The War on Western Art
Clifton Duncan Podcast | Clifton Duncan with Douglas Murray
In this excellent conversation with FAIR in the Arts Fellow Clifton Duncan and FAIR Advisor Douglas Murray, the two discuss the war on Western art. They discuss why the left finds art more important than the right, the meaning of art and whether it can fill the “God-shaped hole” in society, how theatre today is boringly political in one direction, the theatre acting as a think tank, how creative spirit is getting killed by conformity, how the idea of “cultural appropriation” is killing the arts and how art is appropriation—listening, borrowing and borderless. And, they discuss the three things Murray wants to see to come to an end.
Our show notes with minute markers:
6:50: On the right, there’s a failure to understand the importance of culture and art; a tendency among conservatives to downplay the role of art in society
8:52 It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy—as the left dominates arts/culture, conservatives feel there’s nothing here for me
14:34: Is art the solution to the “God-shaped hole” in society that’s being discussed?
15:44: Art can’t fill the whole thing without making a truth claim on its own…you end up just creating a new religion
19:04: What is the meaning of art…beauty and transcendence
20:52: There is that moment art can bring, that feeling of being alive; something beyond yourself, artists speaking across centuries
23:18: We are in the middle of an arts culture which is very nihilistic, hollow, there’s an anti-religiosity
24:08: The political/modern left think they have a monopoly on sophistication and intelligence, and pride themselves on their intelligence—maybe this has fueled the nihilism, the idea that there’s nothing more than what’s happening now
25:08: There’s a false idea that the more empathic we are, the better society would be; empathy doesn’t eradicate poverty; empathy alone is not enough to solve world’s problems
27:06: When you go to shows/theatre performances today, it’s boringly political in one direction; there is also an obsession with being harmless
31:30: Art is supposed to be about complexity, but now it’s only interested in real simplicity
33:28: These artists are making shows for themselves, to keep in good graces of colleagues
38:27: There’s this idea of the theatre thinking they’re a think tank…theatre is a very ineffective medium to pump out political or social ideas
39:33: Politics in art is ok, but not when politics supersedes the story craft and artwork
43:20: There’s also a concentrated effort to throw the baby out with the bath water when it comes to the past
45:52: There’s this weird push to burn everything down and to deconstruct
46:48: The hope/optimism is that great artists do come along and can’t be put down
57:56: There’s an ideological conformity now, a rigidity in the performing arts…these actors who are dead behind the eyes…it’s difficult to feel you can be truly open
1:00: There’s a creative spirt you’re killing in order to conform
1:02: The idea of cultural appropriation is destroying the arts…writers are being dropped by publishers, accused of writing a fictional character that doesn’t conform with their own identity
1:03: If you try the idea of cultural appropriation out on things that matter (not Halloween), you can’t do it because the whole thing (art) is borderless, the whole thing is borrowing…is listening and learning, reading and getting new ideas
1:04: Stravinsky didn’t musically appropriate…he listened
1:05: When artists listen to the work of a different culture and are so enamored of it that they want to incorporate it in their own hearts, that’s art, that’s culture
1:05: And this concept of staying in your lane…one of the stupidest lines in the stupidest era…the whole concept of lanes is totally destructive to the creative arts and only leads to politico manifesto writing
1:13: There are 3 things Murray wants to see an end to— 1) grumbling and whining in an era of self-pity and complaint, 2) the culture of resentment where we blame other people and the past, and 3) the era of deconstruction where we are interrogating everything for racism, sexism, etc.; instead, we need an era of construction to begin again, and artists will be absolutely central to this
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