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- Newsgroups: misc.writing
- Path: sparky!uunet!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!saimiri.primate.wisc.edu!ames!sgi!twilight!zola!rmr
- From: rmr@sgi.com (Robert M. Reimann)
- Subject: Re: support for the arts in the US
- Message-ID: <th092g0@zola.esd.sgi.com>
- Sender: news@zola.esd.sgi.com (Net News)
- Organization: Technical Publications, Silicon Graphics, Inc.
- References: <1992Dec10.060300.11092@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu> <tecc2j4@zola.esd.sgi.com> <1gbvasINNptr@agate.berkeley.edu>
- Date: Sat, 12 Dec 92 19:21:41 GMT
- Lines: 68
-
- Have we beaten this to death yet?
-
- curtis@cs.berkeley.edu (Curtis Yarvin) writes:
- >rmr@sgi.com (Robert M. Reimann) writes:
- >
- >>And as I've already said, plenty of other countries
- >>figured this [subsidizing art] out years ago.
- >
- >I hate to burn the butane on this newsgroup; but you say this as
-
- If you're going to burn butane, a precious fossil
- fuel, you might consider using it on a cogent
- argument. Yes, Europe, like any other set of
- nation-states you care to examine, has its
- dark side. Big hairy deal. Shall we therefore
- do away with the Nobel Prize, the Ford Foundation
- (Ford and GM both supplied machine parts to
- Nazi Germany during the entirety of WWII), etc?
-
- The answer is no. If the best argument you can
- come up with is that Europeans are bloodthirsty,
- and therefore aren't somehow justified in supporting
- their artists, you should stop while you're ahead.
-
- >And when you're studying history, it's pretty easy to fall in
- >love with old art.
-
- I wasn't talking about old art. Old art was commissioned
- by the Church and the aristocracy, as I've already
- pointed out. I acknowledge that some of these projects
- were at the expense of oppressed people (indirectly).
- But that was then, this is now. You want to throw out
- the baby with the bath water, apparently.
-
- >One starts to think, bingo, culture equals
- >civilization. And such an idea being culture in itself, it
- >makes its way into the seventh-grade social-studies books; and
- >once planted there it is hard to uproot.
- >
- >I used to believe it, myself.
-
- That's nice, but what's the point? Culture is
- culture. Are you prepared to argue that art doesn't
- affect civilization and vice-versa? Art communicates
- values and ideas. Free exchange of ideas is the
- cornerstone of *our* society, and "free" does not
- imply that you have to be wealthy or popular to
- have your ideas heard.
-
- >The measure of a civilization is not the art it produces. The
- >measure of a civilization is the happiness of its citizens.
-
- Okay. What's your point? Western Europe includes
- nations with some of the highest standards of
- living in the world, and the ones that aren't are not
- in the state they are from spending too much attention
- to the arts. (Say that ten times fast!)
-
- >If the Sistine ceiling were painted in human blood, would you
- >still pay a thousand lira to see it?
-
- Uh, probably not. Then again, you know me. :^)
-
-
- Robert.
-
-
-
-