a special nature compromised by subsidy.
by Jack Moore, CA.
Jack Moore has been a practising Chartered Accountant in southern Ontario
for 40 years. He has been a consultant/hand-holder to small businesses
including two years as the comptroller of The Institute of Chartered Accountants
of Ontario (ugh). He also spent two years as vice-president and general
manager of a small national manufacturer/retailer.
Let's talk about governments, subsidies and assistance programmes to
the arts (in the broadest sense of the term).
They can be direct or indirect. The direct ones are given to the artist
by the government or its agency (sometimes several steps removed), usually
for an agreed purpose which may or may not be extremely obscure. Perhaps
a study of the sex life of the hump-backed whale while being north of the
48th parallel during the month of June. The indirect ones are given to
organisers (personal or corporate) where part of it is passed on to the
artist who is part of a group, such as a theatrical production company.
No matter which method, there is a huge bureaucracy inserted between the
money and the artist.
Governments learned many, many years ago that the dispenser of money
exerts great influence over the recipient and its associates. It is a fact
that the government of Canada instituted the War Income Tax Act in 1917
to raise money to pay for the first world war. The legislation had a sunset
clause in that it was to last for only the five years deemed required to
attain that objective. Why would one kill a goose who lays golden eggs?
We still have income taxes. Many of us work for six months or more for
the government while we are allowed to keep our earnings in the rest of
the year. Who knows what tomorrow may bring, but that is another story.
During and after the 1950's, while the western world was gearing up
its industrial might to rebuild the economies and societies of those who
were defeated, the production of income and taxes thereon was absolutely
huge. As might be expected, inflation soon set in which dramatically multiplied
the flow of money into the hands of governments. It seemed as though the
stream would never slow: in fact it became a raging torrent. Of course,
governments that live just for the day and care not about tomorrow, could
not cope with the bonanza. Rather than put away a little bit for tomorrow,
they all spent like mad and, as economies move up and down, eventually
found that the money flow was drastically reduced. However, programmes
and expectations had become cast in stone. The recipients of government
largesse would not take less and there was unhappiness throughout the land.
This in turn has brought to the surface in modern society the ever
growing special interest group movement. It has always been with us but
now it can vocalise and combine for even more pressure. The whole of society
is broken into such groups, many of which overlap. Those which represent
the ones who depend upon the governments the most, direct and indirectly,
cry the loudest. We all know who they are: doctors, lawyers, street kids,
teachers, farmers, unions, seniors, single parents, civil servants, conservationists,
immigrants, refugees, criminals, tax payers, do-gooders, etc. etc., and
lest we forget, artists. They all deserve each other, with the exception
of the artists: they don't belong in the group.
There is something that separates artists from the rest of society.
There are those who say that without art we are animals; that art is the
expression of the soul; that art is the language of the universe (actually
it is mathematics); that art conveys to the viewer (reader) the true essence,
beauty and warts of humanity. The separator is that while artists think
about and see things in depth and with perspective, the rest of us can
think and see in only straight lines. The linear view is narrow and introspective
and such is the pity.
If artists are to retain their unique insights and abilities then they
must once again learn to do it on their own. There is nothing wrong with
having a patron or a help/mate. But to be one of the leaches on the body
of society can but poison the special nature of the artist. The required
freedom of thought and action is compromised when the piper calls the tune.
If you can't live to your personal level of satisfaction on the proceeds
of your art then get a day job. But for your salvation, and mine, please
don't let the governments deaden or take away your special gifts.
