The Arts also happen to be powerful propaganda tool.

Look who were some of the biggest patrons of the arts of the middle 20th century.

Stalin
Hitler
Musolini
Tojo

and yes FDR.

Hitler was probably the best though at adopting the arts to advance German nationalism and Nazi Ideaology.

The NEA and NPR and the art schools of taxpayer funded universities are potentally valuable tools for propaganda and thus their use and control is at the center of the Kulturkampf that has raged in this country for the last 4 decades.

This is more to the point of what Skibane was asking in his original post.

As far as Art for Arts sake. Probably the worst thing that has ever happend is the involvment of goverment and Big Business.

Quoted: To the true believers, art is simply another medium of communication used to get out the liberal message.

Correct, but it's still a subset of the overall liberal obsession with all things 'art'.  Don't get me wrong, I love the symphony, and have a taste for fine art myself, but not all of it.  Why, because much like music, not all art is good.  This is an anathema to a liberal art lover, because he loves the effort alone, and not the quality of the result.  To criticize is to judge, and quite possibly not understand the message (if there is one).  A liberal cannot run this risk.

This only becomes magnified because of the perceived contrarian position they get to push.  Their assumption is that only an intelligent, well rounded, and grounded person can enjoy the arts.  Thus, when a conservative pipes up about some specific piece (no matter how awful), the easy stone to cast is that this conservative is a neanderthal void of the intellect to understand.  Unfortunately, they are not always wrong in taking this position...

Quoted: Quoted: I was talking about queers getting it on in public parks (or any person for that matter).  If that doesn't offend a person then that person has something wrong going on in his/her bell tower.  There's no argueing about it, anyone who supports such actions is a sick, twisted shitbag, plane and simple. The middle ground is called "moderates."  I'd call it impossible to be right in the middle so some people extend the labeling as a "moderate liberal" or a "moderate conservative."  Liberal and conservative generally refer to the extreme/semi-extreme left or right, respectively.   No, liberal and conservative generally refer to the brain-dead dipshits that are so into looking like they toe some party line that anything that the "other" side says must be wrong. You guys crack me up with this shit sometimes. Is this you? www.pacificsites.com/~lakenews/LCFP%20Graphics/head_up_ass.gif

                                                                         

           
Actually it more resembles hitlery klinton looking for the deff.of "is."    

Quoted: What the hell is up with the Conservative/Liberal labels? Its like your either "us" or "them". Is there nowhere in between? We both have views that seem to agree with both parties, so it's often hard to claim to be a conservative or liberal exclusively.

No, it's "them".

The last time Rush Limbaugh said the word "art", it was during a rant against the amount of taxpayer's money being spent on it. Meanwhile, over at PBS and NPR, the only word that rolls off the moderator's lips more often is "funding".

There's nothing wrong with enjoying and appreciating art. However, there seems to be no shortage of people who assign an irrational level  of importance to it. And, like it or not, generally, these people are liberals.

In my opinion,
Science makes civilization work.
Art makes it interesting to live in.

A good civilization has a nice mixture of both and many things you see incorporate both.

Architechture is prime example. An ideal building or city is one that is both functional and beatiful. You don't a function eyesore isn't particulary great, nor is a beatiful thing that works horribly or not at all(assuming it's supposed to serve a function). A Gothic Cathedral has a lot of both in it.

Or more relevent to this crowd, the AR-15. It's functional(science) and yet, IMHO, it's a beautiful thing to look at(art).

The arts are more then pretty pictures. Music, Theater, TV, Movies(and I don't mean artsy movies that few people like), Writing(Prose and Poetry), painting, sculpture, photography, design, etc.

Of course, there's good art and there's bad art, though it's usually pretty subjective. It's not as logical(or logical at all) as engineering or a math problem where you can quantify whether it is right or wrong, but rather, does it fullfill the goal the artist was trying to achieve, do you like it or not, and why.