Posted on 12/17/2010 7:49:03 AM PST by SeekAndFind
Despite the Left’s best efforts, conservative and American values are coming back into the culture.
After years of declaiming against the Left’s domination of our culture, I’m startled and delighted to discover that the tide is beginning to turn. My fellow conservatives should take note and lend a hand.
For the last three decades or so, the usual conservative approach to the arts has been threefold: We complain about what’s being produced; we fret about the influence it will have; then we give up with a shrug.
We complain because it seems to us the anti-American Left has made of the arts its private fiefdom. Moviemakers produce film after film decrying the anti-Communist blacklists of the ’50s, all the while blacklisting and slandering conservative filmmakers and their points of view. Critics give prizes and praise to second-rate leftist works — from dreadful tripe such as The Color Purple in the ’80s to the recent slew of soporific and dishonest anti–War on Terror propaganda flicks such as In The Valley of Elah and Green Zone — while ignoring or attacking works with which they disagree. Public funding is available to display desecrated crucifixes as “art,” while art that might be offensive to Muslims — such as the novel Jewel of Medina or the TV satire South Park — is censored with barely a murmur.
We fret because we fear that ignorant people — especially the young — will take leftist art as truth, essentially giving the Left the power to rewrite history and reality in the American mind. Perhaps the next generation will come to believe that Oliver Stone’s absurd but well-made JFK tells the true story of the president’s assasination or that American operatives and soldiers routinely committed the sorts of atrocities depicted in Rendition or Redacted. As former ambassador Joseph Wilson boasted about the contrafactual heroic impression given of him and his wife, Valerie Plame, in the new film Fair Game: “For people who have short memories or don’t read, this is the only way they will remember the period.”
Finally, we shrug and give up because the matter does not seem urgent. Leftist arts may poison people’s minds over time, but jihadists want to kill us right now. Oliver Stone and Michael Moore may make hypocritical millions attacking capitalism, but politicians are dismantling free markets as we speak. And even if the arts are urgent, most of us aren’t artists or critics, so what can we do?
The complain-fret-shrug approach has become so habitual among conservatives that it blinds us to the astonishing change that’s been taking place. Despite the Left’s best efforts, conservative and American values are actually coming back into the culture.
We should ease off on the complaining. For the last few years, movies promoting the Western ideals of self-reliance, morality, and faith have scored at the box office — see The Incredibles (“If everyone is special, that means no one is”), The Blind Side (“Who would have thought we’d have a black son before we knew a Democrat?”), and Toy Story 3 (a takedown of the nanny state). They have also been more innovative and creative — 300, Gran Torino, No Country for Old Men — than the products of the desiccated and outmoded Left. Our best novelist (Tom Wolfe) and two greatest English-speaking playwrights (Tom Stoppard and David Mamet) are now all open about their political conservatism. And new top-notch mainstream TV shows (Justified, Blue Bloods) have arrived to offset the lefty Law and Order and Jon Stewart.
Equally important, an alternative critical infrastructure is starting to grow up in support of conservative culture. John Nolte at Andrew Breitbart’s Big Hollywood website has repeatedly put leftist Hollywood on the defensive by exposing their bias. And even as other newspapers shorten or delete their serious culture pages, the center-right Wall Street Journal has expanded its coverage with an excellent Saturday Review section.
We should stop fretting about the consequences of lefty art, too. The arts, to paraphrase Shakespeare, are the “abstract and brief chronicles of the time.” The conservative shift in their tone shows that the American consciousness has begun to digest the lessons of 9/11: that the Left’s relativistic multiculturalism is a lie; that freedom is better than slavery; and that therefore those systems that support freedom — constitutional democracy, capitalism, and enlightened religion — are better than those that don’t.
Lastly, we should not shrug and give up, because there’s a lot we can do to support and encourage this nascent phenomenon. A conservative community that has set up think tanks to consider governance, law, and economics needs to give thought and support to the culture, as well. Grants, conferences, and awards for artists who know the value of faith, morality, and liberty could counter the present cultural support system that helps almost exclusively the illiberal Left. And rather than allowing the monotonously left-wing PBS and NPR to monopolize highbrow cultural discussion, conservatives need to establish their own outlets to reclaim the elite and intellectual audience the way Fox News has reclaimed the rank and file.
Most of all, the ordinary consumer of culture needs to remember that word-of-mouth for good works that have been ignored or unfairly attacked by lefty critics can provide a powerful and effective counterbalance.
The fight for the culture may not always seem urgent, but it truly is. Arguments are won and lost in hearts and minds long before they’re ever decided at the polls. The arts not only reflect the conscience of the hour, they also shape the conscience of the age.
— Andrew Klavan’s latest novel is The Identity Man.
Most of the time we can make a clear and significant point. Withholding dollars IS withholding approval and vice versa!!
If the economy continues as it is (and nothing suggests a quick fix) our dollars will speak even more loudly.
This kind of cultural dissidence should be routine for Conservatives. In America, there is a long laundry list of people, products, politicians, programming, etc. whose continued financial ‘well being’ may be directly, immediately and permanently diminished by this kind of Conservative cultural ‘expression’.
Don’t count on it. As more and more lives are broken, they pass their misery on to the next generation. The insanity is only going to increase as time goes on. The banality, the hatred, and the ugliness will be reflected in everything. As we stand, almost nothing good remains in our culture.
