Yesterday the whole family went to the St. Louis Art Museum with friends from church. We had an elegant brunch and then enjoyed the beauty of the objects d’art. Paintings, weavings, sculptures, sarcofogi, furniture, and other assorted brick a brack from earlier era’s were all quite beautiful. Then we heaved ourselves up to the modern art section on the third floor. My daughter kept asking me, “Why is this art?” I had no answer other than I didn’t consider it art, even though it was in an Art Museum. Many of the pieces were untitled – cut up golden torsos strewn about the floor; a wood cabinet filled with concrete; eight small nails connected by thin wire; an enormous burned canvas; a huge framework containing trashcans smashed flat and filled with broken glass, and broken glass on the floor in front; paintings of vague shapes that perhaps were meant to be people. It was a phantasmagoria of whatever: no talent, no beauty, no truth, no vision, no connection. Ty and Amy Wynn make more artwork on a single episode of Trading Spaces than was contained in the entire section devoted to Modern and 20th Century art at the Museum. How embarrassing for the artists of today. What a sad epilogue for the proud artistic traditon of Western Civilization. I can only speak for myself, but if that is a representative sample of what passes for Art these days, then modern art is completely bankrupt, a fraud, an insult to humanity, a desecration of the memory of all the artists who labored in the past to enrich civilization with their art and added to our rich artistic heritage. Tell me again why my tax dollars are subsidizing this nonsense.
Archive for category Culture
Why Is This Art?
May 5
Violent Television
Mar 11
I still remember the Monty Python skit where the middle aged wifed joked “I’m against all this sex on the television – it hurts my back too much.” Well, violence on the TV is no laughing matter. Researchers claim that watching violent TV as a child leads to more aggressive behavior in adults. I have to say I’m always skeptical of studies like this, but at least when they start talking about people being twice as likely to commit aggressive acts they pass the significance threshold.
Anti-American?
Feb 19
Are the anti-war protests a sign of anti-Americanism? I think far more non-Americans are motivated by anti-Americanism than Americans are. I think there is a fringe, but a fringe only, of anti-war people in this country who are reflexively anti-American, who think the biggest problem in the world is American and who pretty much think America is always wrong and the root of all evil. Many, if not most, of those who are anti-war here aren’t anti-American but anti-Republican. For them, the problem is that a Republican president wants to go to war. I’ve had several anti-war people tell me that if Clinton or Gore were President, they would have no problem with war against Iraq. They trust them, but they don’t trust Bush. And I think you can see that in the different reactions to Clinton’s wars than Bush’s wars. They were for Clinton’s wars, even when they didn’t involve the UN or the US Congress; they didn’t mind the use of ultimatum over diplomacy; they didn’t mind civilian casualties, open ended commitments, nor the possibility of quagmires; in short they didn’t demand the same things of Clinton they demand of Bush. And to be fair, there are people who would be far more wary of war with Iraq, if not against it altogether, if Clinton or Gore were President than they are with Bush as President.
Of course, there are plenty of people who are just anti-war period, and it doesn’t matter who the President would be. And there are people who have good reasons to reject not any war but this war with Iraq, no matter who the President is. So clearly, for Americans to be against war with Iraq isn’t necessarily, nor even likely, to be anti-American.
Dissent
Feb 19
I’m all for letting your views be known – whether through weblogs, letters to the editor, (my personal favorite) buttonholing strangers at parties, or the old standby of protest rallies/marches. My third post on this blog, way back on October 3 of last year, said things like “I have to respect people who want to peaceably assemble to make a political statement” and “I bring this up just because this is America, and the two events [protest rally and Leukemia walk] were different expressions of civic mindedness American style, part of the warp and woof of community. In different ways, they are why I love this country.” I draw the line at protests that aim to disrupt the lives of people who have nothing to do with the thing being protested against – such as protestors against a war shutting down a highway.
Dissent is as American as apple pie, and equally heroic in this country. There are generally no real costs to dissent in this country, unlike many other countries. You and your family can be imprisoned, tortured, murdered even in countries like Cuba or Iraq if you dissent. You can stand in front of the White House and express your opinion that Bush is another Hitler all you want, and nothing will happen to you, except perhaps other people will express their opinion of you. And frankly, isn’t it their right to voice their opinion of you, as it is your right to voice your opinion or whomever or whatever? If someone says they think you are an idiot, you are not being repressed, you are not being silenced. There is no bravery in dissent in this country, no extra worth in dissenting views. Sure, the majority isn’t always right, but then neither is the minority.
So by all means, speak your piece, march, rally, but do so in peaceable, law abiding way. And if you want to persuade me to your cause, please try to reason with me, reach out and show your interested in my good opinion; If you want to harden my opinion against you, then by all means shout slogans, disregard and disrespect me, and generally act out your feelings of moral superiority.
The American Psychological Association reports that college students have far more mental health problems than 11 years ago. How can this be? Every child is wanted now, so shouldn’t their mental well being be getting better? Or perhaps this excerpt provides a clue:
“This comes at a time when students are finding fewer options for counseling and mental health care in the community, leaving the role of providing care primarily in the hands of university counseling center staff, according to the researchers.”
Could it be shrinks are trying to drum up business? Or could it be with less stigma, people are more willing to turn to mental health professionals? Chronic mental illness didn’t change over the period studied, thankfully.
Via Science Blog.
