Without the arts, our cities are violent simulacrums of themselves. They’re nothing, they’re empty vessels. And other countries have figured that out. In South Korea, Spain, Italy and France this week, people will be listening to live music, going to the opera, seeing the ballet, and attending plays. Not as much as before COVID-19 hit. We are in a pandemic, after all. The audiences are smaller, some of the performances outside. But it’s not as though those countries, particularly the European ones, have completely eradicated the disease. They’ve just decided to live with it in a certain way, and that way includes the arts.
The United States has completely neglected the arts during the pandemic. We’ve smothered any idea of leisure activity with a blanket of fear. But we haven’t publicly declared war on them. At least we’re aware that this is a sad state of affairs.
We’ve Destroyed the Arts
Apparently, in a pandemic, culture is meaningless
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