Monday, March 16, 2015

No culture?



·         Eisenhower also hoped that his Emergency Fund would “offset worldwide Communist propaganda charges that the United States has no culture and that its industrial production is oriented toward war.”  Do you think those who viewed American cultural exports would necessarily come to the conclusion Eisenhower wanted them to?  Why or why not? 

6 comments:

  1. I don't think that the world would come to the conclusion that we were cultured as Eisenhower hoped. The production and demonstration of this art seemed like we were showing off and contributed to the idea that we always had to assert ourselves over the world, especially the U.S.S.R. For example, in sports, if the U.S. came abroad and dominated the competition, it could be perceived as aggression. Specifically related to the abstract impressionism, to an untrained eye, it does not look very complicated to create. If this is shown to normal people throughout Europe, they may think that this art is simple and not as good as traditional art. Even though we viewed this art as revolutionary and interesting, the people abroad may not feel the same way. Especially since there was not much authority to judge if abstract impressionism was "good," it would be hard to get a unified response. Eisenhower probably did not get the reaction he hoped from this Emergency Fund.

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  2. The reception of American cultural exports is largely dependent on the audience. While in many countries this strategy may have been a success, and American culture may have become very popular, anti-American propaganda was not static. The U.S.S.R could easily change it's propaganda strategy to discourage the appreciation of American culture, insisting it was unsophisticated and promoted the expression of base instincts. Aside from this, art being used in this way could be seen as having a very industrialized and military use. It was used to export not only the art, but to expand American culture and influence the rest of the world through these cultural exports. This is what Rosenburg discourages in his article, as he criticizes the fact that "paintings are employed not wanted." If others saw Eisenhower's strategy in this way, it might be difficult to see American cultural exports as high culture rather than a war strategy.

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  3. I believe that one can see Eisenhower’s Emergency Fund as being entirely successful at its goal of “offset[ting] worldwide Communist propaganda charges that the United States has no culture and that its industrial production is oriented towards war.” The cultural exports of the United States were, in many cases, uniquely American, bearing no resemblance to European cultural exports. One example of such a cultural export is the art of the abstract expressionists. The cultural uniqueness of this art would have demonstrated to those in Communist nations that the United States certainly had its own thriving culture. Additionally, I interpreted a couple of the pieces, particularly Cy Twombly’s Ferragosto IV and Clyfford Still’s Untitled, both produced following the Korean War, to explicitly denounce war. I interpreted the red in the paintings to symbolize both blood (and therefore war) and Communism, and the chaos of these red-laden paintings, in my opinion, portrays an anti-war stance. I also believe that the same case applies to the jazz many Soviets secretly listened to on Radio Liberty. Jazz, in my opinion, is a peaceful musical genre; its complexity ironically calms listeners (or at least it does to me), and does not in any way advocate violence (much unlike the songs of the Red Army Choir that evoke scenes of armies and battles). Overall, I believe that the money put into Eisenhower’s Emergency Fund was well utilized. Looking back on the 50s and 60s, we see an America ripe with unique culture.

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  4. The world's view of American exports, could have come to many different conclusions. Some would have come to the conclusion that America has culture and wants to share it with world. Others, specifically in regards to the abstract art, would have been dazed and confused as to what American culture was. Still others could see the culture, with its lack of definition as well as its medium to the (shower curtains and wallpaper for art, radio for music), as nothing more than American industry being used to force America into homes around the world. In short I believe that some viewers of cultural exports would come to the conclusion Eisenhower desired them to, others not so much. I realize that this is speculation but if I can think this way, then others likely could as well

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  5. The plan was to show other nations the American dedication to the well-being of citizens and advancement of culture; the radio towers were placed in West Germany. They were able to get their songs on the radio in Communist countries, but the people there weren’t allowed to listen. Alexei Kozlov from the YouTube video listened to the station secretly along with many others. Although he bought a dictionary to understand the lyrics, many others probably didn’t make the same effort. Not to mention it was dangerous to listen because it was forbidden. Neighbors could turn each other in for listening and the Communist governments equated Jazz music with murder. Eisenhower’s intention was to show that Americans had a unique culture that wasn’t propaganda only used for war. The U.S. couldn’t help the actions of the other governments. Although the intention was to show the U.S. in a positive light, it is clear that not everyone accepted the art forms that represented U.S. culture. Fear in other countries as well as the already present dislike of America made it difficult for the initiative to be as successful as the U.S. hoped.

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  6. I do not believe that Eisenhower’s Emergency Fund changed the views of people that would “offset worldwide Communist propaganda charges that the US has no culture …” The fact that we had to bring our culture and art work to them shows them that we were better than them and that we liked showing it off. I view it as the US forcing these exports to other countries as the Communist forced their political ways on other countries. It could have possibly even made the propaganda worse in the USSR. Rosenburg said that “Modern Art in America represents a revolution of taste…” Eisenhower was trying to change the view of America through art but I believe that it was not accepted by everybody.

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