More girly men!

Listening to my local NPR station is always a lesson in frustration, but Monday was a particular bitch! Michael Krasny, an irritating talk show host, continued his unbroken record of inviting the most tired of pacifists, and other should-be victims of Darwinism, to be guests on his radio show.

The theme of this show was art. One guest stated from his high horse that "Art was not art, unless its goal was social change." He belittled people who made "beautiful baubles." He and other know-it-all, elitist guests went on and on about Abu Ghraib and art. Iraq and art. War and art. War and war and war.

One wonders what these so-called artists would do if it were not for social inequality, oppression and their very favorite subject, war. They would have no inspiration at all. They are as engaged in their left wing propaganda machine as any Communist was during the era of Stalin, only they are not forced to it at gunpoint.

I remember something I read about Russia under the Tsars, being a great place for art. Of course those fabulous Russian artists were making beautiful baubles, during a time of great oppression. After the revolution art became an arm of government.

One of the guests, an art gallery owner, one of the few voices of rationality, said that the anti-war art pieces were "trendy." Another guest, a very gay Hispanic artist, who made an art piece of Arnold Schwarzenegger as a ballerina gave his very gay opinion of it all. He was inspired to do his piece, because Arnold called people "girly men." Then the artist said, lispingly, "If there were more girly men there would be less war." Alexander the Great might have disagreed.

My favorite art of all time was an installation piece. It was a shack in the middle of a room. When you went inside, it was like being in a depression era shack during a hard rain. It was beautifully executed, totally contained, alternate universe in the middle of a museum. I will never forget it. I have mentioned it to total strangers, who turned out to have seen it and were just as blown away by it.

The next radio show had robotics specialists, but they managed to get someone who wanted to make games that, you guessed it, engineered social change, by making young men less competitive and aggressive. I thought games were about competition in the first place.

I gotta stop listening to Public Radio!