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Greeny World Domination 039
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T h e G R E E N Y w o r l d D o m i n a t i o n T a s k F o r c e
Presents:
"Campaign Against Art Seeks to Stifle Dissent"
by Charles Marowitz
(from _The Dallas Morning News_)
The word from House Speaker Newt Gingrich and others of his political
persuasion is that the arts had better prepare themselves for a bloody nose.
Every artist who receives a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts is
threatened.
I have just started a classically based professional theater in Fort Worth
called Texas Stage and am competing for subsidies with monoliths like the new
Performing Arts Hall and all the established arts institutions in the metroplex.
Large and small alike, all of us are trying to keep our heads above water.
It is a curious paranoia that makes Mr. Gingrich believe all artists are
liberals and determined to subvert the Republicans' Contract With America.
Actually, most artists aren't political partisans. Most adhere to a "curse on
both your houses" philosophy.
Every artist worth his salt is, in some sense, counter-cultural. As English
essayist and poet Matthew Arnold pointed out during the 19th century, art is a
criticism of life, and it is the nature of criticism to air grievances and posit
dissent.
The same kind of democratic spunkiness that Republicans and Democrats
practice in Congress is motivating the work of performing art groups, art
galleries, and individual artists throughout America. Their art is expressing
discontent, questioning established values, and agitating for reform.
These political qualities -- so apparent in playwrights like Arthur Miller
and David Mamet -- are just as present, albeit in a more oblique form, in the
works of "entertainers" like Noel Coward and Neil Simon. You can't practice art
without criticizing life.
The National Endowment for the Arts doesn't sustain any of its artists per
se. It merely contributes to their assistance and legitimizes their efforts in
particular communities so that local patrons will be encouraged to provide
support.
Despite what some people apparently believe, the government's patronage of
the arts isn't a 20th century invention. Indeed, such support was built into
the ideological structure of ancient societies and helped the Renaissance to
take root.
There always has been an assumption that government has an obligation to
assist artists, because art is part of the social fabric that clothes the body
politic. Art subsidies aren't handouts, but, rather, the appropriate return of
tax money to a populace that doesn't wish to live by bread alone.
The threat of withdrawing such government support because of political
paranoia bespeaks a temperament that is intrinsically oppressive and sinisterly
totalitarian; it seeks to suppress criticisms of life and silence dissent.
That is why Mr. Gingrich's campaign against art subsidies is so frightening.
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copyright (c) 1995 by _The Dallas Morning News_
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The above article does not necessarily reflect the views of The Greeny world
Domination Task Force or any of its members. We do, however, urge you to write
to your Congressman and tell him/her what you think of the proposals to cut
funding for programs such as The National Endowment for the Arts and PBS. Your
say does count, despite what anyone has told you.
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ftp =-= etext.archive.umich.edu /pub/Zines/Greeny
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/---------------\
text file copyright (c) 1995 GwD Inc. :FIGHT THE POWER:
GREENY world Domination Task Force copyright (c) 1993 by Lobo : GwD :
All rights reserved \---------------/
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