and that, mr mephisto, is why i understand this kind of "dispute" as trivial in itself--a diversionary border dispute tripped by a far right religious group that is moving its way through the usual channels--this kind of thing functions as noxious in itself, but also to give a false impression of the slide rightward in american television (in particular), which has been underway for some time at (for example) the level of the leaking of conservative discourse into the frame of reference used by news writers to interpret information.
that seems to me the central political problem involving the dominant media in the states--the mechanisms are multiple, and quite well-known--the only thing they have in common is alot of funding.
given the above, the question of whether a cluster of fundamentalist protestant nitwits have decided that athenian and roman sculpture from--say--the 5th c. bc to the 5th c. ad are somehow offensive really is not that big a deal. what matters about them is not that they exist--such nitwits have always been around--but that they are now more organized than ever and are asserting their theocratic views on the rest of us along a number of fronts, including this one. and that they feel powerful enough to attempt to assert their views. which is in itself fine--but you have to fit them within the broader, increasingly reactionary climate that accompanies these stages of the decline of the american empire--without that, they would not matter.
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a gramophone its corrugated trumpet silver handle
spinning dog. such faithfulness it hear
it make you sick.
-kamau brathwaite
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