Why Artists Should Rule The World
So we’re nearly at the finish line. The policies have been analysed to death, so much so that in these final End Of Days the only thing left that will sway the floating voter is sheer force of personality.
Now don't ask me to predict who will win on Tuesday. Originally I figured Hillary Clinton for president, but that was based purely on logical economic policies, and clearly I overestimated the American population (either that or I am the harbinger of doom) as the poor woman was kicked out shortly afterwards.
Now it seems clear that most floating sheep, sorry I mean undecided US voters, will vote on personality alone. Obama has operated a very slick marketing campaign, so I’m guessing that he will emerge the winner, especially since there are an alarmingly large number of blogs out there who are hailing him as The Next Messiah, the man who will save the world because he is "a man of resplendid vision with the wisdom of Solomon." Some impressively zealous religious admirers are even able to quote relevant parts of the bible as proof that Obama is indeed the second coming of Christ. As we often like to say here in the U.K…only in America…
So if you’re throwing common sense out of the window, who would you vote for?
Well, my dear late mother, had she still been alive and living in America, would have been a dead cert for McCain. Why? Because his favourite musician is Roy Orbison, so of course he is therefore by definition PERFECT because my mother worshipped dear Roy as devotedly as if it was he who would save the world from certain destruction.
As for me, I’d probably vote Obama (despite the fact that he has a few vaguely alarming hints towards totalitarian policies) simply because a) he’d make an excellent male art nude model and b) any man who lists his favourite musician as Miles Davis can’t be all bad and at least shows some degree of taste. But more than this, Obama also lists his main source of personal inspiration as none other than Pablo Picasso. I’m guessing this is not because of Picasso’s infamous womanizing, but rather because of his enlightened philosophies, not to mention his art.
If Obama has artistic leanings, then maybe all is not lost. Picasso represented a dynamic, radical new vision of the world, and let’s face it, we could all do with a new creative vision around about now. Let’s just hope he doesn’t follow our dear Pablo’s famous mantra of “every act of creation is first an act of destruction” hmm?
So if he does emerge victorious this week, it will be interesting to see what Barack does with his shiny new toy called America. Let’s hope he uses his creative vision to create a new and better world.
“I see little of more importance to the future of our country and of civilization than full recognition of the place of the artist. If art is to nourish the roots of our culture, society must set the artist free to follow his vision wherever it takes him.”
John F. Kennedy
Iveta
Now don't ask me to predict who will win on Tuesday. Originally I figured Hillary Clinton for president, but that was based purely on logical economic policies, and clearly I overestimated the American population (either that or I am the harbinger of doom) as the poor woman was kicked out shortly afterwards.
Now it seems clear that most floating sheep, sorry I mean undecided US voters, will vote on personality alone. Obama has operated a very slick marketing campaign, so I’m guessing that he will emerge the winner, especially since there are an alarmingly large number of blogs out there who are hailing him as The Next Messiah, the man who will save the world because he is "a man of resplendid vision with the wisdom of Solomon." Some impressively zealous religious admirers are even able to quote relevant parts of the bible as proof that Obama is indeed the second coming of Christ. As we often like to say here in the U.K…only in America…
So if you’re throwing common sense out of the window, who would you vote for?
Well, my dear late mother, had she still been alive and living in America, would have been a dead cert for McCain. Why? Because his favourite musician is Roy Orbison, so of course he is therefore by definition PERFECT because my mother worshipped dear Roy as devotedly as if it was he who would save the world from certain destruction.
As for me, I’d probably vote Obama (despite the fact that he has a few vaguely alarming hints towards totalitarian policies) simply because a) he’d make an excellent male art nude model and b) any man who lists his favourite musician as Miles Davis can’t be all bad and at least shows some degree of taste. But more than this, Obama also lists his main source of personal inspiration as none other than Pablo Picasso. I’m guessing this is not because of Picasso’s infamous womanizing, but rather because of his enlightened philosophies, not to mention his art.
If Obama has artistic leanings, then maybe all is not lost. Picasso represented a dynamic, radical new vision of the world, and let’s face it, we could all do with a new creative vision around about now. Let’s just hope he doesn’t follow our dear Pablo’s famous mantra of “every act of creation is first an act of destruction” hmm?
So if he does emerge victorious this week, it will be interesting to see what Barack does with his shiny new toy called America. Let’s hope he uses his creative vision to create a new and better world.
