Word: nea
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...mostly, squeaking with Newtish zeal--buried it three weeks ago. These boys and girls aren't even cultural Neanderthals. They're Jurassic. On culture, the limbic forebrain can hold one sound bite at a time, courtesy of Rush Limbaugh or George Will. PBS? "Elitist welfare for the rich." The NEA? "State-subsidized porn." The NEH? "P.c. revisionist history." By a vote of 230 to 194, driven by a rump of dozens of junior members, the House voted to "zero out" all funding for the NEA by October 1997 and phase out the agency in two years...
...film. I realized at the time it didn't matter whether they had seen it. This was not a debate about the spiritual values of Last Temptation; this was a fight about who controls the culture. Last Temptation, like other cultural totems-flag burning, Robert Mapplethorpe, gun control, nea, abortion-had become a symbol of cultural hegemony...
People like pop culture -- that's what makes it popular. Movies drenched in sex and gore, gangsta rap, even outright pornography are not some sort of alien interstellar dust malevolently drifting down on us, but products actively sought out and beloved by millions. When fighting to abolish the NEA and other government support for the arts, conservatives are quick to condemn "cultural alitism" and exalt the majority tastes served by the marketplace. So how can they turn around and blame entertainment corporations for following the money and giving mass audiences what they want? Talk about alitism...
Ultimately, culture reflects society -- for a violent nation, violent amusements. But if Senator Dole and his fellow conservatives are serious about elevating American tastes, they'd do better to encourage greater variety in culture than to seek to homogenize it even further. Let them increase the NEA budget until it at least equals that for military bands. Let them restore to the public schools the art and music and performance programs that have been cut in the name of "getting back to basics." Let them support public radio and television -- or not complain when the kids watch Beavis and Butthead...
...Judgment Day or NEA installation art--it's Sheehan's, probably the only shop in Boston which advertises itself as "Your Bible Store...