from seeking land.
Having any belief - any island you call 'home' and believing that is the best land to be in, is seen as foolish. And so those who live in the sea believe themselves to be the 'wisest' and the 'thinkers', when what actually happens is that they believe nothing, defend nothing, and have no home. Someone may live on an island - having a religion, defend a political, moral or ethical view - and know just as much (if not more) than anyone of those lost at sea. The great difference is that a decision has been made as to what they choose to live by.
Of course, not all people at sea are like that, and sometimes they just respect that others have their islands. As well as there are extremists on their islands that profoundly hate people on other islands or at sea. But that isn't the point I want to discuss here.
The main point I want to reach in this metaphor is the fact that recently more and more people are lost at sea, driven by the tides in their lives and susceptible to the waves of feelings. We were told to swim, to explore the world, we were told to follow our feelings and marry whoever we 'felt love' for, to work in 'whatever makes us happy', and to 'follow our hearts'. Of course, keeping in check things we like and people we have affection for - investigating islands and being able to choose which one we like most - does not seem a bad idea at all, much better than being assigned an island. However, we did not count on how much the sea can change. We sought places where we had both the safety of an island, and where we could follow the current of the sea (only to find that in the sea, the waves go up and down). And so, in despair, continue in the sea looking for that wave that will keep us up continually without ever breaking; wondering, where it was that we went wrong because everyone seems to be on the top of the wave.
Our music is now a mess of layers of instruments with no sense or coherence. Our art, is a mess of colors with no sense and which each person sees one thing. Our poetry is lost in small concepts of feelings, of emotions vulnerable and restricted to the microuniverse of relationships - nothing more is written about the islands. We are lost. We are at sea. We are roaming aimlessly, and we don't even know why we left the island in the first place.
The thing is, if you stay in the water, floating in the sea long enough, sensory deprivation starts to kick in. And all the feelings there were - they begin to get lost. We grow weaker, and stop swimming and merely float. We dived in to our feelings, and with time we begin to realise we don't actually feel anything at all.
Many of our generation depend on our parents to be our islands, to provide and to keep us going. We depend on others to make the decisions that will keep our society - the relationship between islands -running. Because we are spoilt children who ran away from home, got lost at sea and refuse to grow roots on any island at all. All because we are free, and wise, and thinkers. But who will be left to care for the islands? To make sure that there is communication between the islands, if we shoot down every ship sailing?
We have no anchors and we have no hope. We want so much freedom, we don't care if that means taking away someone else's freedom. We are decaying islands - we believe they are only illusions in our minds to make us feel safe.
We have failed to understand that, yes, we must have freedom to think, but that that doesn't mean we do not have an opinion. As Aristotle put it in one of my favorite quotes:

"It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it."

Or, if transporting this to the metaphor regarding wandering between islands:

"Not all those who wander are lost."

But all we are is shipwrecked at sea, following what the tide brings, vulnerable and fragile, basing decisions on the waves. Entertaining thoughts to the extent that we accept none, wandering and being lost.

Still we wonder why so many of us our drowning.

And yet, we believe that being lost is the price of freedom.