On Thu, 10.11.2005 at 12:08 -0500, Jonathan S. Shapiro wrote: > We will form a large organization. This organization will extort money > from every member of the population for a purpose that most members do > not care about and cannot gain any benefit from. However, it is > unsettling to call this act extortion, so we will instead refer to it as > "tax collection." Because the population will not wish to pay, we will > give this organization the power to legislate and to imprison, and we > will encourage it to execute this power with only such restraint as is > dictated, reluctantly, by the occasional public outcry. But we will call > it "government", so it is okay.
I'm already regretting responding, but I'll take a shot anyway. I agree that we should never promote creation of new _government_ institutions to take care of things that matter to _us_. I just believe that using tax money to fund different kinds of art (we have some kind of "artist pay" in Finland paid by the government, by the way) enforces the idea that art is not something that should be dictated by the laws of the market, but has some kind of inherent value. It also gives off the impression that art belongs to everyone and not just the corporations and rich people who happen to be able to afford it. Art creates and builds a common and so should be paid for by all. In short: art is not a commodity. (In reality it is, but it shouldn't have to be.) Paavo -- kremlin kanavien soppaa _______________________________________________ L4-hurd mailing list [email protected] http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/l4-hurd
