This past weekend, my girlfriend and I decided to kill an afternoon visiting the sundry of attention deficit disorder exhibits, carelessly misbranded museums, on the Washington National Mall. Between the crowds, flashing lights, and pitiful attempts at instilling a sense of history upon a mass-mind that has no desire to dispose of the indoctrination of public school, the whole affair was too much for me. I decided to find solace among the paintings within the National Gallery of Art. To my dismay, the same fanny packs, strollers, and screaming kids seemed to have followed us in behind the grand, hulking door of an entranceway.
I realize that finding refinement in a government-financed museum fully open to the public is an exercise similar to locating a jewel in a waste dump. But rather than spend the few hours paying tribute to immortalizing monuments of the most magisterial of U.S. Presidents as we waited for dinner reservations, there was a thin hope of discovering some mental satisfaction. I am no experienced art connoisseur either. The only “official†art education I received was a semester-long course my first year of community college and it was certainly no graduate seminar with Rembrandt.
Even so, I can appreciate the practice of viewing art not just for its aesthetic appeal but by taking in the movements, flourishes, contrasts, and depictions of times both historic and metaphysical. This isn’t rocket science- just a recognition of the artist’s end. Portraits are not painted aimlessly. Like all human action, there is a purpose behind every color and style used.
The disorderly conduct in the National Gallery of Art was no accident. It’s by co-opting the arts in the aim of turning the public civilized, the state has made its art gallery into nothing more than a glorified Chuck E. Cheese. Collectivism’s target, when disrobed of meaningless platitudes, is always the lowest common denominator of life.
While enjoying the manhood portion of Cole’s “The Voyage of Life,†I was asked to step aside as a grown man snapped a picture with his smartphone. What value he finds in reviewing a small portion of painting through a cell phone screen, I cannot say. But the tasteful process of viewing art undisturbed was a concept this tourist was unable to fathom. My disdain shouldn’t be taken as art snobbery. Even a buffoon can recognize that a portrait should be taken in by close examination and consideration.
The boobus exuberance over a short-snippet of a masterwork in complex symbolism is reflective of the celebrity-like worship that takes place in the National Mall. The displays in most museums have been designed to settle short-term urges. With all the commotion that occurs in tax-funded tourist locals, it’s difficult to concentrate on those artifacts that present a revealing depiction of man’s earlier days. Government intervention into the cultural sphere drives Albert Jay Nock’s application of Gresham’s Law to that of art and culture: the more exhibits gear themselves toward the lowest of intellectual prowess, the more insignificant the truly distinct pieces of history become.
Many people find the monuments and museums of the National Mall to be of cultural significance to the United States. Then again, these are the same people who emotionally feast on talk of national greatness. They are also eager voters who eagerly cast ballots in full belief that bureaucrats who dictate how to run their lives are actually humanitarians.
Every time sham brinkmanship threatens the continued operations of the federal government, cries are echoed from the media over the possibility of shutting down Washington’s vaunted theme park. Somehow the prospect of the Smiths not being able to pay their respects to a statute depiction of Franklin Roosevelt which simultaneously declares his hatred of war while praising his fighting of World War II is not high on my list of concerns. Government support of anything is counter-productive. No wealth is added to society by state plundering and redistribution. As John P. Cochran writes,
…any increase of taxes and government spending will discourage saving and investment and stimulate consumption, since government spending is all consumption.
Politicians spend a great deal of time speaking about the future even as their time horizon is always fixated on the next election. The spending that comes forth from the state treasury is never allocated toward investment but always toward meeting the needs of the politically-connected. High-time preferences are the hallmark of democracy. It is through the constant adoration directed toward state officials that the mass public begins to adopt this destructive, nihilistic mentality.
The hypocrisy of the Roosevelt memorial summarizes the state quite nicely: it flogs you with pronouncements of maintaining peace and liberty while keeping a tight grip on your wallet. The continued erection of memorials on the Mall is just a charade to mask Washington’s train wreck of finances. The federal government has $222 trillion in unfunded liabilities. Instead of confronting the unpleasantness head on, politicians would rather max out their credit cards on new clothes and new appearances- anything that keeps the house of cards built on sand from toppling. Favorable perception is crucial, and government officials would rather keep a robust appearance to hide the rottenness slowly digesting the core.
I say let the National Mall close. Let the whole abominable practice in hagiography become the victim of dust and cobwebs. As for the paintings, allow them to fall into the possession of those able to appreciate fine art. The experiment of civilizing society by government dictation has been a spectacular failure. It was never destined to succeed.
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