(Also published at The Agonist)
According to "art community consultant" Patrick Courrielche, who supports those Obama Joker posters, the NEA organized a recent conference call to assemble an army of artists who will maybe possibly (hopefully?) use their work to inspire service in key social arenas, such as health care and energy.... Now, it's not unusual for the government to use art in times of economic need. Long ago, the New Deal's Works Progress Administration set up the Federal Art Project, which had artists beautify the Depression-pocked landscape and remind them of essential needs, like good dental care. But the WPA and NEA are different beasts, and Courrielche worries that the NEA, which offers grants to artists and often drums up even more money for grantees, will use this initiative to pick and choose ideologically motivated artists.
Interesting, isn't it? An African-American moves into the White House...and now it's as if someone leaped to their feet and shouted, "Gentleman, start your conspiracy theories!!" Depending on who you listen to, Barack Obama hates America, has ties to terrorists, wants to kill your Grandma...I could go on, but you get the point, right? Not that the idea of conspiracy theories centered on the federal government are anything new, but most of the loons managed to keep their powder dry while George W. Bush was in office. 'Course, Dubya, being a wealthy White man, was "one of us", the sort of leader who could be seen as representing the interests of the White majority. Now that we have a President who's not White, some folks are beginning to see this as the gradual but inevitable erosion of their rightful place at the trough. Time was when White Folk were the unquestioned Masters of the Universe. Now things seem to perhaps be evolving in a different direction, and there are those out there who see threats everywhere. Enter Patrick Courrielche....
Seeing the National Endowment for the Arts as some sort of Liberal Trojan Horse is neither new nor particularly original, but Courrielche seems particularly willing to see bogeymen where none exist. Yes, the WPA used artists in a manner that might be defined as political, but the idea was to put people (not just artists) to work during the Depression. Art, by it's very nature, can be and often is political. That's true simply because it's a means of expression, in the same way that music and writing is. Art is merely the creation of whomever happens to be creating it. Artists are not some sort of mindless, reflexive left-wing propaganda army patiently waiting to do the bidding of Barack Obama, a President who despises the Constitution and desires to allow his Islamofascist overlords to enslave us all.
Art can, and should, be used to start conversations. Yes, if you want to use Nazi Germany, Communist China, or Fascist Italy as precedent, art can be used for propaganda purposes. Even if this was the NEA's nefarious ultimate goal, what about the reality that the previous Administration spent it's eight years in office engaging in all manner of egregious and barely camouflaged propaganda? The denizens of BushWorld spent eight years engaging in spin control and massaging information...and no one in the Mainstream Media said "Boo". NOW the idea of government engaging in propaganda or spin control...or however you choose to phrase it...is a problem? Ah, yes; it's only "propaganda" if you happen to disagree with the ideological viewpoint being advocated.
Courrielche and those who think like him won't admit this, of course, but it's hard not to see racism as the underlying force behind the myriad conspiracy theories. If Barack Obama was "one of us" (a Conservative White Republican), all would very likely be good. The reality, though, is that Obama is only half White (but looks African-American)...and therefore represents a threat to the established power structure that's historically protected the interests of the White majority.
Of course, if you see your world crumbling around you and you have nothing constructive to offer, lashing out relexively is probably all you have to work with. The sad thing is that folks like Courrielche have become so wrapped up in their conspiratorial delusions that they can't even recognize that not all that much has changed. Conservatives are still by an large setting the agenda, because the Obama Administration and their allies lack the cojones to advance their agenda. Perhaps engaging in their conspiracy theories is what help people like Patrick Courrielche feel relevant. How pitiful is that?
WE DESERVE BETTER.
