Debate Over Censorship of the Arts

Krauthammer’s column epitomizes the mentality of the reactionary conservative right. Congress, by seeking to qualify the NEA bill, does indeed censor art because, as a sanctioned authority, it imposes its view of what is and what is not art on the populace.

Krauthammer’s idea for a “Himmelfarb Amendment,” which would support only “old, established art,” can only be seen as the most dangerous of reactions to the avant-garde. He, like the right, chooses to live in a past that is safely understood and offers no surprises or discomforts; yet he seems to forget that aesthetic opinions of Rachmaninoff, Beethoven and similar artists have been forged in part by the benefit of years of hindsight. These artists’ works inspire because they dared to do something radically different in mediums which threatened to stagnate.

ANDREW GENTES

Riverside