I'm From the Government and I'm Here to Help,...

More proof liberals have no business running our country:

Bill Ivey sounds 'Cultural Rights' alarm

Conservatives and libertarians question why government is in the business of supporting the arts, however modestly, something they'd leave to the commercial marketplace or private patrons.

Bill Ivey, who chaired the National Endowment for the Arts under President Clinton and, before that, the Country Music Foundation, goes in a vastly different direction in Arts, Inc: How Greed and Neglect Have Destroyed Our Cultural Rights.

He blames government indifference and companies interested only in profits.

He's alarmed that "our creative heritage is mostly owned, lock, stock and barrel, by multinational companies."

As an example, he cites the iconic photo of John F. Kennedy Jr.'s salute at his father's funeral. Stan Stearns took the photo for LIFE, but its copyright is now owned by Corbis, an intellectual-property asset company created by Bill Gates.

To reproduce the photo in Ivey's book cost $330, prompting him to ask, "Is our right to cultural heritage fulfilled if we're allowed to buy our way into access to the past?"

The book is provocative, but it's more philosophical than politically practical.

Ivey drafts a "Cultural Bill of Rights" but doesn't explain how it would be enforced.

He's disappointed by the Internet, which "at first looked all wild and woolly: new people, new ideas, no rules."

"But today it looks less like a freewheeling frontier and more like the Upper West Side of Manhattan — all high-priced rentals and out-of-reach condos."

Ivey's call to arms seems more bureaucratic than artistic.

He proposes a federal department of cultural affairs, a presidential commission and congressional hearings.


The TrekMedic ponders:

Straight from the Clintonian Liberals' playbook: Only the government can decide what's good for you; shame on corporate greed; free speech = offend everyone.

"Cultural Bill of Rights" my ass!

Cross-posted at PennPatriot!