It would be foolish to suggest that government is a good custodian of aesthetic goals. But, there is no alternative to the state.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- While government may not be ideal for managing aesthetic goals, it remains the only viable option.
- In plain terms
- Government isn't perfect for culture, but there is no better alternative.
- What can you take from it?
- State involvement in aesthetics is necessary despite its limitations.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- Who should fund the arts?
- Is state control better than no funding?
Another view
Private philanthropy or markets might offer alternatives in some contexts.
More from John Kenneth Galbraith
In economics, the majority is always wrong.
Permalink to quote #69 Meetings are a great trap. Soon you find yourself trying to get agreement and then the people who disagree come to think they have a right to be persuaded. How…
Permalink to quote #71 Faced with the choice between changing one's mind and proving that there is no need to do so, almost everybody gets busy on the proof.
Permalink to quote #68
Related quotes
The cinema is a place of intrinsic indiscernibility between art and non-art.
Alain BadiouAlain Badiou quote #4 In contrast to the asexual chasteness of official communist art, Nazi art is both prurient and idealizing. A utopian aesthetics (physical perfection; identity …
Susan SontagSusan Sontag quote #6 I mean this, that together with the so-called increase of expenditure there grows up what may be termed a spirit which, insensibly and unconsciously perhaps, b…
William Ewart GladstoneWilliam Ewart Gladstone quote #6