(3) No, I am not a traitor to point (2) by virtue of being (1). Nor am I hostile to opera by believing that opera should pay its own way instead of subsisting on government largess.
Nor am I hypocritical in seeing opera that benefits from government grants.
Frankly, I don’t seek out political discourse at the opera. I’m there to watch an opera I have never seen before. (Verdi’s La forza del destino, if anyone cares.) It’s unusual for get an opera I’ve never seen staged at this level.
But the sheer smug certainty that everyone around you shares your views, because they are so self-evidently correct as to be unchallengeable, reminded me of this place.
Many operagoers tend to be smug anyway, because 1) opera is expensive (to stage, and thus to buy tickets for) and so it attracts richer folk, and 2) a certain subset of attendees go in order to be seen to be cultured by their friends rather than caring that much about what’s onstage.
I once went to a performance of La Boheme in torn bluejeans because I was a poor college student at the time (how ironic)-- and frankly I went to the opera to listen and see, not to be looked at – and the guy sitting next to me nearly had a hissy fit. Shut up and watch the damn opera, asshole.
But back to the OP: I think we need some examples of the sort of behavior/statements that prompted this rant before we can agree or disagree with it.
Okay, from context, I’m assuming that there was a speech made in conjunction with the performance advocating government support of the opera.
Could we have the details of what was said? Was it a generic “the government should support the arts”? Or a “damn the Republicans and God bless Obama”?
There are two possibilities here, there will be a gotcha subject that was mentioned by the opera goers that will make the liberals look bad.
Or, while he is not appreciating it, there is a big chance that what he thinks are clear conservative positions are not really as well accepted **now **as he thought they were among the more well to do.
In that case I propose that there is a good chance that people like **Bricker **are finding out that many moderate republicans out there are fed up with the antics of the Republicans of the Tea Party variety, and are letting it be know to their peers, even at the opera.
You’re lucky. The one time I went to the opera I couldn’t even hear the thing because a bunch of buttholes got up on the stage and yelled the whole way through it.
Here’s what happened. The season ticket holder crowd is such that you begin to see the same faces at each event – not each and every event, but enough so you start to say to yourself, “Hey, it’s that guy,” or “Yeah, I remember that couple.”
During intermission, there was a line at the bar, and several of the folks in line were talking about some apparent cuts looming in the National Capital Arts and Cultural Affairs budget that would affect the Washington National Opera. And there was widespread bleating and nodding that this was a terrible thing because, after all, the government is obligated to support the fine arts.
I stayed quiet while it was a conversation (however loud) between two people. But the speaker exhorted everyone in line to speak to their Congressman and urge them to fund the arts.
At that point, I spoke up and said that I would do no such thing, because the government, in my view, had no responsibility to fund the opera. The original speaker then pointed out that I was there enjoying the fruits of that government funding.
At that point my wife looked daggers at me and I dropped the conversation, only to continue it here.
On the one hand, sure, this is a liberal position. On the other hand, it’s a purely self-serving position, and I suspect that’s the likelier reason for its occurrence here: people like gummint funding for programs they like. If you’d been at a park, that same dude would have been calling for gummint funding of parks; at a tractor rally, gummint funding of farms. It’s not a specifically liberal trend so much as a self-serving American trend.
Or indeed, any of the major sports stadiums that enjoy government largess. Of course folks in these places tend not to know the extent to which their beloved stadiums are supported by tax dollars. So you tend to get head scratching moments which are sort of like “Keep your Government hands off my Medicare”
At least the Opera-goers KNOW that tax dollars help support their enjoyment of the show.
