After years of declaiming against the Left’s domination of our culture, I’m startled and delighted to discover that the tide is beginning to turn. My fellow conservatives should take note and lend a hand.
For the last three decades or so, the usual conservative approach to the arts has been threefold: We complain about what’s being produced; we fret about the influence it will have; then we give up with a shrug.
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We complain because it seems to us the anti-American Left has made of the arts its private fiefdom. Moviemakers produce film after film decrying the anti-Communist blacklists of the ’50s, all the while blacklisting and slandering conservative filmmakers and their points of view. Critics give prizes and praise to second-rate leftist works — from dreadful tripe such as The Color Purple in the ’80s to the recent slew of soporific and dishonest anti–War on Terror propaganda flicks such as In The Valley of Elah and Green Zone — while ignoring or attacking works with which they disagree. Public funding is available to display desecrated crucifixes as “art,” while art that might be offensive to Muslims — such as the novel Jewel of Medina or the TV satire South Park — is censored with barely a murmur.
We fret because we fear that ignorant people — especially the young — will take leftist art as truth, essentially giving the Left the power to rewrite history and reality in the American mind. Perhaps the next generation will come to believe that Oliver Stone’s absurd but well-made JFK tells the true story of the president’s assasination or that American operatives and soldiers routinely committed the sorts of atrocities depicted in Rendition or Redacted. As former ambassador Joseph Wilson boasted about the contrafactual heroic impression given of him and his wife, Valerie Plame, in the new film Fair Game: “For people who have short memories or don’t read, this is the only way they will remember the period.”
Finally, we shrug and give up because the matter does not seem urgent. Leftist arts may poison people’s minds over time, but jihadists want to kill us right now. Oliver Stone and Michael Moore may make hypocritical millions attacking capitalism, but politicians are dismantling free markets as we speak. And even if the arts are urgent, most of us aren’t artists or critics, so what can we do?
The complain-fret-shrug approach has become so habitual among conservatives that it blinds us to the astonishing change that’s been taking place. Despite the Left’s best efforts, conservative and American values are actually coming back into the culture.
We should ease off on the complaining. For the last few years, movies promoting the Western ideals of self-reliance, morality, and faith have scored at the box office — see The Incredibles (“If everyone is special, that means no one is”), The Blind Side (“Who would have thought we’d have a black son before we knew a Democrat?”), and Toy Story 3 (a takedown of the nanny state). They have also been more innovative and creative — 300, Gran Torino, No Country for Old Men — than the products of the desiccated and outmoded Left. Our best novelist (Tom Wolfe) and two greatest English-speaking playwrights (Tom Stoppard and David Mamet) are now all open about their political conservatism. And new top-notch mainstream TV shows (Justified, Blue Bloods) have arrived to offset the lefty Law and Order and Jon Stewart.
Equally important, an alternative critical infrastructure is starting to grow up in support of conservative culture. John Nolte at Andrew Breitbart’s Big Hollywood website has repeatedly put leftist Hollywood on the defensive by exposing their bias. And even as other newspapers shorten or delete their serious culture pages, the center-right Wall Street Journal has expanded its coverage with an excellent Saturday Review section.
We should stop fretting about the consequences of lefty art, too. The arts, to paraphrase Shakespeare, are the “abstract and brief chronicles of the time.” The conservative shift in their tone shows that the American consciousness has begun to digest the lessons of 9/11: that the Left’s relativistic multiculturalism is a lie; that freedom is better than slavery; and that therefore those systems that support freedom — constitutional democracy, capitalism, and enlightened religion — are better than those that don’t.
Don't forget last year's Liam Neeson outing, "Taken".
A refreshing tribute to parental authority and wisdom in general, paternal authority and experience in particular, and a reminder that far from being the most depraved place in the world America may well even now be the least so. It was also a clear cut assault on the kind of American [bipartisan but more often liberal] insularity represented by stupid young people and consumption driven adults neither of whom have any idea what the world is like. The mother and daughter characters both learned important lessons about the limits of casual recreational travel.
I was especially pleased that the wealthy stepfather, a minor character, correctly appreciated his need for Neeson's character's skills to save their daughter and readily put his money at Neeson's disposal. No nonsense. A manly and honourable service in its own right and in the finest traditions.
And all of that before I praise Neeson's character's pragmatic and merciless use of force to achieve a just goal.
All in all, a Dirty Harry or Death Wish for the age, except replacing no-account street punks with really frightening criminals and sporadic law enforcement/vigilantism with cool, sophisticated retribution. I could hardly praise it more highly.
Wow. Thinking it's fun, unremarkable, and not particularly dangerous to travel to Paris is an example of "American insularity"? American insularity [bipartisan but sadly more often conservative] tends to express itself in the attitude that our country is the only safe place in the world, and that there is nothing outside our borders worth experiencing that justifies crossing them.
I know people who think that Shakespeare's Richard III is a realistic historically accurate portrayal of King Richard III. I know people who think that Oliver Stone's JFK is historically accurate and true. And these are relatively intelligent, fairly well-educated people!
Slowly, ever so slowly, a few in Hollywood are waking up to what Fox News discovered. If you are the only voice speaking to the majority of Americans, you will attract from a large market while the all other guys will be left with a small market and, what is worse, be forced to split it up.
Nevertheless, today's teens are now bombarded with goofy leftish babble from "global warming," to every country is "special," to the U.N. is the world's savior. Those constant attacks do take their toll, especially among the young.
Although there are superb and widely marketed political books and commentary(such as your article)from fine writers, few young adults in their formative years will read and learn from such writings.
