Village Squire, 1978-11, Page 58A
P.S.
There are too many snobs in the arts
BY KEITH HOUSTON
"Really darling, I won't go to that low
brow play if this offered me a n}illion
dollars."
The speech is caricatured but the
sentiment is all too true. Otte of my pet
beefs is the elitism of the arts and the
media in this country. The opinion of too
many people in the arts and the media in
Canada is that artists and media know so
much more than the people out there that
they serve.
No where is elitism more rampant than
in the harried halls of the Canadian
Broadcasting Corporation. Thankfully, that
feeling of having to educate the masses to
their own good even if they don't want it
has passed out of the entertainment and
drama departments to some extent. Oh
there are still some programs on both radio
and television dealing with the classics of
music, such as Musicamera, and the
classics of theatre, and these are needed.
But the general trend of programing at
C.B.C. in the last few years has been to
present programs that the average man in
the street can enjoy. So we have shows like
Sidestreet and A Gift To Last. They are
shows that may not go down in history
along side Macbeth and Julius Caesar, but
they are a heck of a lot better than the
drivel served up on more commercial
networks like Charlie's Angels and
Baretta. And they are Canadian shows that
Canadians will watch. They tell us
something about our times present and our
times past, not times present in New York
of times past in the U.S. south.iest. They
give people a sense of identity knowing
that these shows show our own cities and
are made by our own talents.
That, of course is not good enough for
the elitists. These shows are too shallow,
they say. They're appealing to the lowest
common denominator to draw an audience.
Thankfully, for the present at least this
element seems to be in the manority at the
C.B.C. in entertainment.
Not so it appears in news. Former
C.B.C. anchorman Peter Kent had some
good points to make when he sounded off
before the Canadian Radio -Television and
Telecommunications Commission at the
time of the C.B.C.'s application for licence
renewal but he also showed that elitism is
on the loose among C.B.C. news
56 The Village Squire November 1978
personnel. One of the things he objected to
was the fact, that sport events and things
like the Academy Awards were allowed to
delay the C.B.C. National News. Well I can
perhaps agree with the part about the
Academy awards because even though I
often watch them. I have a funny feeling
about having the C.B.C. spend my tax
dollars to increase the influence of
American culture. Surely the private
networks would be happy to do the same
and it wouldn't cost me any taxes. But
sports, well that's another matter. Peter
reminds me of the complaints of
churchmen when Sunday sports came in
and interfered with church attendance. In
fact I think he might take the National
News even a little more religiously than did
some of the pastors.
It's a theme that has echoed by many
other people who think that they know
what's best for the public of course. Give
the elitist's their way and sports would be
banned from the C.B.C. all together. Well
I'm not with them. In this day and age I
think that Canadians might need the
escapism of watching the last few exciting
minutes of a hockey game more than they
need another dose of doom and gloom
about the falling dollar, soaring inflation
and increased unemployment. In the long
run what matters more than human life and
if we keep hearing Mr. Kent and his
buddies cheerfully bringing us the latest
tragedy every night (or every hour on the
hour on radio) a few of us may be tempted
to end our lifes (or perhaps theirs).
Elitism is a strong part of most of the
arts in Canada. It often seems that the
measure of success if how few people come
to your theatre or read your poetry or
understand your paintings because that
means that you're so much smarter than
the common herd. The idea is to do
something that only you can understand
because that means everybody in the world
is below you in intelligence and artistic
understanding.
It strange that if you get into political
discussions with artistic people you'll
usually find a strong leftish trend in their
thinking. Whether it's just a small social
democratic leaning or a Marxist, Commun-
ist or Maoist (there are more divisions than
you can count on two hands) philosphy,
you'll soon hear people start talking about
the integrity of the working man and the
importance of the masses. The aim of such
people supposedly is to break down the
economic and cultural class distinctions so
that everybody is united.
To me the irony of all this talk is that a
good many of these same people are busy
building classes when it comes to the arts.
If something appeals to the masses, it is
obviously second rate. If something
appeals to the elite few then it's a great
masterpiece. unless it becomes too
popular.
I'm as hypocritical as everybody I guess
in that I think some of the programs seen
on television these days are a horrible
waste of money but if people want to watch
them. then I guess that's their choice. 1
would like to see people watching
something of a little higher calibre and 1'd
certainly at least like to see them given a
choice but 1 also realize that no matter how
well educated people were. not everyone is
going to like Shakespeare and Ibsen.
People should be given a choice in what
they can see on television or in the theatres
or in the art galleries. If we truly believe in
egalitarianism then we should let people
make their choices and stop being so
damned snotty about culture.
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