[miss marmelstein]

Wagner wrote hideous pamphlets against the Jews. He was one bad guy; even his family disliked him. That’s a major problem with his legacy and will always be with him. Sorta like Hanoi Jane - only with talent!

[Opinionated Blowhard]

The comparison between Fonda and Wagner raises an interesting point. In my prior post, I said my opinion is that we shouldn't ban OLD artists because of their views. The reasons are practical. Morality and thinking evolves. If you go back 100, 200, 500 years, you will be able to find a view held by an artist that is repugnant today but which was common at the time. Sadly, hatred of Jews is one view that was common for centuries in the West. Wagner wrote pamphlets condemning Jews but 250 years prior to him, mobs went around killing any Jew in sight.

I am very willing to avoid modern artists who hold repugnant views because I don't want to enrich them. Thus, I won't pay to see a Jane Fonda or George Clooney movie. I won't buy certain musicians’ CDs, I won't buy certain writers’ books, etc. That is because I think their current political views are disgusting.

[hellbender]

Karl Marx (yes, I know he was of Jewish ancestry) wrote some of the most horrendous anti-Semitic propaganda ever penned, but somehow that hasn’t led the world’s Jews to repudiate Marx or socialism.

[Borges]

Wagner’s wife Cosima (Liszt’s daughter) was more anti-semitic than he was.