True, many parents are pointing their teens to books where America is praised and its heritage (especially the Constitution) is understood. Bill Bennett's youth oriented contributions are ideal and others like Robert Jay's positive Montooth series find a receptive audience in the Young Adult market - but due to sheer volume (and, too often, parental inattention), most of what is popular is pushing our youth in the wrong direction.
The expanding home school movement is also a logical and welcome reaction to lefty influence, but its size is dwarfed by government school influence.
While the pendulum may be moving in the right direction ever so slightly on cultual issues, there is a long way to go. I am afraid that we may lose so many youngsters in the near term that our future will be in misguided hands in future decades.
I too believe that we can win back the arts. Samuel Morse of Mores Code fame was also a great portrait artist and an unashamed believer in God. After inventing the telegraph, he had no problem deciding what first words to electronically transmit from Baltimore to the chamber of the United States Supreme Court: “What hath God Wrought!” This phrase came from Numbers 23:23 of the King James Bible. I’m a firm believer that when God first creates something he creates it perfectly. Then the fallen forces of evil bring in corruption. But in the end God gets the final say and the last laugh and brings back perfection, as we see in the last chapter of his book. I believe this also to be the case with electronically transmitted messages and art. It started off totally glorifying God – “What hath God Wrought” - but has since plunged to the gutters of pornographic and anti-God, anti –American filth. But, as you are seeing, I believe the good Lord is in the process of bringing about artistic regeneration through human vessels who are undergoing regeneration of their own. (This quote came from "America’s God and Country," by William J. Federer, page 457).
I encourage every conservative who wants to promote high cultural standards to support The New Criterion, the greatest journal of high culture in the world.
Couldn't be seen any better, per usual for Mr. Klavan. Conservatives need to take some of that political activism and turn it into cultural activism. Not to politicize culture, but to promote truth, beauty and goodness. The more conservatives we have in the arts and entertainment, as well as education and the media, the more those values will permeate our culture.
Glad to see the issue of conservativism and the arts is back at the forefront. But I am very concerned when I see phrases like "cultural activism" thrown about, as if culture is to be valued for the political power it can wield for us. And while many liberals do see culture this way, many do not -- they simply create their art from a place of honest misunderstanding of the human person, culture, etc. When reentering the cultural sphere, conservatives need to be very careful not to take up the language and mentality of Marxist kulturkampf (as they far too often do). But regardless, it is good to see the conversation started.
By calling conservatives' attention to the importance of cultural production, Mr. Klavan is doing vital work.
To his call I would add one thing: We need to be more actively involved at all levels of education.
Political and legislative battles are necessary. But they are technically fighting yesterday's wars, the ones that took place in the classroom during the preceding years.
We need conservatives who earn their Phds and stay in higher education, rather than self-selecting out.
Rather than complain about the system, we need to be integral to it. So what Mr. Klavan says about the arts is true -- and it's equally true of academia.
p.s. An earlier comment praises The New Criterion. I would second this -- it's worth subscribing to. I do wish, however, that they would minimize the Western-culture-is-deteriorating jeremiads and instead go about the business of offering a viable alternative to bad art and weak criticism (which they generally do in their remaining pages). We're looking for alternatives, not mere complaint.
To The New Criterion I would add The Claremont Review of Books and the Wall Street Journal's all-too-brief but nonetheless enjoyable Friday and Weekend editions.
Books and Culture: A Christian Review is a nice option for those either religious or interested in a religious angle.
Mr. Klavan is right on all accounts. Being a Conservative artist who is organizing a movement to influence American culture, it is encouraging to see this article. I have been working for many years on my personal art promoting limited government, patriotism and Liberty. I have also been seeking out and networking with other like-minded artists. As Mr. Klavan points out, the most important thing we need is support from those who think we don't exist.
I agree. Conservatives seem to see left and right politics in everything. I can see the author point that much of historical art was "conservative" as preached and sponsored by the Catholic Church. It is all to the dogma of conform, conform, conform.
Frank1914, if the arts are nothing to fight over why do liberals tend to get all scared when someone mentions that public funded arts programs should have to show a balance of ideas in order to continue receiving funding just like liberals tend to ask for a balance on radio programs? They don’t want to lose their stranglehold on visual culture. The irony being that the best answer liberals can give to that idea is that it would be “To much government involvement in the arts”. MWA HA, ha, ha! Conservative themed art is an oxymoron? Interesting, you do realize that the blunt of art that defines Western art culture is predominately conservative in theme and that really the landslide towards liberalism in the arts has only occurred strongly in the last 50 years. The study of painting itself was based on a foundation of conservative themes. Are you going to suggest that the Old Masters were “Ignorant”? As for Soviet styled art, seems to me that style of propaganda helped Obama if you look at his little poster boy Shepard Fairey who tends to rip off Communist posters. When we think of conservative art people often think of images of Jesus or campy Thomas Kinkade inspired paintings. Artists can, and have, explored conservative themes in clever ways that have a controversial bite and real social impact. Conservative themed art can be just as cutting edge as any work of liberal inspired art. I know a woman who does pro life art using images of aborted fetuses that she uses in video art with scenes of far left politicians holding up children in order to show the contradiction of their support for children. You won’t see it at the Smithsonian but it is powerful work. Conservative themed art does not have to be boring! I do think that conservative minded people are starting to rethink the arts. I read a few days ago where art critic Brian Sherwin was having a conversation with Andrew Breitbart about and issue close to what is being discussed here. Sherwin is not far right by any means but the fact that he is pointing out liberal bias in the arts is very important!!!!!!!!!!!!! On the other side of the fence you have art critics like Jerry Saltz out of New York claiming that there is no liberal bias in the arts or that there are just no "good" conservative themed art. Times are changing and once those barriers are broken down you will see conservative themed art popping out of the woodwork.
