One thing you can always count on from leftie artists is a jaw-droppingly extreme sense of entitlement. They are routinely thrown large amounts of cash for their turgid creations, most of which are hugely overrated and require little effort to produce. Not only do they trouser this loot without an ounce of shame, they are constantly demanding more!
In their minds their insights are so deep and valuable that they are effectively priceless. They clearly believe they're special beings who should not be treated like mere mortals.
Amusingly, whenever you question whether they actually deserve this taxpayer-funded largesse, they get very, very angry. Incapable of exercizing empathy with less stuck up, more productive people who might be a tad shat off that their hard-earned is being used to pay for wanky crap that only latte-slurping earring tuggers get off on, they sneeringly deride them for lacking sensitivity, often condemning them as philistines. They always impugn the critic's motives, often casting any condemnation as a wholly personal attack. Such comical dummy spits reveal their essentially egocentric and hyper-emotional nature. These obnoxious snobs have the psychological characteristics of nasty, spoiled children.
Take the precious poet Alison Croggon. After reading a quite reasonable post from Andrew Bolt that, among other things, raised valid questions about the money that both she and her daughter have received in grants, she went into self-parodic overdrive. Her Twitter stream contains several nuggets of pure comedy gold:
"How DARE Andrew Bolt attack my daughter, who has earned all the notice she has attracted. I have NOTHING to do with the visual arts world"
"Shaking with anger."
And does she actually address his points? No, just accuses him of jealousy: "I think he wanted to be a poet at one stage."
And malice: "Me and Andrew go way back. Which is probably why he gets personal."
Predictably, she calls criticism from other tweeps trolling (that's such a lefty standby, isn't it?) and slimes them all as philistines:
"Blocking the trolls. Cannot be bothered. Though I guess being part of the 7% minority of Australians who hate art is hard for them."
Alison, you've got it all arse about. It's not your poetry that's priceless. It's your hilariously hypersensitive reaction!
Really, pet, you don't need tens of thousands of dollars from the Australia Council. You need a Bex and a good lie down ...
She's not the only one shaking with rage.
ReplyDeleteQuite a few taxpayers are.
Especially since finding out that the daughter is
carrying on the tradition..
Yes, it all seems way too cozy and cliquey ... There's nothing unreasonable in criticizing how this cash is handed out. People have a right to know why their money is distributed in the manner that it is.
DeleteI do wonder about being giving a grant to write novels for which you are then entitled to any ensuing royalty stream. Were there publisher's advances as well?
ReplyDeleteThere's seems to have been over two decades of grants. What accountability is there to the Australian taxpayer?. Why are we paying someone to generate a profit for herself?
This isn't someone toiling in a garret, after all.
She's definitely getting the best of both worlds, isn't she? Her work seems popular and people are happy to pay for it in the marketplace. So she should be thankful for that.
DeleteBut grants are meant to be "market failure" options that help talented people get established, or keep producing stuff when there's no other income. They shouldn't be doled out to those who are already doing well for themselves.