The only thing that can stop the trend is a rapid and total annihilation of the leftist plague.
.....artisan or an artist.....
Both. The artist part is hard. The artisan part has been learned.
Creativity and design from the thin air is for me difficult
Defund public art, which shouldn’t be paid for by taxpayer largess anyway, and a lot of the offensive garbage dries up.
You are absolutely correct women are very influential to their homes and to society in general. We see many examples of this in the bible. Women need stand up to the wrong they see in society. We must educate younger women to truth.
You are absolutely correct women are very influential to their homes and to society in general. We see many examples of this in the bible. Women need stand up to the wrong they see in society. We must educate younger women to truth.
The most significant thing Klavan says is what he doesn't say. And that is, taxpayers shouldn't foot the bill for the advancement of the arts whether they be Conservative or Anti-American in nature.
Anyone attempting to create classical-style art would be arrested on child porn charges (for depicting the Cherubs) or “hate crime” (for depicting Christianity in public).
Anyone putting a crucifix in a bottle of urine or making a collage out of freshly murdered infants will be hailed as a hero and a visionary.
This is the wave of the future: darkness, cruelty, murder, theft, ugliness, ignorance, and spite
Art cannot stop the wave. The things who make up half the population are not human beings. They are a humanoid viral agent who exist only to consume and destroy. The worst part is that they are capable of breeding humans. The only force that can stop these vermin is death not love.
Certainly some examples of artistic expression (in which I include literature, music, visual arts, etc.) are far more politicized than others, but IMHO, they can never be made completely apolitical. In as much as a person's politics, like their religious beliefs, are an expression of their weltanschauung, so too will an (effective) artist's belief system be reflected to some degree in their oeuvre.
It is one thing to settle for less than you deserve FOR YOURSELF... but to voluntarily choose less than the best for your child is selfish and unpardonable. If this means waiting to have a family UNTIL you can support one, then THAT is what you do. That alone would be a step in the right direction.
I am sure I will be attacked here for that statement.
Unfortunately, my crusade has fallen mostly on deaf ears. And I have heard conservative talk show hots defend not using dollar power to take back the culture by saying that if they did, then they could never listen to music or go to the movies. Duh.
With the left dominating music and film, throwing our own money at them to help bury us and our beliefs seems like exactly the wrong thing to do. If conservatives are not willing to discomfort themselves in small ways (foregoing some music and films), they surely will not fight in big ways.
Who knew it Toy Story 3 was about taking down the nanny state. I thought it was about a bunch of toys on another adventure!
Also, we grew up on books and right now I would choose a good book over ANY film.
Children, we know full well, are GREATLY influenced by example. (Don't believe it? Just look at all the negative stuff they pick up WAY too easily from TV-They could pick up POSITIVE stuff just as easily, if it is presented to them). So, if your home example is TV 24/7, then THAT is what the children will demand... and just TRY withholding it from them!!
There are all sorts of ways around subsidizing BS Liberal musicians, actors, Hollywood producers, MSM, etc.
NO ONE has a gun to your head forcing you to ‘consume’ this stuff. NO ONE!!!!
Last movie I saw was ‘Patton’. Have done well without supporting the pit for societies’ low life wrapped in glitter. I have friends that constantly tell me of the great movies they have been watching and yet I can’t detect a bit of enhancement in their lives by making millionaires out of people who enjoy the sleezy world of ‘me’. .
Last movie I saw was ‘Patton’. Have done well without supporting the pit for societies’ low life wrapped in glitter. I have friends that constantly tell me of the great movies they have been watching and yet I can’t detect a bit of enhancement in their lives by making millionaires out of people who enjoy the sleezy world of ‘me’. .
RE: Your response is emblamatic of the ignorance and philistinism that characterize the conservative movement, and part of the reason that the left has total control of arts and culture.
Surely you are not suggesting that government should continue funding the arts are you ?
My response was to suggest that PRIVATE and WEALTHY patrons or citizens who appreciate use their money to fund the arts they appreciate. Read Post #10 again.
That's true for any culture, at any time.
I usually dont go out, I wait until I can get the DVD or blu ray. I just got Inception and I really liked it. I also think they did a good job with Friday Night Lights. And Black Hawk Down is probably the best war movie since before Vietnam. It has some great lines, but at the end, one of the main characters says when he goes home, people ask “why do you do it? You think you’re some kind of hero?” and he doesnt tell them anything, because they can never understand. Its about the men. That is one of the most powerful moments in cinema in my opinion.
Also, I like to get comedies that werent blockbusters like Lone Star State of Mind or Outside Providence because they tend to have better jokes, not just “dude, I go laid” crap. But, for the most part, you probably havent missed much. Im 26 and I enjoy Airplane!, Blazing Saddles, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, The Sting, and The Magnificent Seven much more than modern shows. They just had deeper stories back then.
My son has starved in New York city for years, but now I think that he is on the verge of making it, he has done a show in Miami, and has something regular going on there, and currently is appearing in a documentary on artists, and the articles and interviews in his home of New York city are getting more frequent and closer together.
I am proud of him, proud of his Art degree from Cooper Union, and I am most proud, (although I dare not tell him), that he succumbed to my pressure to pull a hitch in the Army (it is still my private victory that he was combat arms in the 10th Mountain).
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