On Sunday, March 19, 2000 5:21 PM Michael S. Lorrey retroman@turbont.net
wrote:
> You are automatically assuming that the original works of the artist
> were a clear perspective.
I would not assume so, though, by the same token, I'd rather not have the
government deciding these things, especially since its interests might never
be in line with a clear perspective. Witness last years campaign against
Serbia by the US government. Didn't the State Department do its best to
paint the Serbs as bloodthirsty demons and the Albanians as helpless
victims?
But aside from this example, one might claim, well, there are people who
slant things in other ways, so why is the government doing so worse than any
others? First, the government is, sadly, assumed by many to be the correct
point of view in anything. This means the government line is taken to be
correct. You know how people trust the FDA to regulate drugs and the like?
So, government is not an equal player here. When a company slants
something, generally, most people are suspicious if not cynical. With
government, this is not so.
Second, government is not equal in other ways. Since it makes and enforces
laws, it cannot be equated to others players in the information market. It
has an interest in staying in that position of rule making and rule
enforcement -- one in making itself appear to be doing a great job or the
best possible job and to also appear as a knight in shining armor when any
problems do arise. (On the latter, note how Hillary Clinton recently headed
up the government campaign against giving Ritalin and Prozac to kids. This
is the same government who approved it for such uses! There was no talk
along the lines of, "Oops, we made a mistake.")
> Orwell never spent any time in a communist
> nation, he only knew what he heard by hanging out with the Cambridge
> bred aristo-communists popular in Britain in the 30's. Ask Sasha
> Chislenko what he thinks...
Orwell also spent some time in Spain during the Spanish Civil War
(1936-1939). He even joined a militia there. He did get to see how
Communists, especially Stalinists, operate up close and personal. In fact,
he wrote a book on it, _Homage to Catalonia_ in 1938. This is a far cry
from just hanging out in Cambridge.
Cheers!
Daniel Ust
Check out my Literature picks at:
http://mars.superlink.net/neptune/
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