The Arts... Damage Assessment

Art In An Age Of Trump and Techbros

Interesting article in Variety the other day, “John Lithgow Says Donald Trump’s Second Term Is ‘Pure Disaster’ for Arts: ‘First There Was Coronavirus, Now There’s This’” by Alex Ritman. In it, Mr. Ritman reports on Lithgow’s response to Trump and his enablers virtual shutdown of art in this country–as evidenced most recently by the White House’s takeover of the Kennedy Center.

It is a fascinating article, and you have to agree with Mr. Lithgow. But you also have to understand the mindset of the current White House and the people who run it. For the businessmen, tech bros, engineers, and “poorly educated” MAGAheds, the demise of the arts is perfectly acceptable. Indeed, it is praiseworthy. For them, Art was something that college-educated, decadent, effete coastal dwellers did. It wasn’t something that Real Americans did. It didn’t increase shareholder value. It didn’t fix trucks and hammer nails. It didn’t code billion dollar applications. It was…suspect.

And so, in The New World Order, we may expect more of this. There will be less public art…or any sort of art…and more crudity. We will have a society built to reflect the aesthetic values of boors and billionaires.

Which is to say, none at all…