Civilization Will Continue To Progress Without Government Departments. I Promise

Norman Ornstein @NormOrnstein

For millenia, a key measure of a nation's greatness has been appreciation for culture-- music, art, dance, theater. Ax NEA, NEH,we lose that

No we don't.  In fact, I pretty much guarantee that won't happen.

For starters, the NEA has been around since the 1960s. So just on a basic logical level one can reasonably conclude art existed (and its appreciation for it) well before then and will continue to be so with or without the NEA. 

What is it with these departments (as recently witnessed with DeVos's appointment to the DofE which was created in the late 1970s. Listening to the hyper reaction one would think there was no education before its creation. It's absurd) that have been given such a status among the left that if they didn't exist civilization would fall apart? Just who is being irrational? 

Then comes the question of why do they get to choose who gets the money and how do they arrive at such a conclusion? 

For example, Piss Christ was the epitome of arrogant petulance that actually showed the displayed what some would not consider sophisticated art. Note, I'm not saying the artist doesn't have a right to his or her expression but what I am saying is people shouldn't be forced to pay for it through a grant.

I'm surprised no one has offered to make a David-esque sculpture of Obama to be placed in front of (okay, they're not that crazy, next to) Lincoln or Jefferson Memorials. 

In some instances and respect, what we will lose is politicized art.

The idea that the NEA was the line that separates American's barbarity and civility is ludicrous and preposterous. Not for $300 million (it's budget) it ain't.

It's a scare-tactic on Ornstein's part.

Remember folks, the greatest period in human history where the proliferation of the arts exploded happened without fricken government grants.

The Renaissance was mostly driven by, well, private funding.

I'm reminded of the great Montreal author Mordecai Richler who opposed public funding for the arts. When asked (stupidly) 'how will writers' fund traveling to expose their art?' he responded, 'write better books'.

Aaaaand the director asks Richler to drop the mic.