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…

Again, Steve Bannon

Steve Bannon is, of course, no fan of Elon Musk, whom he understandably despises for taking the role he’d planned for himself, that is, all-powerful head-of-government to Trump’s largely symbolic position as head-of-state. Or, if you prefer a chess metaphor, magisterial Queen to his impotent King. 

Perhaps, then, it shouldn’t be a surprise that Bannon has equally little love for the tech company CEOs and other powerful men who make up Trump’s government. In a recent CNN interview, Bannon said that Musk and other tech “oligarchs” will abandon Trump and the MAGA movement as soon as they can profitably do so. 

It is intriguing that I disagree with Mr. Bannon on so very many things…but, now and then, I found myself admiring his political sagacity, for in this he is undoubtedly correct. The oligarchs will turn on MAGA at the first available opportunity. They are not even wolves in sheep’s clothing. They are simply wolves counting on the sheep to somehow pretend that they are shepherds.