[rollei_list] Re: OT Culture (was Re: OT History)

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Eric Goldstein" <egoldste@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <rollei_list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Monday, January 31, 2005 8:18 AM
Subject: [rollei_list] Re: OT Culture (was Re: OT History)


> Because fewer and fewer Americans choose to 
> consume/support a particular type of culture that you 
> prefer. They (and hundreds of millions of people all over 
> the world) do however make and consume different cultural 
> choices which you seem not to prefer. So the question 
> becomes if you don't like it, is it not culture and/or is 
> it no good?
>
> Eric Goldstein
>
   This is an extremely oversimplified explanation of what 
has happened to traditional "cultural" institutions. 
Symphony orchestras, ballet companies, opera companies, and 
similar organizations are very expensive to sustain. In the 
past most have been supported either through the largess of 
the very wealthy or throught government grants of one sort 
or another. Corporations no longer have the philosophy that 
thay owe anything to the public plus changes in tax laws 
over the years have made much former charitable or cultural 
donation no longer deductible. Publically held businesses 
follow the rule that maximising return on investment for 
their stockholders is their _only_ responsibility and will 
do that regardless of any costs to the society that they 
exist in. Government funding of the arts has disappeared 
because evidently a great majority of tax payers in this 
country do not want such funding. One may speculate as to 
the reason for this but it remains a fact.
   Unfortunately, lack of support for the arts tends to be a 
spiral, if they don't exist we get used to their not being 
there. The same is true, and I think related, for support of 
public education and for educational institutions such as 
free libraries.
   Perhaps these things existed in the past because control 
of the funding was in the hands of a small elite of educated 
people who recognized their importance or, perhaps, the 
general public had a better understanding of their value. 
These days the idea is if something doesn't make a _large_ 
profit its not worth doing. I know people who think that all 
social trends are just some sort of natural evolution and 
that nothing can be done to change them or should be done. I 
disagree. To me that attitude is a complete denial of the 
effect of the application of human intelligence to social 
issues. I think too many people agree with Hermann Goering, 
who is quoted as saying, "When I hear the word culture, I 
reach for my gun."

---
Richard Knoppow
Los Angeles, CA, USA
dickburk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx

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