“I see little of more importance to the future of our country and of civilization than full recognition of the place of the artist. If art is to nourish the roots of our culture, society must set the artist free to follow his vision wherever it takes him.”
John F. Kennedy
Iveta
posted by Lin at 3:46 PM
23 Comments:
I can't say I see Obama as The Messiah, no human is perfect, but for me he is The Great White Hope (James Earl Jones's incredible film). The racist, divisive campaign run by McCain is just unacceptable, and Obama presents an international persona, a man of charisma, who will represent us well to the world (for a change). And, Lin, I do like his policies. Can you imagine being taxed for your employer's contribution to your health insurance? Of course you can't, because such a goofy idea would not be possible at all in Merry Olde England where health care is available to all.
I guess I am on the inside looking out, and you are on the outside looking in. The view must be different. Obama did run a successful campaign, but that's not why I am voting for him.
I agree the love of art is a component in someone's character, but I can't get out of my mind that Hitler was a frustrated artist. He actually decreed a state artistic style to express his ideology. Ugh.
Can you imagine being taxed for your employer's contribution to your health insurance?
Actually private health insurance is very popular in the U.K. (the NHS is no substitute for private, sad to say) and yes we're taxed on our employer's contributions. If you are a higher rate taxpayer, then you're taxed at 40%. Ouch! I even get taxed on using my office computer at home...
I'm sorry. I had no idea. That's terrible, and I don't want it to happen here.
I know you were writing tongue in cheek. I apparently have lost my sense of humor at the moment.
My biggest concerns right now regard fairness at the polling places and reliability of our various types of voting machines across the country. I just heard on CNN that the Republican authorities in a part of Ohio leaning toward Obama have declined to extend poll hours so all Democrats will be able to vote. Ohio was the source of a great deal of voting irregularity in the last presidential election, and this is one of my fears about Tuesday.
In some states, legitimate black voters have been turned away in the last two presidential elections.
Obama will win if everyone who wants to vote for him can get their vote. That didn't happen for Al Gore in Florida.
Lin, some of the voter rights issues that concern me are revealed in Jeffrey Toobin's "Too Close to Call," about what happened to Al Gore in Florida in 2000. Several books have been written about that fiasco, but Toobin's is the most objective and reflects the most extensive journalistic research.
I guess that's why Obama has waged such a grand marketing campaign--he needs a landslide to offset these "irregularities" in U.S. voting. Al Gore cut it too close.
I'm sorry. I didn't mean to offend you, Dr L.
For the record, I do hope justice prevails, and the voting is fair, and where it is not, it is at least legally challenged.
Some of what we are seeing reported seems rather incredible to us. I've just been watching a report on our main evening news of a rapture-style meeting with loads of people yelling "we believe!"
I think this is an example of the UK vs US culture clash. Either that or our media is biased, which I will admit is highly likely. (Currently it's biased towards the Democrats.)
I guess much of our own behaviour must seem pretty darn weird to you too at times.
Roll on our own general election. Then you get to look at our fishbowl instead.
DR. L, a case could be made that employer provided health insurance is another form of payroll and should be taxed as such. Some companies do not provide it at all which pretty much says that is is a voluntary (not government mandated) form of compensation. I had it for years and would not have been surprised, or offended, if it was taxed - as are certain other forms of employer paid insurance. It is not a right.
OTOH Hitler was also an artist.
YMMV.
As for this floating sheep, I can't abide any of them, but if I do vote for President (haven't decided yet, makes no difference because Obama is mathematically certain to carry my state and it's all-or-nothing electoral vote total) it will be for Obama because Sarah Palin fills me with such disgust and loathing that I'd be a bootblack in Obama's White House before I'd have her as President.
M
I think we can all agree that America owes the world an apology for the last eight years.
Oh god no!!! Another election decided by Scalia, what are you thinking girl! I know the machination of our election system must seem odd in another country. But it’s a good sign that our system works even if it seems loaded against Obama. The Republican have had their way with redistricting map till it’s out of kilter. That means they redrew the map of every district in the country so they favor the incumbents. Of course the Democrats do the same thing when their in power but it’s been especially egregious under the current rule. Even in spite of the redrawn map Obama has a chance to win, we’ll see. The only real winner’s are the lawyers natch who will flood the courts with their challenges unless Obama can win big. I disagree with your view that it’s personalities that will rule; we have a chance to rethink how we view the world and all it’s problems. The old ways vs the new way of seeing the world and our place in it. We are obviously part of the problems considering the economic collapse that our greed engendered. Ditto for our view that your either with us or against us mentality that hasn’t worked out so well. It’s time we got back to an even keel and addressed the very real problems that confront us. Just my opinion.
