Art is Power

One reason I liked this article was that it reminded me that artists on one fringe caused people on the other (convervative, religious) fringe to freak out long before Karen Finley and Andres Serrano. The other reason is that it tells me that art matters. Maybe not in the way soccer moms and music teachers and enlightened liberals think. But when masters of realpolitik like Dwight Eisenhower recognize art as a weapon in the war against The Dark Side (because it reflects a culture we want to show off: liberal enough that you can even do art this crazy if you want to), you know that's a power.