GOP
WmHenry. I get the impression that many of the people who are attracted to the GOP are so for a number of group-related reasons. The first group, the wealthy, know the party serves their interests. The second group, the upwardly mobile, identify the party with the "respectability" they crave. The third group--the idiots--are neither wealthy nor upwardly mobile: they vote against their realistic interests because of psychological reasons like bigotry (Trent Lott has shown how the GOP exploits this drive), zenophobia (the party's hawkish stance often satisfies this fear), and blind patriotism--the need of little people to identify with something larger than themselves.
Okay, let's consider two of the main elements of the GOP; bigotry, and Fiscal responsibility....How pissed off were they when a democrat who played R&B, on the Arsenio Hall Show, balanced the budget, and brought prosperity to the country!
.. No wonder Dubya was "appointed."
I thought I was in the art forum. How'd we get to politics?
art
Surely Merry, you see that this is about the political censorship of artistic expression. Guernica was an expression of political protest by a man who did not like political art, but was so appalled by the Nazi bombing of this little Basque town that he made this exception. The thread may be misplaced since it has been political from the beginning. Just as Chopin's Polanaise was a political expression by means of music.
Merry<
Politics, many people would argue, is an art.
We have still not forgotten that the main topic of this forum is censorship,
a practice which can stifle "art" of any kind.
Thank you.
Guernica Covered at UN for Powell Visit: Guernica Campaign
My suggestion to the shrouding of Guernica:
For Peace and Against Censorship in the ARTS.
Please read, distribute and protest by sending folks at UN a copy of Guernica with a message like:
Peace through Peaceful Means: let the inspections work. Insist that US give evidence to inspectors so inspections can work. Containment and Continuous Investigation.
The UN has covered a tapestry reproduction of Picasso's Guernica for Colin Powell's visit and speech because it gives "too much a mixed message."
See Maureen Dowd's column, today, NYT:
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/05/opinion/05DOWD.html
To call in protest: UN phone number:(212) 963-4475
To email: UNITED NATIONS ADMINISTRATION:
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
Security council members:
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
Thanks, Sue
www.louisvillepeace.org
Thank you, Sue, for providing these useful links.
JL & William -- yes, I quite see that the issue of censorship is, ipso facto, a political issue. My objection -- if you can describe it as such (more of a comment than an objection) -- is to the question of censorship becoming transformed into a partisan issue. I don't see that an attack on a specific political party -- any specific party -- is germane to the discussion.
PS. Iam not now, nor have I ever been, a registered Republican.
guernica
Merry Andrew, I understand and agree that this issue of censorship does not refer to a particular political PARTY (although I cannot think of any Democratic administration that would have favored the draping of the trapestry as has, Rumsfeld's party). It do agree, however, that not all Republicans or Republican administrations would have encouraged or condoned it either. It is really a matter of REGIMES,the Bush regime is the object of criticism here. But if we suffer an Ashcroftian loss of freedoms it will be, unfortunately, with the acquiescence of many Democrats. We desperately need "regime changes" both in Iraq and in the United States.
I posted the subject in Art because it is about art.
Pablo Picasso was the greates artist of the century if not the modern era. Guernica is Picassi's greatest work. That is what made the art topic more germaine than politics.
Guernica is neither republican nore democrat, it is anti-war. If there had been a similar forum during the Johnson administration and a similar occurance, it would have been a democratic administration that would have been condemned.
We shouldn't devorce art from its context either to the past or the present. IMHO
Buzz
Art isn't easy at any time, but it is particularly difficult for artists to fluorish during an era when censorship seems to be a national policy by the political party in power.
True WH3 but in times of adversity the artist is challenged to provide the light at the end of the tunnel even if the view is not pretty. I believe this is true in all of art's venues, painting, sculpture, writing, and music. I have provided the link to Pitters question regarding the work of Doris Saldo, she perceivers and even though we might not like to look at it and find fault it does speak to us. Check it out.
http://www.able2know.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=3878
I've noticed that Ashcroft is being shot on a different background since the furor over covering the statues. That's a bone headed decision to begin with -- the covering of the breasts called more attention to them than if they'd been left uncovered. Placing a curtain in fron of "Guernica" calls for attention to the work itself and the periodicals have reproduced it en masse. I'm laughing -- more examples of the stupid white guys who govern us. If they can't figure out what the media will do with their unfortunately small minded decisions, what business do they have governing us?
(Don't everyone get excited about Ashcroft being shot -- didn't mean it that way!)
guernica
Well, LW, I'm excited.
I agree LW. The men in charge don't lead. They rule. Leaders look at the big picture and make benificial decisions not acts of instant gratification or easy outs. Laura Bush canceled the poetry symposium because there was a probablility of anti-war sentiment. She stated that she didn't mind it in the streets, but not in her house. The problem is, for Mrs. Bush, it is not her house. It is the people's house. A more magnanimous gesture would have been to have the symposium and listen and learn. At least there would have been an opportunity for discussion. Canceling the poetry, shrouding Guernica are only examples of this ruling faction's inability to listen and learn from the people who they are supposed to represent. They say that they want to bring democracy to Iraq. They don't know what democracy is.
