The Dearth in Modern Art

I wonder why modern art often feels so dead, and so bland. By art here I mean very generally - movies, video games, books, etc.

Part of it must be that we as a culture just aren't nearly as embodied as we used to be. In order to write great characters with passion and drama, you have to understand passion and drama in your own life!

Sadly I know for myself, most of my childhood and early adult years were spent ruthlessly repressing my deeper emotions as a matter of course. And even now that I've spent years doing emotional work and opening my heart again, I still can tell there are deep, deep wells of emotion within me that I've only barely begun to tap into.

Another reason that has been loudly proclaimed from multiple parties is the influence of politics. With the death of religion as a binding force in society, politics has become the de facto religion of the masses. And unfortunately political ideologies simply do not have the depth or breadth of religious worldviews when it comes to what you're allowed to discuss.

That broadness of taboo in political thought means that writers can only ever depict characters or beliefs in a very specific type of light - X must be good, Y must be bad. Much of the time I doubt it's the writers themselves that are even pushing this, they likely are forced to toe a specific line based on audience feedback, executive fiat, or whatever other influences come to bear on their art.

Finally, we also have the fracturing of deep, long term relationships. Not just romantic, but friendships, family structures, and even work. Most of our relationships with other people are fleeting at best, compared to those of our ancestors. When you don't have a long, storied history with someone you simply cannot form the same types of emotional resonance with people.

Those deep relationships are what a story needs to feel alive. Characters that don't embody a strong sense of connection with other people come off as flat, because they're often just walking around sort of spouting off intellectual ideas, without any personal rounding of the edges via relation to others.

Anyway just some thoughts on modern art. What am I missing here