power, art, fear and the status quo

Does art matter? Sometimes, especially when artists are courageous. Take China for example. "Roughly 30 years after the introduction of Deng Xiaoping’s pro-market policies, China’s economy is grown to become the second largest in the world and the number of U.S. dollar billionaires in China is now second only to that of the United States."1  A highly controlled country like China allows the existence of millionaires and billionaires, and presumably could alter pro-market policies so as to disallow the existence of millionaires and billionaires. Clearly the Chinese government believes their power and control can co-exist amicably with a rapidly growing class of millionaires and billionaires. Status quo is not afraid of billionaires.

Ai WeiWei is one man. He's an artist. He speaks with courage. WeiWei gets beaten up and has his house torn down. The Chinese government pays attention to WeiWei. Status quo is afraid of WeiWei.

Power is afraid of artists when artists aren't afraid of power.

Posted via email from The Broken Wing