People in the art lean left because:
A)The craft -- whether it be writing, acting, painting, dance etc -- doesn't allow much time for political thought, reading etc.
B)By tradition, personal inclination and necessity artists are typically outsiders.
C)The lifestyle, whether a struggling "artist" or a $20 million a picture movie star has little resemblance to typical American lifestyle. For instance, at any given time 99.5% of all actors are unemployed.
D)Many artists just want to shake things up a bit.
"A)The craft -- whether it be writing, acting, painting, dance etc -- doesn't allow much time for political thought, reading etc."---
Okay, I can buy that, although I should point out that many people work harder, more time-consuming jobs for longer hours than artists and still find the time to seek out both sides of the story.
"B)By tradition, personal inclination and necessity artists are typically outsiders."---
I get what you mean, but if 95-9 or whatever % of all professional artists are lockstep liberal, wouldn't that make the political conservative the true brave outsider, the "noncomformist" in his/her community.
"C)The lifestyle, whether a struggling "artist" or a $20 million a picture movie star has little resemblance to typical American lifestyle. For instance, at any given time 99.5% of all actors are unemployed."---
This is true, but I know people who hardly work at all except for the odd job here and then that still hate the Demmie's guts.
"D)Many artists just want to shake things up a bit."
True, but how can they rock society's boat if they stay chained up in their little one-viewpoint, lockstep lefty clique? How can they really explore the truth of the human condition if they only expose themsel;ves to those who think as they do on everything?
Vincent Gallo once hit the nail on the head when an interviewer expressed regret that a hip, expressionistic artist like him could be a conservative Republican. He asked where the true guts were in Hollywood when the brave causes the liberals in the community take are vague, airheaded, slogans like "cure world hunger". He also scornfully asked how much "courage" it took for an artist to continuously degrade America, a free and open nation where they can rattle their mouths off against their country and Bush all day and all night long without even the possibility of government repression on their free speech rights.