"No, Sir, you are wrong: art does not exist to suit the moods of your majority! Art always existed to express the aesthetic feelings of a minority of noble-minded, superior, and more exquisite people from whom the reluctant, slow masses eventually shall learn what is beautiful and good."--Hermann Bahr
Though the words of Herman Bahr still contain the undeniable truth that a
cultural battle is waged incessantly between the artistically literate and the more obtuse
segments of society for whom art has little meaning, the dynamics of the battle have
changed. Presently, the liberal majority is cognizant of the vital importance of art in
modern American society, and it is the conservativist minority, a coven of religious
zealots, which is "reluctant" and slow as indicated by their attempts to strike down all
federal funding for artistic pursuits.
In May of this year, the Chesapeake based Christian Coalition offered its revised
version of the GOP's Contract with America to the public. The Contract with the
American Family, though cunningly phrased and deceptively innocuous, calls for social
changes that would appear to be only moderate in nature. In a press conference, Ralph
Reed, head of the Coalition and front man for Pat Robertson, announced such proposals
as the institution of prayer in public schools and the enactment of "restricition" on
abortion and pornography. The alleged Contract continues by stating its disdain for the
idea of homosexual marriagnes, though it conveniently overlooks the issue of civil rights
for gay men and lesbians, and concludes by proposing the eradication of all federal
funding for the arts. Almost all of the aforementioned topics are considered by most to
volatile, yet why has the Coalition chosen to attack federal funding for the arts? The
answer is less than obvious and the issue is pivotal to the survival of the Coalition's
rapacious agenda. Thus, the Coalition has fixed its sights on the National Endowment for
the Arts.
The National Endowment for the Arts manaages approximately 169,741,000 dollars
(FY 94) annually. Though such a figure may appear exorbitant, when put into its proper
context one plainly sees that funding allotted to the NEA is a mere pittance. Each year the
federal government outlays funding for discretionary programs in excess of 545.6 billion
dollars. The classification 'discretionary' includes all defense spending, outlays for
international affairs, and funding for a multitude of domestic programs. The total outlays
for the 1994 fiscal year were in excess of 1450.9 billion dollars. Thus, one immediately sees
that funding the the NEA constitutes only .8% of the national budget.
Each year, the NEA ensure that everyone for the New York Philharmonic to the
Theater Works of Palo Alto, California is supplied with, at the very least, modest funds.
The endownment also supports such information services as National Public Radio (NPR)
and the Public Broadcasting System (PBS), in addition to programs which provide access
to the arts in even the most rural of settings. Funding also subsidizes projects specifically
geared toward the propagation of cultural diversity withing the artistic community, and
outreach programs to hsopitals, prisons, urban centers, and nursing homes. Despite such
noble pursuits, the Christian Right, with the aid of the GOP, continues to push for
legislation which would excise all funds for the NEA from the national budget. Perhaps
they have failed to realize the indispensable function the arts play in our society, or
maybe they realize all too well that the arts, and all that they represent, could render their
entire agenda utterly void.
The arts are the very essence of our culture. The arts express the most human aspects
of ourselves, both as sizable demographic groups and as individuals. The universal nature
of the arts is a function of the plurality of interpretation which exists among its
constituaent mediums. This plurality allows each individual who looks upon a piece of
sculpture, reads work of modern literature, or ehars an original orchestral compostion to
carry away from the exhibit not only a greater understanding of themselves, but of the
world at large.
The Christian Coalition can only accomplish its goals if the American public is
estranged from its humanity. Surely it is easiert to homophobic if one has never seen such
moving dramas as Larry Kramer's The Normal Heart and Tony Kushner's
Angels in America. What better way to propagate homphobia than to pervent
such works from being performed? A doctrine of intolerance is most easily spread if all
public information sources such as NPR and PBS are left to languish without federal
funding simply because intolerance is the child of ignorance and ignorance can only thrive
in the absence of objective information. The squelching of all forms of individual
expression is certainly conducive to the fostering of WASP unanimity throughout the
country. These tacts and principles, however, are far from new.
What separates the Christian Rights agenda from iconoclasm practiced by religious
fanatics furing the Great Schism in which religious artwork was the major point of
contention? What sets the the artistic censorship wantonly practiced by the Right apart
form the stifling consorship practiced by the papacy with respect to Michaelangelo's
depiction of Christ behind the altar of the Sistine Chapel? We as a society must not
acquiesce to such cleverly dissembled cultural fascism. To do so would mean the sacrifice
of the arts at the hands of hypocrites and we as Americans would pay the ultimate price,
the price of our humanity, for meager economic gains and the installation of moral
posturing nationwide.