Rabbidity
Jan 21
I spent some time at the end of last week over at Eschaton engaged in discussion about Affirmative Action. I found it interesting that by taking the position that judging people by race or ethnicity was wrong, I was told I might (giving me the benefit of the doubt) be a racist; others didn’t give the benefit and said anyone who said anything along the lines that either you shouldn’t discriminate or that we live in a colorblind society or just bringing up the word quota is racist. The interesting thing was, nobody said we DO live in a colorblind society; a few said we OUGHT to live in a colorblind society. Anyway, rabid partisans are rabid partisans whether they are on the left, right, center, or uncategorizable. They’re always right and those whom they oppose are always wrong. They divide people into two categories – allies and enemies. Allies are always right, enemies are always wrong. Anything an enemy does is another example of why they aren’t just wrong, they’re evil. They don’t need to listen or try to understand; attack, attack attack is all that is needed. As I said, rabid partisans exist all across the political spectrum (and always have). Bush haters, meet Clinton haters.
SUV – That Says It All
Jan 15
I’m not someone who either drives an SUV or hates them. My wife drives a mini-van, and I drive an econo-box. We looked at SUVs when we bought the mini-van, and they were just too expensive, more expensive than the mini-van. Greg Easterbrook has an article based on a book about what’s wrong with SUVs (found via Archpundit). I knew they gobbled gas, but I didn’t know that they really weren’t that safe. I also was vaguely aware that by being classified as trucks, they escaped a lot of regulations that cars were under. The article details a lot of those exemptions. In the end, I’m struck by how we have two lines of vehicles – those highly regulated as passenger vehicles (cars, mini-vans), and those somewhat less regulated as trucks (SUVs). I suppose what really galls the anti-SUV crowd is how many people pick the less good for you SUVs despite the high price and the faults required to be legally considered a truck. If people want to overpay for a hunk of junk, what’s it to me? Why are some of the people up in arms about a supposed loss of civil rights due to the war on terror so bound and determined to tell me what my automobile has to be like; why do those who resent any intrusion in the bedroom welcome it in the drivers seat? I know, I know, it’s for my own good.
Disappointed By The Truth?
Jan 14
A DNA test confirmed that the man convicted of the crime was in fact guilty of it, and the project innocence lawyer said the test result was disappointing. Why would you be disappointed? Shouldn’t you be happy that the legal system got the right guy? It’s not like there was a question of whether a crime occured or not; the question was who did it. Maybe she was disappointed in Mr. Charron, the rapist. Well, me too.
20 Year Reunion
Dec 16
My 20 year college reunion was this year. I was too busy (and too cheap) to go. The organizers were kind enough to send me for free the reunion book wherein each class member got a page to tell of their post-Stanford life. I was too busy to write. You were only supposed to get the book for free if you contributed. I’ve been too busy to do more than glance through it and try to look up a few people. That’s the difference five years makes in your life – five years ago I both contributed to the book and read it cover to cover. Now, the Fruit of the Murphy Loins are five years older (I feel only about six months older) and that makes all the difference. Free time? That’s the moment between when I collapse in a mindless heap having finished all that I can do at the end of the day and when I drag myself off to bed to be ready to start the process over the next day. Getting up in the morning represents the triumph of hope over experience. The contributors to the 15 year reunion book fell into two broad categories with two exceptions – those who were bragging about how wonderful their lives were, those who were relating how awful life had turned out, and the exceptions were Steve Minsuk and I. Besides me, there wasn’t any middle ground. And Steve Minsuk, in a case of family name foreshadowing, is now Sharon. And the really weird thing is I knew him – we had Freshman English class together.
A couple of things struck me about the contributors to the 20 year reunion book. One is that my children are older than the great majority, which is weird because I’m a year or two younger than my classmates, and I got a late start with women. Oh, there were a few, like the Frykmans, who married right after college and so got a head start on kids. But most of us waited to get married, and then waited to have children. My first first Fruit ripened when I was 29. My classmates seemingly waited even longer. The other thing that struck me is how many of my female classmates chucked successful careers to stay home with their children. I’m taking about smart, ambitious women who grew up hearing that staying at home was a dead end, who went to an elite university, who had high paying, powerful jobs. And then they had children, and after much agonizing, they decided they’d rather work in their home than at the office. Page after page of how “I used to be a partner at ___, but now I’m happier staying home with the kids.” Don’t get me wrong, there are still plenty of my female classmates kicking butt in the career department; I’m just surprised by how many prefer to wipe butt than kick it.
Why I’m Not A Feminist
Dec 16
As I’ve grown older, I’ve changed my mind about many subjects. Generally, as a callow youth I accepted the prevailing theories only to discard them when over time I was confronted with experience that contradicted them. When I started college, I considered myself a Feminist. Women, who were the exact same as men, were unfairly not being accorded all the rights and respect that they should. Organized Feminism was the answer. My Sophomore year, that changed.
I attended a lecture by Catherine McKinnon and Andrea Dworkin with a couple of female Feminist friends. It was made abundantly clear that I, by being a man, was the problem. Male sexuality was pretty much the root of all evil. Let me say that when sometime later I heard that the two women were lesbian lovers, I was not surprised. Afterwards, when the two Feminists were enthusiastic about the lecture, that ended my days as a Feminist. I clearly had the wrong equipment for the team. Feminism as a fetish has gone on to ever increasing heights of loopiness.
Even though I got off the big F bus, I still consider myself a small f feminist. By that I mean that women are equals, but not identical, and should be treated legally and socially as such. Women should be able to chose what they want to do with their lives. But all that nonsense about the patriarchy and abortion being the most important civil right and women are still second class citizens and pretty much all of Organized Feminism and Academic Feminism — bleah. Let’s face it, feminism won some time ago and it’s time to disband the armies of Feminism. The cures that Feminism now demands are worse than the mild and/or imaginary ills they combat.
