[rollei_list] Re: OT Artistic Voices (was Re: OT Mapplethorpe)
- From: "Marvin" <marvin0@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <rollei_list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 11 Mar 2010 11:26:43 +0800
Of course health care.
Marvin.
From: rollei_list-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:rollei_list-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Dennis Purdy
Sent: 11 March 2010 11:23
To: rollei_list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [rollei_list] Re: OT Artistic Voices (was Re: OT Mapplethorpe)
How can a person be opposed to public funding of art. What other than the
military should be publicly funded?
On Mar 10, 2010, at 19:15, Frank Deutschmann wrote:
Elias, who are you to say which things are art, versus which don't
contribute to the good, and which are vices? I saw some art recently that
involved a dollar bill acceptor bolted to a gallery wall; also a cube that
continually posted itself for sale on eBay. Crazy as it may seem, I see the
art in these artifacts - alas, the same defect lets me see the art in the
whole list I presented.
And yet, I am strongly opposed to public funding of the arts, in all the
various underhanded way that mission is carried out.
My wife and I spend/contribute more than $10k per year on arts in NYC,
particularly at Lincoln Center. And yet, still I am strongly opposed to
public funding of those institutions. I see several Met operas per season,
and frequently record the live broadcasts - so do I think it is wrong that
Texaco dropped their funding? NO! Texaco should fund whatever programs
they feel gives their shareholders their best return! This year, that's
probably funding some absurd green-anti-carbon mission, but that too shall
pass....
My objection is not about the amount that the funding contributes to the
national debt/deficit, either; rather it's the slippery slope, the
furthering of this entitlement cancer that has metatasized in the US, the
furthering of harm in the name of public good, the antithesis of every
principle this country was founded on. But wait, oh yes, it IS about the
debt/deficit: that entitlement cancer is the ENTIRE cause of the staggering
national debt! (And I ask, after all that massive spending on entitlements,
what did we really get for our money? Was that a good trade?)
If the arts can't survive without public support, then propping them up with
mandatory funding is not all that different than propping up some nation's
unpopular ruler. Or 'saving' wildlife from extinction by capturing it and
putting it in a zoo or a museum. Piling on band-aid after band-aid will not
stop the bleeding from a severed artery!
If you want to save the arts, ask what went wrong with the public culture!
School program teaching classical music can't stand on it's own? Ask what's
wrong with the education program that the school is delivering; fix that,
and the classics will be sought out. The school will be sought after, as
well. And maybe, just maybe, the community will see some semblance of
personal responsibility return, and the culture of entitlement will be
banished to far away shores.
Well, we can all dream that someday we will find a cure for cancer; perhaps
we need more public funding for that....
-f
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