Submitted by M.A Richardson…
“The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.” – W.B.Yeats 1919
Cancel culture has become a competitive sport and a lucrative business. BLM and the SJWs are running a money-making scam preying on institutions and government funding bodies to promote their political cause. Nowhere is this more prevalent than in academia and the arts.
Until recently, classical music was a space almost untouched by the social justice warrior hysteria of the radical left. Things have changed, and at speed during the opportunity of lockdowns. The Royal Opera House Covent Garden, English National Opera, Juilliard, and Manhattan School of Music are but a few of the latest victims added to the list of BLM’s conquests and their social engineering agenda.
Gavin Williamson, Education Secretary to the British Government, declared that the right to free speech must be defended if universities are to receive public funding. Under Article 10 of the Human Rights Act 1998, everyone has the right to freedom of expression. Further, Williamson outlined that public funding should not be used for:
“subsidising niche activism and campaigns”. – Gavin Williamson
In the arts world this activism is rife, and Arts Council England (ACE) are rebranding under the boot of BLM and the neoliberal globalist left of Soros, the ‘open society’ and identity politics. #Black Lives Matter continues to tag many websites in our artistic and corporate institutions, turning them into free advertising space for a political movement. Art is being weaponised and politicised at the behest of public funding bodies, unions and the liberal left establishment. The language of Critical Race Theory is rolled out in-house as re-education and behavioural modification programs. Oliver Dowden, Arts Minister, seems to be totally unaware of the woke marxist takeover on his watch. This is the new 10 year strategy of ACE:
“Relevance is becoming the new litmus test. It will no longer be enough to produce high quality work… You will need to be able to demonstrate that you are also facing all of your stakeholders and communities in ways that they value.” – deputy director Simon Mellor
A message to Simon Mellor. It is ‘enough’ to produce high quality work. Relevance should be decided by the audience and the innovators, not on an equal opportunities form or an inclusion survey undertaken by a government body. Excellence is the reason an audience pays for tickets, it is why there are private sponsors and justification for public subsidy. Relevance, and therefore funding, cannot be reduced to an algorithm of politically correct data decided by Mr Mellor and his team of managers. It seems Mellor is hoping to attract foot soldiers for the radical left establishment to police the arts, to kill spontaneity and free-speech. Theatre and music are becoming places of intolerance and indoctrination, the individual is being crushed and replaced by the tyranny of the collective.
The British Actors Equity Association UK (Equity) which includes actors, singers, dancers, has fully embraced cultural marxism:
“We stand with our sisters and brothers in the US, UK and throughout the world who are speaking out against inequality, injustice and racism following the murder of George Floyd.
We recognise that structural racism and white privilege are realities in this country {UK}.
We will continue to fight for fair representation and portrayal for black and minority ethnic people across our industries.
#BlackLivesMatter – Christine Payne, Equity General Secretary “ (Actors Union web page)
When asked why BLM was being promoted on the unions website the assistant to Christine Payne responded:
“As a cisgender white male……”.
This is pure Frankfurt School, and tells you all you need to know about the training, agenda and direction of Equity and how it intends to bring its staff and members into line. Identity politics has replaced discourse, it is killing free speech and creativity.
We are in the realms of postmodern Critical Race Theory, where racism is a permanent state to be managed within political, economic and social structures. It is a negative, hopeless, and hopelessly destructive theory based on identity politics, division by race and gender and unending struggle. Children are encouraged to divide into ethnic categories, white males shamed and white females told to be quiet, whilst the oppressed are mobilised and weaponised. This is public shaming by race, it is racism masquerading as anti-racism.
This neo marxist theory of unending conflict between victim and oppressor is twisted into post-modern ethno tribalism. It has been taught and promoted in academia for decades, finally filtering through to the workplace with this new generation of SJWs. Gender, identity and ethnicity have replaced country and family, the cult is all. This is an industry and is creating a new middle-management structure of micro management of the person. Thoughts are controlled through the filter of intersectional language, constantly checked, weighed and dissected. It is an ideology that will take everything from you, your individuality, your language, your thoughts. It is a new religion. This parasitic cult is sucking the life and spirit from our nations, preying on the weak and taking just enough to keep the host alive.
In the US, two of the vice presidential front runners, Karen Bass and Kamala Harris, advocate the repeal of the California State anti-discrimination law with all that this implies; reparation, land restitution, redistribution and much more. There can be no doubt that in western democracies, people are now being discriminated against and harassed both in and out of the workplace. If you do not agree with the cultural marxists you can be cancelled no matter what ethnicity or socio-economic group you come from. It is left to the private citizen to defend themselves. Western governments have walked away from the battlefield, preoccupied with micromanaging the pandemic and unable to justify or defend the economic and social carnage they have unleashed. This is social engineering hiding behind a virus aided by big tech, mainstream media and the Davos ‘way forward’ agenda.
