[paudio]

While I agree that conservatives need to get involved in culture, I disagree with some of the remedies he suggested. For instance #7. We use the arts to save souls and sway elections. Do conservatives artists really do this? Believe it or not, conservatives also understand that a piece of arts is an expression of the artist' mind and feelings. The problem is, why is it as if there's no personal expression that is 'clean', nice, and beautiful at the same time? And if we take movie as arts, we only need to look at this year's Oscar best picture nominees to see how Liberals view their 'arts'.

[b9]

Is CRASH nominated?

[Darkwolf377]

The problem is, why is it as if there's no personal expression that is 'clean', nice, and beautiful at the same time?

Probably because "nice" is the antithesis of drama. Clean and beautiful, sure. But drama isn't about nice.

[Darkwolf377]

For example, when well-meaning people, flush with cash (clip)... attempt to “show Hollywood” by creating films that go around proven creative methods, the result is always the same: direct to video

Chronicles of Narnia...?

[NYCVirago]

My problem with this writer is that he seems to be advocating that conservatives need to do their own version of "edgy" arts and entertainment.

[oneofmany]

In his list under "Mistake #5".
"...conservatives prefer art that shows the world as it should be, not as it is."

This is how liberals view the world. Is he saying conservs. see the world "as it is", but prefer their art "as the world should be"? This statement is too general to be taken seriously.

As a conservative I live in reality and see the world "as it is". Just because I don't enjoy looking at the human debasement that goes on in the world doesn't mean I would rather see the world "as it should be."

[NoControllingLegalAuthority]

Mistakes #4 and #6 are very big.

Do you want to see movies different from those being made by the Hollywood liberals?

Will you help finance them?

I'm making an action Western right now. Almost all of my conservative friends think I am silly to even try.

Conservatives are typically seeking ONLY the safest investments and financing movies is a very high-risk proposition.

Leftists will control the culture until conservatives find important intrinsic value in putting their money where their mouths are.

[ThinkFreedom]

There have been a number of very high profile mainstream Conservative entertainers (Drew Carey - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drew_Carey - is an example, so is Alice Cooper - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice_Cooper , Johnny Ramone - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnny_Ramone, Dimebag Darrell - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dimebag_Darrell). The secret to their success is to remember that people watch TV (beyond documentaries, news, public affairs, etc.) and listen to music to get away from the troubles of the world, and to be entertained. Similarly, many people will reject overt conservative messages in entertainment (the same way most people reject much of the heavy-handed leftist propaganda disguised as 'entertainment') if the show or the song is boring.

It's achieving the balance between entertainment and strong messages that's the challenge. Most Pixar films (so far) are a good example on how to get that balance right.

On the other hand, conservatives and libertarians have one big advantage over the leftist and statist agenda pushers when it comes to making entertaining art: artistic freedom from the confines of left-wing elitism and political correctness. What made, for instance, South Park ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Park ) such a success was that Matt Stone and Trey Parker are libertarians and, as a result, can get away with jokes that the politically correct 'progressives' would never dream of.

[driftless]

I think basically this guy is full of it. He's trying to assert that we conservatives should appreciate all the crap that passes for art nowadays. I don't like bland, wholesome, safe artistic products either. Many conservatives like myself disregard political affiliations when considering artistic works.

But just because something "challenging" or "daring" does not make it good art. The sad fact is that just about everything that is considered art today (literature, cinema, painting, scupture, music, etc.) is crap. It is possible to do art both ways...challenging and non-challenging. The problem is that todays "artists" have no talent to do it either way.

[fnord]

not everything produced by an "artist" is art ... that would be the big difference with liberals

[ontos-on]

After thinking about this a little more than it probably deserved, I beleive that this article is a rather shallow attempt to use slogans to move "conservatives" to shut up when they complain about contemporary garbage masquerading as art and to get them to pay money to ..... ? who??? And to get youth to enlist in being creative ...in what sense? for its own sake [that appears to be the source of the empty banality of which we see so much right now].

He claims to be interested in the "good, the true and the beautiful" and in finding ways to promote it "from the bottom up". Again this appears only meant as a slogan because all the author really seems to want is to get conservatives to support the "artistic" per se without any thought to how the "good and true and beautiful" would be sought or found or presented, IF it is not itself sought.

There are ways of talking about this that are not merely "prescriptive" as he says --another dead give away that the author's real motive is he wants to ahake money from the right for the same "permissive, anthing goes" style of "art" of today. Without any idea animating the search for the good the true and the beautiful [which is a Platonic notion at its heart] and the source, really, of Western Civilization.

The author's avoidance of this issue shows that he is not dealing with his topic seriously and the great concept he "quotes" is only used as a beguling slogan.

[ontos-on]

One other thought. Townhall.com has of late appeared to be primarily interested in fundraising more than anything else. It makes sense in that light that this article is coming from that source.

[nmh]

What we really need to do is stop funding the crap!

Stop subsidizing the arts and let people fund it directly that appreciate trash. Most liberals are cheap and greedy when it comes to getting YOUR money - Babs comes to mind.
Her concert ticket prices are outrageous, that is when she lowers herself to gracing us with her voice.

[Guenevere]

I've only read #1& 2 so far and disagree already!

We do understand these concepts and many Christians are indeed working from the bottom up trying to effect change.

Also, we understand very well his premise in #2.....

...bottom line...we will not compromise our higher standard to achieve this!

[Tribune7]

Good points. I can think of one very, very influential book that delievers plenty of sex and violence but still leaves a profound moral message.

[MortMan]

So the author says "do what the libs do - just conservatively"? Balderdash.

[jim_trent]

> "Mistake #8: We do not see good movies when it really matters."

I remember when "The Patriot" came out. There were people here who refused to go because Mel Gibson was not ideologically "pure" enough on the 2nd Amendment (at least in their eyes). Consequently, a picture about a bunch of greedy commercial fishermen who got caught in a storm came in first place. Now we have George Clooney everywhere.

[Hebrews 11:6]

[#10] Art hurts, slaps, and defines. Art is interested in truth: in bad words spoken by bad people, in good words spoken by good people, in sin and goodness, in life, sex, birth, color, texture, death, love, hate, nature, man, religion, music, God, fire, water, and air.

Pulp Fiction is my favorite movie. It takes a close look at four sinners' relationship with Satan: the salvation of one, the freeing of another, the death of a third, and the enduring bond of the fourth.

[AmericaUnite]

I like TOON art. Go Pookie!

[Melas]

problem is, why is it as if there's no personal expression that is 'clean', nice, and beautiful at the same time?

Simply put, life isn't clean or nice. Life is all about moving from one obstacle to another, with myriad little dramas unfolding all the time. Nice doesn't make drama, and life is really all about drama.

[Navy Patriot]

I don't think much of what Eric considers art is actually art.