First causes

See that big, dumb screed there, on the left? Got the idea here, after reading this blog. I've been reading Rodney Anonymous, formerly of the Dead Milkmen, for a while now. I see some deep, artesian brilliance in it, the same kind of thing I see in Ben's writing, but from different [shifting] points on the ideological spectrum. Problem was finding a post that suitably demonstrated his genius for hilariously [if simplistically] synthesizing history. Found it.

I like Modern Art for the best of all possible reasons: because both the Nazis and the Communists hated it.

The Nazis' hatred of Modern Art no doubt stemmed from the fact that many Cubists, Surrealists, and employees of Pottery Barn drew inspiration from the ideas of Freud, Einstein and Marx (Jew, Jew, semi-Jew). The Nazis even went so far as to organize an exhibit of "degenerate" art; which leaves me with the mental image of an SS officer filing past a Picasso and mumbling,
"Gott in Himmel. Meine kliene Otto could paint that. Vie ist diss guy considered such hot schnitzel, aber Der Fuhrer could never sell one of his wunderbar landscapes? Ich just don't get est."

One of the many ironies of the Third Reich (like the fact that they were all gayer than the nominees for Best Costume Design), is that the Nazis considered Modern Art to not only be "degenerate", but "Bolshevik" to (Das) boot. You see, the Communist had banned Modern Art. Why? Because, according to the higher-ups in the Party, the workers "just didn't get it." Sorry
Yuri, but that Pollack reproduction has been deemed to be counter-revolutionary as well as pretentious.

Someone else who "just didn't get it" was US Congressman George A. Dondero who, like the Nazis, attempted to link Modern Art to Communism (Much in the same way the folks at Discover the Network have attempted to link the late Fred "Mr." Rogers to Hezbollah) and strove to "protect and preserve legitimate art as we have always known it in the United States."