“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.” – Martin Luther King Jr
For the radical left, this statement is contentious, perhaps well-meaning, but flawed and of its time. The mask has slipped, the demands ever more shrill, BLM are an unapologetic black separatist movement. This is not a negotiation, it is taking power by any means. BLM know they can take the streets, governments let them, the work-place is their new battlefield.
What are the implications for the future of the arts, and why did they surrender without struggle to the mob?
The Royal Opera House Covent Garden (ROH) are a textbook cult convert, weak, vulnerable and desperate for friends. It’s politicisation seems to have been prompted by a statement by Mark Dakin, ROH Technical Director who on the 20 June 2020 attacked the institution that employs him and which he appears to hate:
“I am ashamed the organisation for which I work has chosen to exercise the privilege of staying publicly silent about the racist murder of the African American George Floyd, proactively choosing to ignore #blackouttuesday, as it always publicly ignores Black History Month, when so many of our contemporaries have chosen to use their considerable influence to publicly stand alongside their black, Asian and minority ethnic employees and communities more widely, in this devastating and traumatic moment… As a man of colour, the privilege of silence is something I do not have”
He calls the ROH “an unrelentingly white organisation”. If he were to have a placard it would read ‘white silence is violence’.
In June 2020, the Royal Opera House Covernt Garden (ROH), broadcast an online opera/ballet performance from the main stage at Covent Garden, headed by Antonio Pappano, music director. After a short speech to the camera, he walked centre stage to lead the performers in a group ‘taking the knee’, effectively politicising the company. Last year they received over 24 million pounds in public subsidy. If Pappano thinks he, or the music he conducts, will be spared by the cultural marxists he is mistaken. Kneeling is just the beginning of the initiation, an introduction to the cultural revolution. Pappano has a profound connection with classical music, but has demonstrated the naivety of a child when it comes to politics.
This kind of virtue-signalling sends a chill down the spine of any independent free-thinking artist. He has allowed himself and ROH to be used for the purposes of propaganda.
#BLMgofundmeUK:
“We’re guided by a commitment to dismantle imperialism, capitalism, white-supremacy, patriarchy and the state structures that disproportionately harm black people in Britain and around the world.”
“Developing and delivering training, police monitoring and strategies for the abolition of police.’
“The UK Taxpayer was paying for the Reparations of UK slave owners up until 2015, as reported by the Bank of England. If it was possible for Reparations to be given to slave owners and their families, including David Cameron’s, then the reparations of black people dealing with generational trauma and institutional racism is wholly possible. The redistribution of wealth is a key factor of allyship in 2020.”
“We’re developing new and exciting ways of organising that centre transparency, accountability, safety and healing for our organisers and our communities. BLMUK organises in the black radical tradition, using political education, direct action and political leadership toward black liberation.”
“Our commitment to all black lives means that we lift up the experiences of the most marginalised in our communities, including but not limited to working class queer, trans, undocumented, disabled, Muslim, sex workers, women/non-binary, HIV+ people”. -#BLMgofundmeUK June 2020
Rebecca Hains, professor of media and communication at Salem State University, Massachusetts, advocates 5 steps in response to an accusation of racism:
“You can begin by taking a deep breath and a pause after being called racist, rather than reacting instantly. You will likely feel attacked and defensive, despite your best efforts to stay calm. Try to check those emotions: don’t argue.
Instead, apologize, and consider asking someone — either the person who called you racist, or a trusted friend who understands racism who you can chat with about the situation— for help understanding what went wrong.
For example, if you’d like, you can use this language: “I didn’t realize that remark was racist. I am so sorry. Would you be willing to help me understand how what I said reflects racial biases or unconscious racism? I really want to learn and would be so grateful.” – Rebecca Hains
Hains goes on to explain:
“Even if you know in your heart that you are not racist, remember, it is possible to have implicit (or unconscious) racial biases.”
The accusation of inherent racism will cost your organisation a lot of money. Like a puppy your ‘white fragility’ is for life, not just for Christmas. The premise is corrupt and unsustainable, like a Ponzi scheme, it will eventually collapse under its own corrupt premise, but not before inflicting enormous damage to our nations. This facist doctrine is yet another ‘insurance policy’ executed by the left, to render electorates fearful of speaking out and casting their vote. This is an attempt to delegitimise the US November election and has, along with Antifa, become the malevolent component of the scorched-earth policy unleashed by the DNC and inflicted on democrat cities all across America, spilling over into the UK with devastating consequences.
COMPLICITY
English National Opera (ENO) have also fallen under the spell of BLM and identity politics. The company has been undergoing behavioural reprogramming which will intensify and become more repressive to the artists. ENO’s Director of ‘The People Department’, Vinita Suryanarayanan, has a background in the retail and leisure industry and a deep lack of knowledge of the creative environment of theatre and opera, clearly qualifying her for a powerful position over creatives at a national opera company.
