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10 mistakes conservatives make in art and entertainment
townhall.com ^
| 2/7/06
| Erik Lokkesmoe
Posted on 02/07/2006 12:31:17 AM PST by paudio
Conservatives, by definition but not always by practice, are curators of the good, the true, and the beautiful. In the popular arts, however, we have become champions of the tame, the trite, and the temporal. (See safe for the whole family radio stations, movie reviews that count body parts and swear words, and paintings of nostalgic sugarplum cottages.) Wrong-headed in our approach, seduced by fashionable (and profitable) trends, debilitated by our passion for the cheap and comfortable, our vision for popular art and entertainment if one can call protests and boycotts a vision is doing more harm than good in the culture.
The remedy is easier than one might think. It begins by identifying and admitting our errors. Here are ten to start us off, no doubt there are dozens more:
Mistake #1: We try to improve art and entertainment from the top-down and the outside-in. For example, when well-meaning people, flush with cash but bankrupt on talent, attempt to show Hollywood by creating films that go around proven creative methods, the result is always the same: direct to video, a waste of time and money. Enduring change, meanwhile, comes from the bottom-up (working your way up from the mailroom) and the inside-out (working within the creative industries).
Mistake #2: We don't quite understand common grace the idea that the good, the true, and the beautiful can be found in the most unlikely of places (Broadway) and people (liberal artists). Without a strong belief in common grace, we will either get angry at the culture or withdraw from it entirely.
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TOPICS: Business/Economy; Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; Editorial; Philosophy
KEYWORDS: arts; conservatives; entertainment
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To: Melas
Most great self respecting artists will realize their own greatness and, therefore, they don't buy into the radical egalitarianism that's demanded by the Left... not that they don't have a social conscience. I don't know how you can mention any of these names, especially Oscar Wilde, who perhaps had the greatest sense of his own extraordinary talents and, therefore, deserved social inequality. Artists have always realized that they are not equal to the masses... at least the honest ones. They may have hated the Bourgeois for being a crass philistine which is different from Marx hating the bourgeois for economic and social reasons. Neo Marxists have done wonders to co-opt and confabulate the two aspects of being Bourgeois... they also co-opted and distorted the views of perhaps the greatest Continental right wing thinker, Nietzsche, for their own use.
I like your theory. It is true that is great instability in the arts and not everyone can be an artist. The great ones are just that way by their own natural temperament with every little choice.
To: Blind Eye Jones
Most great self respecting artists will realize their own greatness and, therefore, they don't buy into the radical egalitarianism that's demanded by the Left... not that they don't have a social conscience. I don't know how you can mention any of these names, especially Oscar Wilde, who perhaps had the greatest sense of his own extraordinary talents and, therefore, deserved social inequality. Artists have always realized that they are not equal to the masses... at least the honest ones. They may have hated the Bourgeois for being a crass philistine which is different from Marx hating the bourgeois for economic and social reasons. Neo Marxists have done wonders to co-opt and confabulate the two aspects of being Bourgeois... they also co-opted and distorted the views of perhaps the greatest Continental right wing thinker, Nietzsche, for their own use. Thinking that you're better than everyone else has little if anything to do with be on the right, or conservatism in general. As a matter of fact, the complete opposite is true. Radical egalitarianism is born from those feelings of superiority, not a misguided sense of equality. It's the very basis of the philsophy of Noblesse Oblige which was is the intellectual birthplace of much of liberalism.
82
posted on
02/07/2006 12:21:20 PM PST
by
Melas
(What!? Read or learn something? Why would anyone do that, when they can just go on being stupid)
To: Darkwolf377
Philip Anschutz and Disney split the production cost 50/50. In addition, Disney's Buena Vista distribution arm and Disney's marketing costs will come off the top. Disney execs were on the set every day giving notes to the director. That's hardly an "outsider" film. There's a better case that Anschutz's "Ray" was an outsider project, since he put up all the production money himself, then sold it to the studio as a finished product.