Umm, I just like Richard's photo of Iveta.
Thanks, Lin. Nice to read a viewpoint from outside our little madhouse.
Tuesday night will be either over very quickly, ... or not. I hope you will go to bed and wake up to learn the news.
I'm personally confident. I hope not in vain.
I'm heading for Canada in the morning. We're all sick of this campaign and anyone who hasn't made up their mind at this point is too stupid to be allowed a vote!
The length of these campaigns is way too long, there still based on the days of telegraphs and trains. It doesn't take that long to make your point now a days.
A discussion of McCain's healthcare plan comes a bit late, with the election tomorrow, but it's about more than taxing employer benefits.
McCain proposes a privatization plan. Currently, employers receive a tax credit for offering employee health insurance. McCain wants to eliminate that credit so employers would stop offering health insurance and people would have to buy their own.
This would actually lead to more people losing their health insurance. He proposes to offset loss of employer benefits with a tax credit for buying your own private health insurance. The tax credit would be given only to those who could afford to buy higher-priced private insurance. If you can't afford to do that, you don't get any tax credit or any insurance. Millions more Americans would be without health insurance.
I saw how it worked with privatization of Medicare when I was overseeing my husband's care in a nursing home. It was a mess and ended up costing us beyond what we had previously paid, and what we got was crappy "private plan" coverage. We lost the employer-subsidized retirement insurance he previously had that gave good coverage.
Not everyone knows that a bill passed in Congress under George W that eliminated the Age Discrimination Act. That relieved employers from having to provide equal health insurance coverage to their retirees and opened the door for privatization of Medicare. So continuation of employer health insurance once was considered a right for the elderly.
This reveals a problem with U.S. elections. McCain/Palin were too busy with their race war to explain or be asked the details of their health insurance tax credit proposal.
Michael, I was a teenage volunteer for JFK when he ran for president in 1960, so I grew up with the notion of a president having charisma and personality. I met him during that summer, and he was a god to me. When he was cut down in Dallas, something died in me...my youthful idealism. So these are my old fears surfacing from a decade of shocks--JFK, Martin Luther King, Bobby. It was also the time of the Civil Rights Movement, the Women's Movement, and the Peace Movement, so I guess I also have an activist response to politics. My generation believed in making the world a better place by speaking out and not sitting on our butts.
Obama has energized our youth. It's about time.
It's fascinating to read all of this. The view from the U.K. is pretty interesting. You all must find us very amusing at times. I wish I were able to step outside and gain some objectivity. Without getting involved in all of the minute details, for me, the philosophical differences between the two candidates makes this a simple choice. I am left leaning. The older I get the further to the left I seem to lean. Nobody wants to be taxed, but taxes are the price we pay for living in a presumably civilized society. We want our children to be educated and we want police and fire protection and health care and roads and on and on. It's not free. What bothers me the most is how much money has been wasted on this insane war. Obama is no Messiah. Should he win he's got a tough job ahead, but hopefully he will get the country pointed in the right direction. Hopefully he will take us out of the dark ages of the past eight years.
Bob:
I decline to apologize for something I had nothing to do with.
Dr. L:
You probably know this, but the reason the U.S. has a system where so many employers provide health insurance was that it was a way to get around wage freezes instituted during WWII. Benefits weren't frozen, so the idea of health insurance you didn't have to pay for was a legal and highly attractive way to get workers in high demand to work for you.
Since from the very beginning it was a non-monetary compensation program, as opposed to a social program, it is perfectly logical for the employer's contribution to be taxed as income. It's compensation for services rendered.
M
I have to admit that I consider art an oasis from the 'real' world but no artist lives in a vacuum. We have to poke our heads out of the sand on occasion and look around us.
Neither candidate is my 'Messiah' but I was offended when Palin was announced as the VP choice. It was completely based on marketing, not on the best for the country should the prez pass on.
If 'Messiah' get elected, at least there will be a wave of optimism that will sweep this country for a time. That, in and of itself, is welcome after the last eight years.
