Jay Norlinger has an ugly and depressing compendium of artists imposing their politics on their audiences.
I have to confess that I, too, have thusly sinned (though I think in a much milder manner). At the Space Access Conference last March, prefatory to giving a brief talk on propellant depots (with a hundred-and-one-degree fever, though I’m not sure that’s an excuse or that I wouldn’t have done it at normal temp) I made a brief (and oblique — probably only a few got it) joke about Hillary “dodging sniper fire” in Bosnia, which had been in the news recently. It wasn’t at all in the same class as Nordlinger’s examples, but it was probably inappropriate. It was in no way germane to the topic of discussion, and I can see in retrospect how some Hillary! supporters in the audience could have been offended, if they got it. For that I apologize here.
I’m glad to live in a country in which these artists can engage in such boorish behavior, but I’m glad also that we live in one in which we can use our own free-speech rights to point it out (even in real time), with admonishments, boos, or even voting with our feet. If more did so, perhaps the phenomenon would at least be tamped down. It’s probably hopeless, though, when you live in New York, or Ann Arbor, in which these cretins feel safe in their cocoon to behave in this manner.
Update a few minutes later]
This seems related somehow — fighting back against the new Hollywood Blacklist. Andrew Breitbart explains what he’s trying to accomplish. Roger Simon has further thoughts.
I think the notion is if you don’t “get it” and accept the artist interpretation, then you are not suppose to enjoy their work. Isn’t that the argument made by a few artist that complained about McCain’s campaign using their work? So it only seems natural that they would feel entitled to voice their opinion at their exposition of their work.
You should feel uncomfortable and you should leave.
Alas I agree that it is great we have the same freedom to tell them our opinions as well. That is unless you complain about somebody like “The Dixie Chicks”, in which case your complaint is somehow denying their freedom of speech. Then again, it probably is less a particular person and more their viewpoint.
So it only seems natural that they would feel entitled to voice their opinion at their exposition of their work.
While I realize you’re being a little tongue in cheek, I don’t think that when a conductor gives a speech before a Puccini opera, that it is really “their work.”
For some reason, two Frank Zappa quotes come to mind:
“The rock and roll business is pretty absurd, but the world of serious music is much worse.”
“If your children ever find out how lame you really are, they’ll murder you in your sleep.”
Also, “shut up and play yer guitar.”
There is a huge, and growing, number of peoples music, TV shows, movies, products I avoid because of this kind of action.
I doubt that they know or care that I’m shunning them. But I know that George Clooney, or Mrs (Heinz) Kerry won’t be taking their profits from my money and donating it to causes I dislike or don’t believe in.
There is a huge, and growing, number of peoples music, TV shows, movies, products I avoid because of this kind of action.
What we’re describing here is much worse than simply celebrities taking stands on issues. It is doing so in the context of, or middle of, an actual performance (though this was actually the Dixie Chicks’ biggest sin). When you’re actually seated in the audience, it’s a lot harder to avoid it, and it detracts from the experience.
I have family in show business. One is a full-fledged libertarian conservative. One is center-rightish. Both have to hide their politics in order to keep working, because to the people they are hired by they’d be considered “fascists”. So when a co-worker asks them to come to an Obama rally, they beg off with child care constraints. Or when someone goes off on a rant about how the Bush Administration is made up of criminal masterminds that are too stupid for words, they say nothing.
I walked out of a Sheryl Crow concert and a Robert Cray concert because of what they were saying. I was infuriated by their arrogant assumption that because they were talented, their opinion was important to everyone else. I didn’t pay to listen to them rant, I paid to hear them sing. If the ticket had said I will engage in political discourse and you can’t respond, I wouldn’t have gone.
OMG! Rand is the reason Obama beat Hillary?!?!? Is there anything he can’t do(even unintentionally)?
“At the Space Access Conference last March, prefatory to giving a brief talk on propellant depots (with a hundred-and-one-degree fever, though I’m not sure that’s an excuse or that I wouldn’t have done it at normal temp)…”
I once gave a lecture in comparative planetary geology with a still developing hangover.
Once.
Thankfully, I enjoyed the presentation the least.
Conferences can be a mine field.