RE: Re: Re: Marx and Malleability

[Max B. Sawicky]

> Brad raises an important question about the cultural development 
> of Soviet-style socialism. It has been noted that there are 
> parallels between "socialist realism" and the sort of art 
> promoted under Nazism. This suggests that there is something in 
> the way totalitarian, or would-be totalitarian, stystems regard 
> art. A crude first approximation might be that these enshrine the 
> cultural values of people with middlebrow artistic taste, due to 
> their, typically, non-elite education and background in the old 
> society, . . .


But this is not unique to totalitarian/authoritarian societies.
If Readers' Digest had an art supplement you would find the
same stuff there in a patriotic mode.  Look at the arguments
over the Viet Vets memorial.  The common element is rejection
of elite and/or less accessible art.

mbs