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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Neocon who wrote (125328)	2/29/2004 11:33:27 AM
From: Maurice Winn	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

Neo, my central point is that taxpayers shouldn't fund private interests. In the USA, they probably don't in the modern art market. I don't know who pays for the art galleries I've visited in Washington, maybe they are private trusts, foundations or some such. I don't know much about Islam or Heaven's Gate either. Sure, they can build a wall of fantasy to keep out the unbelievers and create all sorts of stories for their own amusement, but that doesn't convert their beliefs into reality. The language might be intelligible to those in the cult, but that doesn't give the language meaning in the real world. I don't object to people amusing themselves by creating private languages, as long as they don't expect me to fund their games. How deep and broad would one's knowledge of the subject need to be before one would be considered to have an opinion that is useful on the subject itself? Useful to whom? Of course, any opinion I have on how to play chess is useless to Bobby Fisher and Kasparov, but that doesn't invalidate my opinions on more general aspects of chess, such as whether it's a silly game the cognoscenti are playing which shouldn't be funded by taxpayers. I can dabble in chess as well as Bobby Fisher can. Deep Junior and mates show Fisher and even Kasparov how to really play the game. I can pontificate at length about modern art to those lower on the pecking order, just as the experts can pontificate to me. It's the same old priesthood pecking order, seeking private benefit from public funds. When's the Modern Art World Championship? Mqurice