Casual
Casual The Timid Elite When it comes to government funding of the arts, I support the Spanish Court option. Which is to say, I believe the federal government should lavishly fund the arts, but...
...For better or worse...
...Maybe as establishments decline they preserve their good manners but lose their arrogance and ruth-lessness...
...We met at the Century Club, which is the most beautiful club in New York and probably the one with the worst food...
...So I was happy to go to a lunch sponsored by the American Assembly to conspire against my fellow conservatives who seek to cut federal support for the arts...
...But do they...
...rep., Donald McHenry...
...Ours is a more populist time, and dominated by broadcast media...
...Was it rude that I didn't have one to hand him...
...In the middle of lunch my neighbor, former congressman John Brademas, handed me his six-page r?sum...
...The American Assembly brought together an impressive group: the heads of many big museums and foundations and bright players from government agencies...
...And the discussion itself was hopelessly elevated...
...Brademas leads the emeritus life...
...But maybe I should have raised my voice more to inform the group about the nature of their opposition...
...Al Sharpton may have as much influence as a basketful of commission reports...
...He has been active with the Carnegie Endowment, the Trilateral Commission, the Spanish Institute, the U.S.-Japan Foundation, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and so on...
...The American Assembly was founded by Dwight Eisenhower and Averell Harriman, and it remains a holdover from when the East Coast Establishment really was the establishment...
...I knew this lunch was to be conducted by those deeply dedicated to public service because it was scheduled to run from noon until 4:30...
...The Congress could budget $10 million for a statue, but it would have to be Newt Gingrich on horseback...
...They're so introspective, they seemed uninformed about conservatives and trafficked in stereotypes...
...The other thing that has changed is the elite's self-confidence...
...Iwas an affirmative action baby at the lunch, the conservative, and like many affirmative action babies, I didn't deserve to be there...
...Even today, trustees are drawn from the Great and the Good, mostly moderate Republicans and centrist Democrats: David Gergen, former congressman Bill Green, Jimmy Carter's second U.N...
...Brademas sits on the board of the Aspen Institute, the American Ditchley Foundation, the President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities, the Alexander S. Onassis Public Benefit Foundation, the National Endowment for Democracy, and the Rockefeller Foundation, among many others...
...We've been everything but out-philosophized," one participant said...
...If Marie de' Medici had been at the Century Club, she would have figured out which among her Republican opponents could be bought off and which could be crushed...
...Instead of marching off into battle, sure of their goals, many in the arts community seem to be perpetually retying their boots, making sure the lace arrangements pay proper deference to their various constituency groups...
...and I was reminded that there is an extensive network of organizations designed to bring eminent people together to offer sober reflections on the issues of the day...
...Averell Harriman lived in an age of deference, when a tone of hortatory banality and a list of distinguished signatories were more likely to attract attention than repel it...
...The Rev...
...Others thought they could win Republican support simply by getting a few rich businessmen in their corner- the David Rockefeller option...
...But the discussion was laced with introspection and self-doubt, such as beset a religious denomination losing membership: The arts audience is aging, individual giving is stagnant, foundation funding is increasingly constrained, the hordes in Congress want to cut off federal funding, and even Clinton's budget reduces aid to the arts by a quarter...
...Oliver Stone and Pat Buchanan think they have clout...
...But these organizations are more than just Rotary Clubs for people who used to run the world...
...I won't keep you in suspense: The group decided it should...
...And she would have demanded a larger portion of chicken for lunch...
...Some saw conservatives as 50 million ayatollahs in a massive conspiracy organized by Paul Weyrich...
...The Rubens series on Marie de' Medici in the Louvre captures the tone of abject sycophancy I'm looking for...
...We've been out-lobbied and out-argued...
...They bring together important people, and the idea is that through their discussions some product will be produced that will have real influence...
...2 million could go for a symphony, so long as it was a homage to the flat tax...
...David Brooks...
...The 25 of us were to serve as an advisory panel to determine whether the American Assembly should launch a project to examine "Future Support and Infrastructure for the Arts...
...Which is to say, I believe the federal government should lavishly fund the arts, but should also be able to determine content...
Vol. 1 • April 1996 • No. 29
