August 26, 2009 7:08 PM
National Endowment for the Arts pushing Obama agenda with tax dollars
All I can say is thank God the National Endowment for the Arts invited Patrick Courrielche to participate in its recent conference call directed at "a group of rising artist and art community luminaries 'to help lay a new foundation for growth, focusing on core areas of the recovery agenda - health care, energy and environment, safety and security, education, community renewal.'"
Because if Patrick hadn't been in on that call, we might never have learned of this new and chilling new strategy of the Obama administration to use this publicly-funded organization to create publicly-funded propaganda to advance its own agenda.
Unbelievable! In a piece at Big Hollywood titled The National Endowment for the Art of Persuasion, Patrick writes:
The NEA is the nation's largest annual funder of the arts. That is right, the largest funder of the arts in the nation - a fact that I'm sure was not lost on those that were on the call, including myself. One of the NEA's major functions is providing grants to artists and arts organizations. The NEA has also historically shown the ability to attract "matching funds" for the art projects and foundations that they select. So we have the nation's largest arts funder, which is a federal agency staffed by the administration, with those that they potentially fund together on a conference call discussing taking action on issues under vigorous national debate. Does there appear to be any potential for conflict here?
Discussed throughout the conference call was a hope that this group would be one that would carry on past the United We Serve campaign to support the President's initiatives and those issues for which the group was passionate. The making of a machine appeared to be in its infancy, initiated by the NEA, to corral artists to address specific issues. This function was not the original intention for creating the National Endowment for the Arts.
A machine that the NEA helped to create could potentially be wielded by the state to push policy. Through providing guidelines to the art community on what topics to discuss and providing them a step-by-step instruction to apply their art form to these issues, the "nation's largest annual funder of the arts" is attempting to direct imagery, songs, films, and literature that could create the illusion of a national consensus. This is what Noam Chomsky calls "manufacturing consent."
Now, if you are for the issues being pursued by the current administration, you may be inclined to think favorably of what I am labeling "overreach." What a powerful weapon to fight those that are opposed to our ideas, you may think. For those in this camp I ask you this - will you feel the same when the opposition has access to the same machine? If history is any indication, the pendulum swings both ways. Is persuasion what the originators envisioned when they brought the legislation that created the NEA to the floor of Congress?
This clip is from the middle of the piece. You will want to read the entire piece at Big Hollywood.
Thank you, Patrick, for speaking the truth!
Posted in Obama Nation | Permalink
Comments
Thank God there are artists in this country who have the freedom to express their feelings, including those to bring this country together rather than divide like the right wingnuts in this country have done. I say BRAVO to the National Endowment for the Arts for supporting President Obama and his plan to move this country forward away from the bitter and destructive policies of the past. This is why we elected him -- by a large majority. YES we can.
[All artists have the freedom to express their feelings, but when the government pushes and pays for it - because NEA uses our tax dollars to fund art projects - it's called propaganda - the same as it is in countries like Russia and Germany and Venezuela.]
Posted by: Mother of Two | September 8, 2009 10:19 PM
And by the way, all Americans should be supporting the President of the United States. That's what we do in this country.
Shame on you.
[We would be fools to support someone who was leading us down a destructive path. When you say "That's what we do in this country," does that mean you supported Bush as much as you support Obama? Shame on who?]
Posted by: Mother of Two | September 8, 2009 10:36 PM
