Unfair to Philistines ?
In a way I sympathise with the gentleman who—on the very day, by a happy coincidence, that the State acquired a fine -Cdzanne—sturdily wrote in a letter to The Times: " I am sure I cannot be unique in taking no interest in art of any sort and in thinking that those who enjoy its harmless attractions should themselves pay for their enjoyment." But the " small minority " to which he says he belongs is not the only small minority of its kind among the tax-payers. It must irk vegetarians terribly to know that they are contributing to a calf subsidy. It seems hard that pacifists should help to pay for tanks, deaf people for military bands and the hirsute for other people's wigs. But these sectional interests have something positive—whether it is a conviction, or a disability or merely a great deal of hair —on which they might if they chose base a claim for special consideration. Merely to "take no interest in art of any sort" is a misfortune whose victims—especially if they do not shrink from publicly calling attention to their status as such—would not seem to have a very strong case for preferential treatment.
Previous page
