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Re: politics

Author: allencole
Date: 2004-10-25 17:01

A very good subject here, Markus.

Celebrity politicking is something that most folks tend to applaud when they agree with what they're hearing and jeer when they disagree. As a viewer of the arts, I feel more receptive to the opinions of celebrities who are generous, accomplished and well-behaved in their personal lives. I also consider whether their political position differs from audience to audience or whether a performer might be trying to affect his or her popularity via the opinion expressed.

Here's an example that I respect. In 1938, Gene Autry walked off the lot at Republic Pictures in the midst of contract negotiations in which he was trying to get Republic to end a practice which he felt was unfair to theatre owners. His films provided the leverage with which the studio forced theatres to buy all of its products each season. I respect this. He faced the studio owners directly, and knew that this process could seriously damage his career. He was replaced in that movie by an unknown named Roy Rogers, who would go on to become an even bigger star. Fortunately, Autry returned to the movies and recouped his fame, and Rogers would prove to be a man of similar integrity in other areas.

Of course, this isn't truly an example of political expression and maybe that's why I really respect it. Autry was standing up for right and wrong in a practical way. The most politicially active celebrities that I see seem to feign a level of expertise that they don't really have, and attribute to the general public levels of ignorance that they don't really have. (Although it is probably a more ignorant segment that is receptive to celebrity political opinion <g>)

The second question has a lot of grey area, and not just in the arts. Nazi medical experiments provide one of the richest resources in the study of hypothermia, but I reall a tremendous controversy around 20 years ago as to whether that research should be used or destroyed. I don't know how it finally turned out.

I also recall that some ground was broken in Israel recently because someone had been allowed to perform Wagner. While I can understand some objections there to Wagner, I found it curious that Richard Strauss was not similarly banned there, despite his official role in the Nazi government.

In most of these things, it seems to me that it's just better to let the audience vote with its feet.

Allen Cole

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politics

Markus Wenninger

2004-10-25 12:27