"Disregarding Cultural Perceptions": Culture Minister Weimer Slams Moral Arbiters on Both Sides
Culture Minister Weimer expresses concern over alleged alarmist tendencies from the left wing side.
In a scathing critique, Culture Minister Wolfram Weimer accuses self-appointed moral guardians from the left and right of cultural insensitivity. The removal of a nude Venus statue from a Berlin office, he argues, is "an act of culturally detached blindness" that attacks the very heart of artistic freedom and patronizes the viewer.
Weimer pens a bold op-ed in the "Süddeutsche Zeitung", denouncing the freedom-thwarting intrusion of the left embodied in the form of cancel culture. The latest example, he claims, is the controversial removal of the bronze Venus Medici statue from the Federal Office for Central Services and Open Property Matters (BADV) due to allegations of misogyny.
"Radiance and Strength": Weimer's Crusade against Jacobin Iconoclasm
Politics, the Culture Minister argues, ought not to interfere with the sanctity of art. The modern heir of Jacobin iconoclasm, he laments, has given birth to a culture of "shitstorms" fostered by radical feminists, postcolonialists, eco-socialists, and others. Weimer's critique, reminiscent of a bygone era, seems to challenge the very foundations of contemporary political correctness.
"Language Guardianship as Last Resort": The fallout of Left-wing Alarmism
In a society steeped in left-wing alarmism, Weimer warns, anticipatory obedience, paternalism, and language policing hold sway. The removal of the Venus statue, reflective of this Zeitgeist, is but one example. He recalls the dismissal of a teacher in Florida for showing her students Michelangelo's nude David, another victim of the current storm brewing in Western culture.
"One is Patronizing the Audience": The right's narrow-mindedness mirrors the left
Both extremes, argues Weimer, share a worrying commonality: they do not trust the people to freely form their own opinions nor appreciate the freedom of culture. The arts, he maintains, are not to be canonized under the banner of a new moral terror, for such censorship only patronizes the audience.
The liberal response, according to Weimer, should not be political coercion but rather the active defense of artistic freedom. "The boundaries of the sayable, explorable, and representable should be expanded, not contracted," he insists.
Weimer has expressed concerns about the looming specter of a "global cultural war", a conflict not exclusive to neo-nationalist regimes like China and Russia but also brewing in the West.
[1] German Press Agency (dpa), Ministry of Culture and Media[2] Die Welt, "Culture Minister Weimer wants to tax digital platforms"[3] The Jerusalem Post, "Weimer fights against anti-Semitism"
- The Culture Minister, Wolfram Weimer, in his op-ed for the "Süddeutsche Zeitung," addresses the issue of politics interfering with art, specifically in the context of the Ministry of Culture and Media and the general-news, criticizing the Left's use of cancel culture and the Right's narrow-mindedness, arguing that both sides lack trust in the public's ability to form their own opinions.
- Weimer, in his crusade against Jacobin iconoclasm and the modern cultural insensitivity, also addresses the political implications of these actions, stating that the removal of controversial artworks like the Venus Medici statue from the Federal Office for Central Services and Open Property Matters (BADV) serves as an example of the encroachment of politics into the realm of culture, a trend he fears could lead to a global cultural war.
