the importance of supporting the art and other institutions
The first glance of Trump’s budget is pure destruction on the multitude of humane organizations we support as taxpayers. The organizations from Planned Parenthood to Meals on Wheels to the National Endowment of the Arts and there are more. Its is not only disturbing but telling of the man who we call our President. Keep in mind how much the cost to taxpayers for him to go back and forth to Florida every weekend and keep his wife in NYC which is more than some of the budgets of the organizations he wants to slash. He and his cronies actually believe that this is the way to create a strong nation. Every man/woman for themselves with zero support from the Government and the bonus is you get to pay less taxes! I do not believe in this theology.
I believe in supporting any organization that is creating an opportunity for everyone. Particularly, I believe that a world without art and that includes literary to music is vacuous. I also believe in supporting educational institutions where they embrace intellectual practices that do not necessarily bring in economic capital such as philosophy. Britain supports these organization and they do it the best. I have always thought as our nation matures we will look like Britain one day so perhaps there is hope.
A nation that doesn’t support these institutions will lose out on what fuels our culture. Perhaps art will still be made but it won’t be giving an opportunity to people who don’t have the financial support to pursue something that might be deep in their DNA. Because a nation without art or a nation without literature or a nation without physical art from paintings to photography to sculpture to streaming video or a nation without helping our elderly eat or a nation without affordable or even free healthcare for all or a nation without housing for those in need or a nation without philosophers and intellects is not a nation I want to be living in.
Comments (Archived):
Make America Great Britain Again!
LOL!
Very well put & was nodding throughout.
nice!
.The National Endowment for the Arts was created in 1965.The good old US of A did just fine before and will do just fine after the NEA.This is a matter of financial discipline and the appropriateness of asking the working man to fund the interests of the rich. Nothing more.Trump is right.JLMwww.themusingsofthebigredca…
if you think that art is only for the rich that you are living in a hole.
.If you think your interest in the arts is not fostered and supported by your personal financial wherewithal, you are living in a cloud.Next time you go to the Guggenheim, count the number of plumbers from Tulsa, please.Of course, if one reads my words carefully that is not what I said at all. It is about the appropriateness of the funding, no? Take a more careful glance.In Maszlow’s hierarchy of needs, the arts are sort of toward the bottom of the pyramid.JLMwww.themusingsofthebigredca…
If you want to leave short comments on this blog that is fine but if you want to leave these long writings I would prefer you do it on your own blog.
,Of course, please accept my apology. I didn’t mean to overwhelm your blog.But I wonder is it the length of the comment or is it because it doesn’t fawningly agree with your blog post?Seems to compress and censor the discussion a bit.JLMwww.themusingsofthebigredca…
Length
.Haha, yes, indeed.JLMwww.themusingsofthebigredca…
why is art / culture / history for the rich?
.”This is a matter of financial discipline and the appropriateness of asking the working man to fund the interests of the rich.”It is not solely for the rich. It is an interest which being rich allows one to cultivate.The rich like art and culture — not so sure about history. Most rich people I know don’t know our history.JLMwww.themusingsofthebigredca…
,There are those who will question the prudence and legitimacy of asking a working man or woman to fund the arts when they are struggling to afford healthcare and to educate their children. Why should a plumber in Tulsa pay for an arts organization in NYC, they might ask. Why?It is NOT the allure of the arts that is being questioned herein. It is the fairness of asking someone at a subsistence level to fund something which is a discretionary expenditure of the Federal gov’t and which does not convey a universal benefit and which serves patrons of the arts.The plumber in Tulsa is not going to have a better life because a museum in LA has an art exhibit funded by the NEA. Yet, he is being asked to pay for it through his taxes.There are others who favor a small Federal gov’t who may say that there is no role for the Federal gov’t in any endeavor which does not rise to the level of being something that cannot be funded locally or by the separate states. Color me amongst those who are keen supporters of the arts, but who believe it is not the role of gov’t to fund my personal interests.I was the President of the Austin Musical Theater once upon a time (one of the only Actors Equity shops outside NYC or LA) and I never misunderstood my role — raising money. It was completely privately funded. We had great shows with name brand Tony award winning actors (Larry Gatlin in the Music Man as an example). It was great art, fun, and theater.The choice you sketch out — a world WITHOUT art — is a strawman. That is not the choice. MOMA will not fail because the NEA goes unfunded by tax dollars. Radio will not end because NPR goes unfunded by tax dollars. No art galleries in NYC will close because of these actions. Art is a complicated field of endeavor and is not dependent upon the Feds to survive.Because there is a chap named Trump involved in sketching out the budget (which will never make it through the House anyway), the liberals feel compelled to drag out the sackcloth and ashes without even reading the actual budget. One of the current talking points of the current hysteria is the “savaging of Meals on Wheels.”Meals on Wheels is facing a $3MM reduction in a CDBG (community development block grant) coming out of HUD. It is still 35% funded by the Older Americans Act and it still raises the balance of its funding from local sources. It serves 2.4MM people with meals.Again, $3MM out of a $1.4BILLION budget. That is hardly a devastating cut.If we are to get our fiscal house in order, then it will take some hard decisions. This is one I support for the reasons outlined above. It is time for America to get real, learn the numbers, and apply some prudence to financial priorities.But, hey, I could be wrong.JLMwww.themusingsofthebigredca…
Art is as intrinsic to human existence as oxygen. In high school, the Head of Art submitted me as a last-minute candidate to the art exam based on some doodles I did during a rainy lunch — even though I hadn’t chosen it because it clashed on the timetable with Chemistry.So I got 2 months to put my art portfolio together instead of the 2 years all the other students got.To this day, I fuse my “heart of an artist” in the AI I make. The sad thing is that the AUTISTIC RATIONALISTS in the Valley don’t get art or heart.* https://www.startupgrind.co… https://uploads.disquscdn.c…The works of the greats inform me. This is why I build AI that’s very different from the autistic version made by Descartes and his disciples (pretty much all the male PhDs in the big techco’s). https://uploads.disquscdn.c… https://uploads.disquscdn.c…My AI system is a living, breathing embodiment of Da Vinci’s principles and I’m proud of that. I know Descartes is a DOOFUS so I’m applying my maths knowhow and Da Vinci to kick him and the way he makes us (and our data) biased to the curb! https://uploads.disquscdn.c…
As much as I love the UK and its cultural heritage, it lacks the US’s scientific and commercial pragma about turning ideas into global-scale tech products.Sometimes, at tech talks in SF, I find myself re-imagining sections of them as Monty Python sketches because what the male engineers say and believe to be “the truth” and human behavior is so absurdist.
Nicely said.This post and this one– http://continuations.com/po… –are things that made my day better.
Art and the history of art and literature- culture in fact, is very much linked to the development of civilization. I don’t have a lot of patience for people who fail to grasp the essentials of art to our existence. The fact that the barbarians in Washington de-fund art and don’t believe in climate change tells me that they selfishly do not believe that there will be a future civilization. Meanwhile, in Asia, the Chinese are licking their lips and looking at how they are now the most admired nation in the world. And if that’s not entirely the case now, it will be by the time Trump finishes off the US. His slogan is in effect America last [or America won’t last]. But the funny thing about art and artists is that they keep making a resurgence in the ugliest of times. Stay tuned for how history ends up treating Trump and his band of goons.
I am staying tuned. I truly believe that information that will come out on this band of hoodlums sooner than later.