nothing wrong with that, at least you were closer to Greek Peak... if you ski that is
Posted on 11/24/2013 2:30:43 PM PST by ReformationFan
I went to a lecture recently presented by the Smithsonian. The subject of the talk was Jack Kerouac’s Francophone roots, and I was expecting lots of intellectual wanna-be Beatniks. Instead I was surrounded by a roomful of typical old lib academics.
It felt as though I were living inside of NPR. You know the type: the women are skeletal from not eating meat and from biking too much and have salt and pepper hair which they cut when they decided they hated men and also decided to look like one. They prefer the unkempt, “natural” look to actually bothering to maintain the frizz. The men are not noticeably thin, but are noticeably lacking in bulk. Both sexes (it’s difficult sometimes to distinguish them) dress in neutral earth tones, the organic fiber of their clothes having been manufactured ethically. They dress for comfort and for hiking simultaneously, even in the city, and sip water constantly, as if they don’t know where their next sustainable bottle of H2O is coming from. Many of them wear glasses (it adds to the intellectual mystique), little artsy specs with thick frames that sit on the end of the nose. This positioning accentuates the elitist, I know better than you look.
I had a beer and observed. I was the only one under 50, I think, and definitely the only one who read On the Road without trying to dissect it for profound insight. I found it mostly a practical guide to how to be wild and still survive, with the occasional thoughtful reflection thrown in between breaths. The people attending this lecture seemed as opposite Jack Kerouac, a noted conservative, as they could get.
This type of liberal shows up everywhere: at book stores, coffee shops, farmers’ markets, lectures, concerts, museums. And why, thought I, is it that liberals seem to own the arts and everything aesthetic?
Two thoughts:
Libs don’t actually own the arts, they just make it look that way.
Liberals are great showmen and women – I don’t want to discriminate here. (Ever wonder, by the way, why liberals are so gung-ho about gender neutrality but then have a conniption when you don’t write he/she his/her? Anywaaay…
Everything liberals do is about appearance and how their behavior is perceived. This is why their lifestyles are so contradictory. And since they generally reject God and the eternal, the glories of this world are all that matter. They want to feel good without having to do good. They want to look good in the eyes of others without having to sacrifice. And when they do something, they don’t do it quietly simply for the enjoyment of themselves or of others. They make a spectacle of it so you can’t help but notice.
This is why it seems that liberals own the arts. They want to appear to everyone else in the world to be cultured, non-discriminatory, interested, and intellectual. I’m sure there were other non-liberals at the lecture I attended (actually, being D.C., there is no guarantee of this), but I didn’t notice them in the sea of exaggerated progressives aggressively flaunting their open minds. Conservatives tend to enjoy things passively, absorbing art and culture for their own sakes, because they enjoy them. This contrast may also be why the liberal media is liberal. Leftists are much more about showing and telling. (It’s why they also rule the bumper sticker world.)
The arts are another way they can force ideologies on you and control you.
The arts, when acknowledged at all, are associated with poverty. Especially in these terrible democratic I mean economic times, the arts take a hit. They are a low priority, and rather than let the market do its thing, the liberals do theirs: they force the arts to stay afloat by taking money people could better spend on subsisting and spend it on artists’ salaries, supplies, and marketing for asinine projects. If there’s one thing liberals love more than spending money on fluff no one cares about, it’s spending other people’s money on fluff no one cares about. And where government money goes, a government message goes with it. (Hello, Sesame Street)
nothing wrong with that, at least you were closer to Greek Peak... if you ski that is
Actually, I was 10 minutes from Song and skied every day they were open, for two years.
Your point is well-taken, but liberals pretty much "own" those arts, too.
I’ve often thought the real genius of Picasso was not in his ugly “art” but in recognizing that he needed to masquerade as a Godless Communist in order to please the people who were in control. Too bad he abandoned his representational art, I enjoyed that.
it is.
