Peter Garrett Online Forum

Naomi

Government is about power. That is all it is about. It is not about being nice or being creative or being Godly or finding the truth, it is about having power. This has never been clearer in our country than the present, given our current PM's maiden speech. When such an agenda is given the weapons to make power absolute, it will use them.

Science in the hands of Government has only one purpose - to increase Government power. Science actually has another purpose altogether, which is to refine one of the very many ways available to us of understanding our world. Art in the hands of Government is not about beauty or spectacle or truth or devotion or any of the things we might prefer it to be about - it is about increasing Government power. The same goes for everything. This is why a firm line was drawn between religion and the state - because when the state gets hold of religion, it has a very effective weapon indeed. (I note that you did not argue for a reunification of Church and State, for all your liberal views re: art, science &c.)

You and I are not doing science, we are exploiting technology, which is an entirely different thing. When my Grandmother made a doily, she did art; when my Uncle carved a gatepost, he did art; when my Great-great-great Grandfather traveled through Wales telling stories from the Gospels at Sunday Schools, he did art. Not one of them ever did science.

My paternal Grandfather was instrumental in the development of radio, television and radar. He did science. He continued to do it as a hobby in his retirement. I know the difference between doing the one and doing the other.

Science is, in fact, one of the most irrelevant of all human activities - very few people do it, and very many ages have gone by without it being done.

Whether science and art can be the same thing is not the point, and is in any case highly improbable. 

In our Government funded (Government poisoned) arts world, the elite is the system. That's the problem with it.  The elite, in order to remain elite, must foster the power of the Government. They know their role and they fill it. Those that can't, get out. They either become independents like us, or they get another profession.

The challenge that we should have given the pathetic Walter was this: strip all funds from the theatres, and then let's see how professional your professionals really are. 

Ultimately, perhaps that's the proposition we should present to Peter Garrett - who did very well throughout his own artistic career without funding.

(Your point about Government oversight re: medical practice and science is a good one, but I am not convinced that it should be given to the Federal or even the State Governments to exercise.) 

Noël Christian

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