Crom Unhinged

Sunday, September 28th, 2008

Cultural Divide…

Typically, when Stephen Harper speaks, I’m anesthetizing myself in the kitchen with a generous belt of Wild Turkey. When the news of his intent to cut $45 Million dollars worth of federal funding to Canadian Arts and Cultural programs hit my ears though, the medicine was too far away. My face was stuck to my monitor, like a bad cartoon, and sweat was pouring out of me. I read the news with near hysteria, and I could feel the terminal bubble of air traveling upwards, prepared to shatter my cortex. I was immediately struck by a nerve racking spasm, as lightning shot through my brain, forcing me to curl up in a ball on the floor and weep.

The knee-jerk reaction is to curse this man as a Clown and Fool; a brutal fixer with little compassion, but that would be observing Harper skin deep, and failing to mine the true stupidity within.

The terrifying aspect of it, is that I agree with him: federal funding to the Arts isn’t being spent properly.

There. I said it. Now we can all freak out and call me a shitface. But wait… why would I say that? I’m an artist. A writer to be specific, of film, “journalism”, short story, animated shorts, I do all sorts of things, I’m Canadian, and I’d like to have some money. Why am I not burning this man’s house down right now?

Federal funding for the arts isn’t a good or bad thing, per se. Like many of the projects the government conjures up, and we allow them to invest in, it produces some positive and negative effects; life is a rich tapestry. The most obvious criminal brute who feels this effect is Air Canada; a blight on our society and on travel plans the world over. Propped up by funding from us, it continues to fall victim to the suck-tide. The services Air Canada offers gradually slide downwards, and in consequence it requires more bail-outs, more funding. I don’t think there’s a soul I know who regards Air Canada as anything more valuable than a snot covered kleenex.

And here’s the rub…Harper seems content to continue funding it, in spite of the fact that it’s a business that LOSES money annually, to a tune that I was actually AFRAID to lookup while I’m writing this. The only defense I have against violent paroxysm is ignorance.

So what about the Arts? Is it the same scenario? Do we breed mediocrity into our cultural programs by keeping them alive? If you’ve ever tried to get funding from the National Film Board, your answer will be yes.

Harper does what most of us do when we think about Canadian creative pursuits: we lump it all together in a huge shit-pile. We need to recognize the divide. And so does any Prime Minister of this country.

A big first step is to actually look past the “gala’s” Steve, and find the divide between “Cultural Entertainment” and Canadian Culture. Here’s a handy guide: Inukshuk - Canadian Culture, Due South - Piece of Shit. The gala comment clearly indicates that You, Steve, clump any creative effort together in one category. Our entertainment industry needs to be taken off the life-support of government initiative and forced to bootstrap itself to life, otherwise there will never be any of the negative feed-back required to winnow out the losers from the movers. When any idiot with a HighDef camera can get a government grant, and deny that funding to a genuine fireball genius who can demonstrate the evolution of Native survival from conception, with a beaver pelt and a pen knife, than the system has no checks in place to stop the evil pig-demons from kicking down the door, and spraying Grandpa and the kids with Uzi’s.

You get what I’m saying, right?

Sadly, Harper could have pulled it off, but he has no respect for Cultural pursuits. He didn’t have the brains OR didn’t have the inclination, to spearhead a movement for CHANGING the way the Arts get funded. Which is clear to any mortal foolish enough to read his comments regarding the cut itself. His vision of Culture within Canada is pegged on events like the Juno’s, and he fails to look any further.

We have a rich tapestry of history and racial diversity, and with it comes the opportunity to alchemize the constituents of that diversity into meaningful, cultural art. And it’s bullshit to claim that “ordinary people” aren’t interested in the Arts. Ordinary people are the progenitors of our Art and Culture Steve. You moron.