The twentieth century has exhibited a barbarism and lack of respect for human life on a massive scale just about unknown before.
All of Koons's best art - the encased vacuum cleaners the stainless-steel Rabbit (the late-twentieth century's signature work of Simulationist sculpture) the amazing gleaming Balloon Dog and the cast-iron re-creation of a Civil War mortar exhibited last month at the Armory - has simultaneously flaunted extreme realism idealism and fantasy.
If you're a kid who's not necessarily attractive and you don't have money and you're not hip and cool chances are you're not going to feel good about yourself and want to be an actor.