Banksy is a 'graffiti artist,' a celebrity in the field, and a political activist. I hate to admit it, but a lot of his 'work' is clever....perhaps even close to artistic.
But his latest endeavor, an exhibition at the Musée de la Poste in Paris called Au-delà du Street Art(Beyond Street Art), reveal an unexpected insight into the Obama voter....
See if you agree:
1. Graffiti as art? ".... sell for large, sometimes astronomical, sums of money, a sad commentary on the art market as a reflection of elite taste. A fish, say the Russians, rots from the head down; a culture, when its elite shows no discrimination, is debased.
2. Banksy, is only too aware of this phenomenon; he has commented on it and taken advantage of it more than once. For example, he has painted a museum attendant in an old-fashioned uniform sitting near a single framed picture consisting only of the word PRICK (or, in another version,ARSE). The first of these versions was soldthough admittedly not by Banksy himselffor about $300,000.
3. He has also produced a print of an auctioneer taking bids for a picture that consists of the words I CANT BELIEVE YOU MORONS ACTUALLY BUY THIS SHIT. Banksy sold about 1,000 of these prints for $180,000 in total, but they were soon selling at auction for $5,000 apiece. "
4. How to explain the desire for junk? The French say 'nostalgie de la boue,' or yearning for the mud : attraction to what is unworthy, crude, or degrading. Nostalgie de la boue - Definition and More from the Free Merriam-Webster Dictionary
See where I'm going?
5. "This common desire results from two ideological assumptions: that somehow the poor are authentic in a way that other social strata are not; and that prosperity, at least in our society, is something to be ashamed of, the product of social injustice or exploitation.
6. The vulgar language in which Banksy expresses himself, which is probably not native to his original social stratum, is thus a form of expiation for the original sin of having been born to the prosperous and inauthentic."
a. Could this be another way saying that Obama's victories are due to feelings of "white guilt."?
7. "Banksy is nevertheless an interesting figure. He has some graphic ability, and it is not his fault if his productions have been taken seriously as art. "
a. As is Obama....and he can't be credited with persuading some that socialism can actually work. Dolts don't have to be persuaded: they're dolts.
8. "He is highly intelligent and undoubtedly witty. Some of his productions make you smile, and others make you laugh; his implicit criticisms of society can be trenchant,.....
9. For example, one of his works, painted on the bottom of an outside wall of the Ritz in London, shows little rats, dressed as waiters in tails, on either side of a red carpet leading into a rat hole. One of them holds a menu, and both are waiting obsequiously to welcome a customer. Of course, the message is not a pleasant one: that people who enter the Ritz, a very expensive establishment, are metaphorical rats.
10. Of course, Banksy, as a spoiled child of a consumer society in which real shortage is unthinkable, has all the unexamined anticapitalist prejudices of the lumpenintelligentsia to whom he appeals.
11. Banksys attitude toward authority and property rights is the standard hostility of the lumpenintelligentsia. Here he is particularly hypocritical because, while maintaining that pose of hostility, he employs lawyers, owns private companies, and is reputed to be highly authoritarian in his dealings with his associates. Inside every rebel, goes the saying, theres a dictator trying to get out."
The Discriminating Philistine by Theodore Dalrymple - City Journal
Could there be a finer analogy for Obama's success???
I rest my case.
Simon Leys writes that the true philistine is not he who does not care to discriminate between the good and the bad, but he who discriminates and chooses the bad.
The Obama voter fits the description...but a better appellation: the useful idiot.
But his latest endeavor, an exhibition at the Musée de la Poste in Paris called Au-delà du Street Art(Beyond Street Art), reveal an unexpected insight into the Obama voter....
See if you agree:
1. Graffiti as art? ".... sell for large, sometimes astronomical, sums of money, a sad commentary on the art market as a reflection of elite taste. A fish, say the Russians, rots from the head down; a culture, when its elite shows no discrimination, is debased.
2. Banksy, is only too aware of this phenomenon; he has commented on it and taken advantage of it more than once. For example, he has painted a museum attendant in an old-fashioned uniform sitting near a single framed picture consisting only of the word PRICK (or, in another version,ARSE). The first of these versions was soldthough admittedly not by Banksy himselffor about $300,000.
3. He has also produced a print of an auctioneer taking bids for a picture that consists of the words I CANT BELIEVE YOU MORONS ACTUALLY BUY THIS SHIT. Banksy sold about 1,000 of these prints for $180,000 in total, but they were soon selling at auction for $5,000 apiece. "
4. How to explain the desire for junk? The French say 'nostalgie de la boue,' or yearning for the mud : attraction to what is unworthy, crude, or degrading. Nostalgie de la boue - Definition and More from the Free Merriam-Webster Dictionary
See where I'm going?
5. "This common desire results from two ideological assumptions: that somehow the poor are authentic in a way that other social strata are not; and that prosperity, at least in our society, is something to be ashamed of, the product of social injustice or exploitation.
6. The vulgar language in which Banksy expresses himself, which is probably not native to his original social stratum, is thus a form of expiation for the original sin of having been born to the prosperous and inauthentic."
a. Could this be another way saying that Obama's victories are due to feelings of "white guilt."?
7. "Banksy is nevertheless an interesting figure. He has some graphic ability, and it is not his fault if his productions have been taken seriously as art. "
a. As is Obama....and he can't be credited with persuading some that socialism can actually work. Dolts don't have to be persuaded: they're dolts.
8. "He is highly intelligent and undoubtedly witty. Some of his productions make you smile, and others make you laugh; his implicit criticisms of society can be trenchant,.....
9. For example, one of his works, painted on the bottom of an outside wall of the Ritz in London, shows little rats, dressed as waiters in tails, on either side of a red carpet leading into a rat hole. One of them holds a menu, and both are waiting obsequiously to welcome a customer. Of course, the message is not a pleasant one: that people who enter the Ritz, a very expensive establishment, are metaphorical rats.
10. Of course, Banksy, as a spoiled child of a consumer society in which real shortage is unthinkable, has all the unexamined anticapitalist prejudices of the lumpenintelligentsia to whom he appeals.
11. Banksys attitude toward authority and property rights is the standard hostility of the lumpenintelligentsia. Here he is particularly hypocritical because, while maintaining that pose of hostility, he employs lawyers, owns private companies, and is reputed to be highly authoritarian in his dealings with his associates. Inside every rebel, goes the saying, theres a dictator trying to get out."
The Discriminating Philistine by Theodore Dalrymple - City Journal
Could there be a finer analogy for Obama's success???
I rest my case.
Simon Leys writes that the true philistine is not he who does not care to discriminate between the good and the bad, but he who discriminates and chooses the bad.
The Obama voter fits the description...but a better appellation: the useful idiot.