83
posted on
02/07/2006 1:05:30 PM PST
by
Heyworth
("More weight!"--Giles Corey)
To: Heyworth
Chill. The writer mentioned outsiders coming into Hollywood with their piles of money and the attitude that they're going to show people how it's done. This movie would not be what it is without his investment, due to his personal religious beliefs which he insisted be represented in the movie.
I never claimed this was an "outsider" film, so you berating me for doing so is false. I merely mentioned an example of an outsider who did just what the writer complained about.
To: Borges
85
posted on
02/07/2006 3:11:33 PM PST
by
Liberty Valance
(Who knew Islam's hot button was in the funny papers?)
To: strider44
It should be noted that Passion is much more violent then Pulp Fiction.
86
posted on
02/07/2006 3:18:26 PM PST
by
Borges
To: Darkwolf377
Left Behind.And from what I've heard, those books sound like they could have been written by L. Ron Hubbard.
But, people seem to enjoy them...
*shrugs*
To: Do not dub me shapka broham
Yeah, they're scary propaganda, and hugely popular. No accounting for taste.
To: Darkwolf377; doodlelady
Crash was a very good movie, imo. In the last two years, The only movie I can remember walking out of thinking I got my money's worth.
89
posted on
02/07/2006 3:25:07 PM PST
by
Hildy
(The only difference between a rut and a grave is the depth)
To: AmishDude
Also the film Capote was basically about what a self serving amoral person he was.
90
posted on
02/07/2006 3:26:47 PM PST
by
Borges
To: SlowBoat407
91
posted on
02/07/2006 3:28:16 PM PST
by
ontos-on
To: Melas; Blind Eye Jones
Great Art will always be claimed by both sides. Was Shakespeare liberal or conservative? He's been called everything from a Monarchist to a Marxist (before Marx) to a Freudian (before Freud).
92
posted on
02/07/2006 3:28:44 PM PST
by
Borges
To: paudio
I don't think much of what Eric considers art is actually art.
93
posted on
02/07/2006 3:32:47 PM PST
by
Navy Patriot
(At times like this, it is a pleasure to support Free Republic.)
To: Melas
The intellectual birthplace of Liberalism in Europe began with Bacon, Hobbs and Locke and flowered into a mostly French Enlightenment on the continent. The aristocracy and the church held the reins of power... in other words, no self evident, universal, inalienable rights of man, just slavery and servitude if you were a commoner... just the crushing weight of great Chain of Being.
"Radical egalitarianism is born from those feelings of superiority..."
You're right. Liberals are such hypocrites!
To: Oberon
95
posted on
02/07/2006 6:32:02 PM PST
by
Oberon
(As a matter of fact I DO want fries with that.)
To: Borges
"Great Art will always be claimed by both sides."
The right has more to do with liberty than equality... take a guess what artists really gravitate towards!
To: paudio
Mistake #2: We don't quite understand common grace the idea that the good, the true, and the beautiful can be found in the most unlikely of places (Broadway) and people (liberal artists). Without a strong belief in common grace, we will either get angry at the culture or withdraw from it entirely. Interesting point. He might be right about this, but certainly the Hollywood left finds no "common grace" in conservatives. The left does not believe in a shared humanity. It believes in victim groups and oppressor groups, and in an ill defined quantity called "personhood".
97
posted on
02/07/2006 7:48:47 PM PST
by
TChad
To: Blind Eye Jones
You'd have a hard time putting people like Blake and Melville on the Right. There's always something new that a great Artist has to say..and that's always disturbing to their status quo in some way. For instance Schoenberg's music seemed like the height of Modernity in 1910, today it sounds just like the logical extension of Romanticism that it was.
98
posted on
02/07/2006 8:02:55 PM PST
by
Borges
To: paudio
Movies are entertainment, that's all. They haven't been 'Art' for quite some time. The same thing applies to Music. American Idol is fun to watch, but I understand I am not watching 'Art'.
99
posted on
02/07/2006 8:39:59 PM PST
by
lmr
(You can have my Tactical Nuclear Weapons when you pry them from my cold dead fingers.)
To: lmr
They haven't been 'Art' for quite some time.
Sure they are. Most movies are bad Art but Art nonetheless.
100
posted on
02/07/2006 9:33:06 PM PST
by
Borges
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