Count me in if an arts ping list is started.
Because 99.9% of self-proclaimed artists couldn’t survive on the income they make from selling their art and therefore, they rely upon government handouts.
Well stated (and brave. Expect flames.)
Check out the occasional “What Books Are you Reading” threads, where fiction is disdained (unless it’s Tom Clancy, Stephen King, other penny dreadfuls, or some local self-published ridiculous dystopia.)
Arts have been handed by conservative NASCAR/NFL philistines to the Left.
A sad state of things, best illustrated, as you yourself observed, on this very forum.
Why ‘arts’ are liberal:
Johnny Gotrocks: “I want my own personal brothel!”
Gotrock’s lawyer: “That’s illegal. How about a philanthropy for young artists?”
Johnny Gotrocks: “how’s that the same?”
Gotrock’s lawyer: “You pick the artists by whatever ‘standard’ you want. (winks). And it’s tax-deductible!”
Libs own the arts because conservatives gave it to them along with every other profession in the propaganda machine. Most conservatives appear to have no interest in the arts, at least not by judging here on FR. Hollywood is bashed here on FR. Liberal arts degrees are mocked. Sociology is made fun of. The entertainment industry has been ceded. How many of you encourage your children to get journalism degrees? Fine arts degrees? Yes, the entire propaganda machine has been handed to the socialists while conservatives pat themselves on the back for having “real jobs”. Well, as I have said here before, congrats to all you blue collar morons and you Corporate idiots out there. Go on and applaud your conservative self for “being your own boss” and “running your own business”. Big deal. Your country has been stolen and you allowed it because you think you are more productive. Well, in the bigger picture, you are not.
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Preach it Brother! Preach it!!
Conservatives have turned their back on industries like the arts, they have handed the culture over to leftists as they have argued about where to arrange the deck chairs on their sinking ship.
Conservatives have not banded to gether to argue and support people attacked by leftists. Instead they buy one Chick fil a and think that they are activists. When I think of conservative artists like the man who did the Vietnam monument in DC and the lack of push back and support from the conservative community it makes me sick.
gotta love it... Greek is gonna open this weekend
I consider myself an artist. I met my husband in the theater. My mother’s art was featured in Jackson Hole.
I think that it’s a perception that liberals own it, not a fact. (the author’s first premise) We do it. We just don’t go on and on about it.
As we’ve evolved, I’ve gotten more and more into fiction writing and my husband is heavy into woodworking. I’m also a steampunk freak.
It’s the same thing that I bump into when I look into alternative building methods. I think that building a rock-solid house out of tires, dirt, and concrete is wonderful. But I struggle to get into the technicalities. First I have to dig through the ‘sustainable’ and ‘green’ and ‘earth-friendly’ BS.
You have no idea how many times I’ve blown up over a cool design idea (like building old bottles into a cob wall for design and light). “Why can’t it just be cool or interesting or neat?!! Why does EVERYTHING have to be tied to the liberal agenda!!”
The “man” working at the bookstore reminds me of Minneapolis. Yes, folks, “men” in Minneapolis are actually like that. Where womyn are bitches, and tho are men.
Yes, an evening with the arts on FR is a Duck Dynasty/Doomsday Prepper marathon. LOL!
... Because there can be no refuge. Even the tiniest area of life or mundane conversation to pass the day must be politicized. You can’t even talk about the weather just to pass the time or break the ice with a stranger anymore. It’s political now. Sex? Political. Politics? Forget it, reduced to whispers in mixed company. This is intentional.
Tis the consequence of the totalitarian worldview of leftism.
But then again, folks, it’s not like “On the Road” or anything by Jack Kerouac is a masterpiece as those people the author describes claim, so as far as I am concerned the Left can have their Kerouacs, their Affirmative Action writers, actors and musicians, and all that “art” they so worship, no better on the average in my view than Louis L’Amour’s Westerns and Danielle Steel’s romances.
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