I'm expecting the winner to be decided in a US court in about 3 weeks time, or when the more patriotic candidate steps down for the good of the country, as it was with Bush/Gore.
OK. I got over my head on the healthcare issue, so I asked for an explanation from Prof. Max Skidmore, author of SECURING AMERICA'S FUTURE. This is what he had to say:
McCain's plan? All reputable health economists agree it would be a disaster. He would tax health benefits that employers provide--which probably would kill employer-provided coverage entirely. He would give each person a tax credit of $2500 ($5000 for a family) to be used to buy private insurance. Thus, every person or family would be thrown on the open market. He thinks this would lead to competition, and efficiency. Far from it. The individual would be unable to bargain, as employers do, for lower costs (have you tried bargaining, independently, with an insurance company or an HMO?). Companies would be free to accept or not accept anyone, to provide or not provide any given benefit, to cancel policies or refuse to pay, etc. It would preserve the worst features of the current system, with no compensations.
What about the $2500? That won't buy decent coverage, nor will $5000 buy family coverage. His proposal reflects no understanding at all of how the system works, but rather the ideas of the ideologues who want government out of everything.
Change of subject: I'm excited about tomorrow, and try not to be too optimistic, but I do think it all will go very well.
I apologize for all my comments and promise this will be the LAST one on this post. In response to marcwphoto:
In 1907 and 1908, a prospective student by the name of Adolf Hitler was twice denied admission to the academy for art studies. He stayed in Vienna and tried unsuccessfully to continue his profession as an artist. Soon he had withdrawn into poverty and started selling amateur paintings, mostly watercolours, for meagre sustenance until the outbreak of the First World War. (wikipedia)
Like I said, he was an artist. The difference between him and Van Gogh was basically timing.
I really don't know shit about Obama, his personality, or his taste in music, but I do know that I agree with his policies & I'm glad he won.
Bush was the worst president in American history, and we were stuck with him for two terms (and yes, the election was rigged, we were STUCK.) Forgive me for being happy that shit is finally going to improve.
I can't even afford to finish college at the moment, I have no health care while needing a major surgery, and I'm pretty certain that if McCain won that wouldn't be changing.
No, that doesn't mean I think Obama's a messiah. I just think he has common sense. Something Bush obviously lacked, and something I don't really trust that McCain has either.
"Originally I figured Hillary Clinton for president, but that was based purely on logical economic policies, and clearly I overestimated the American population (either that or I am the harbinger of doom) as the poor woman was kicked out shortly afterwards."
Being a stupid American who has lived overseas for over 10 years, I am impressed by the extraordinary intelligence of folks who are able to know so much about the States from reading newspapers, watching TV show, and movies. Why, they are even so much smarter than those who actually live and work in the country that they can tell us who we should vote for.
I find this amazing because I work at an international corporation with folks from all over the world and have yet to personally observe any signs of this superior knowledge except for a sort of smug confidence that they know what they are talking about when it comes to anything about the US.
I, being less intelligent by nature of my citizenship, think perhaps the "logic" of Clinton's economic plan (which like any other candidates ain't likely to last much past the inauguration) is debatable. I never even noticed that Obama had any "totalitarian" tendencies and were I to suspect any of the candidates to have had such tendencies, I might have imagined Hillary did, based on her track record. Oh, then the thought of Willy back in the White House....
I don't know, naturally, but perhaps such decisions are a little more nuanced and complex and there just might things that we consider that probably can't be sensed from reading the New York Times or some other rag.
Somehow, the longer I live overseas, the harder it is for me to have a real feel for what goes on there. You'd think that I would getter a smarter, more sophisticated knowledge of the country and society---just like foreigners have---by not actually living there.
"Somehow, the longer I live overseas, the harder it is for me to have a real feel for what goes on there. You'd think that I would getter a smarter, more sophisticated knowledge of the country and society---just like foreigners have---by not actually living there. "
If being fully informed were a critera for commenting an opinion, then surly it should also be a criteria for voting, in which case a large proprotion of the population of the US, and by your own admission yourself, should be prohibited from voting on the basis that they were unable to give informed consent.
Some people interviewed made up their minds on who to vote while standing in the voting queue. It happens here as well.
The majority is often wrong. Democracy doesnt work without full disclosure and an informed population.
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