Fascism Hates Art

 Ed Simon's Donald Trump Brings Back “Degenerate Art” (Hyperallergic) is the source for this post.

That Trump and Hitler’s artistic sentiments (among others) can be so seamlessly edited together is beyond cause for concern. While there are still some who pretend that our president’s fascism is an open question — Elon Musk’s Sieg Heil conveniently explained away — the MAGA movement’s newfound interest in the arts prefigures an even more ominous turn. If cultural institutions were allowed to continue their necessary work of arts funding, exhibitions, and scholarship relatively unscathed during the first Trump administration, that is no longer the case in his second. Trump’s desire to chair the Kennedy Center understandably seems a bizarre waste of time, an exercise in middling dilettantism. But fascism, by its very nature, is obsessed with cultural control. Far from being just another joke exercise in Trumpian narcissism and excess, his new perseveration is evidence of his continued fascist creep.   

Stymie the freedom of the creative impulse that makes us human, cripples our freedom.

Trump shares with Hitler more than just an affection for the prosaic, maudlin, and nationalistic. He also understands the strategic importance of controlling the arts, of not letting apolitical bureaucrats dispense grants or specialists organize exhibitions and schedules, but rather consolidating his own control (as he’s doing over every other aspect of government). His recent actions may seem like micromanaging, but they reveal a darker intent. In his first term, Trump received vociferous condemnation from most in the culture industry, particularly in Hollywood. He doesn’t intend to let speech flow unfettered this second time around. Fascism’s perseveration about cultural control can’t help but recall the repressed and the libidinal, such as Hitler’s obsession over his failure as a painter contributing to his desire to be seen as a great artist, working not with paints and canvas but with people and the nation. Even here, Trump’s own humiliation at being an outer borough has-been never fully accepted in Manhattan is the emotional impetus to his middle finger to the arts establishment. 

Channel all thought into one sewer to protect the morals of the citizenry becomes a power over thought and conscience abiding no deviation from that of the Fearless Leader.

Artistic freedom resists straight channels. Art may not overthrow governments, but it keeps alive the freedom that will overthrow despots.

sch 4/27