Last year, the artists and staff were ‘encouraged’ to take part in an education program, overseen by a company called ‘the surveyinitiative.co.uk
The Survey Initiative have ENO on their website as a ‘case study’:
“Our team of consultants undertook 15 workshops with over 300 employees. Many staff members weren’t keen to engage in the process, but thanks to our experienced team a nurturing and ‘safe’ environment was developed.”
Director the People Dept at ENO commented:
“The English National Opera is on a long journey of cultural change, but thanks to The Survey Initiative, we’ve already made major strides. Our latest staff survey was a real eye-opener and demonstrated that their work has had a positive effect on all aspects of our workplace.”
– Vinita Suryanarayanan – The People Dept ENO
http://www.surveyinitiative.co.uk/case-studies/the-english-national-opera/
“{a} new appraisal system was set up, with performance measured on the new behavioural framework. Behaviour at the English National Opera can now be challenged, and a new culture enabling employees to speak out is growing. In the past performers had rarely received an official appraisal and there was a belief that artistes didn’t need to abide by the same values as others. By engaging with all staff, the new set of values and behavioural framework was welcomed by all.” – surveyinitiative on ENO
It is questionable if the ‘survey initiative’ was welcomed by all, but since this Orwellian institutionalised behavioural therapy is part of the work schedule, cooperation is assured. This is pure intimidation. It would be interesting to know if ‘individuals behaviour frameworks’ have been modified or if people are simply staying silent to keep their jobs. Getting fired is a real possibility if you break with the party line. BLM and the radical left are now dictating the companies performance program, it is no longer about the art, it is about an ideological agenda.
This repressive stasi-like atmosphere is trampling on artists and the art. It is another middle-management job creation scheme to justify a job title, funded without taxpayer consent. How much did this cost and why should the general public pay for the effective removal of free speech and imposition of a culture of fear and informers? It is not conducive to creativity, but is an excellent framework for totalitarianism. If public institutions are going to declare political affiliation, they are no longer impartial, they are an arm of that political movement.
It would be interesting to know how private sponsors are reacting to this ideologically driven movement infecting the companies they help fund. Since the government won’t intervene, it is down to the private sponsors and ‘Friends’ to ask questions and withdraw funding until these agitators and political activists are removed from ROH and ENO.
BLM sees everything through the lens of racial power and identity politics. It is time the public asked questions of the Arts Minister Oliver Dowden. Perhaps he should spend less time saving British industry from Chinese takeover, one of his areas of expertise, and instead, address the takeover of the British arts industry. They are not so very different, both involve the appropriation of British industry at the expense of the public. This is intellectual property theft of another kind by cultural marxists.
At Cisco, 237 people were fired en masse in June, when employees highlighted the discriminatory nature of reinforcing racial division in company training programmes. One person commented ‘All lives matter’, which is now a sacking offence. Microsoft and LinkedIn instead of firing employees ’enforce’ training and double down on people who are not of the same opinion. You either go along with the training or you are disposed of or silenced.
This ideology is ripping through our institutions and adopted by the global corporates as a damage limitation exercise and a rebranding opportunity pandering to the Facebook generation and has reached critical mass. The adults are leaving the room, or perhaps hiding under a table hoping to keep their jobs.
The neo marxist agenda has been around for many years, it has been cultivated in our education systems and like a trojan horse, has been waiting for this moment. With the lockdowns of Covid-19, whilst the public are shut down and muzzled, BLM saw the opportunity to crash the system and restart it in their own distorted image. It is the perfect backdrop in which this creature can thrive, and governments have no intention of intervening to defend the general public.
The board of Arts Council England is full of professional managers, and it’s 10 year plan is filled with thought-speak and the language of identity politics and inclusion. Simon Mellor, ACE Deputy Chief Executive, is killing the very creativity he professes to support. Once theatre is ideologically driven, it dies. It is only relevant to an audience with the same political sensibilities, it is a self-congratulatory, self-affirming echo chamber that rewards the converted and alienates everyone else. Art should push boundaries, not conform, or be constrained by them. This should all be possible in a democratic state, but perhaps the Britain we knew before Covid-19 no longer exists, it is now under the watch of this authoritarian, misguided government who are totally out of touch with the people they pretend to represent.
This month, a 1.57 billion pound bailout was given by the government to the arts industry to help it through the Covid-19 crisis, the bulk of which will be allocated by the Arts Council. Oliver Dowden hinted that theatre, music and arts venues will not function with any normality until the New Year. As masks are made mandatory in shops with a £100 fine for non-compliance, re-introduced to indoor venues, and singing is still banned, even at funerals in England, future lockdowns have become random daily threats. There is a realisation that this huge bailout is not to keep the companies open, but will be handed out for debt management.
“Arts funding is nominally in the hands of Arts Council England, which needs approval from the Department of Culture Media and Sport, which passes the buck back to ACE, which kicks it up to DCMS… and so it goes.
I have argued for years against this pointless duplication of effort. Right now, it is literally killing the arts. The Culture Secretary says he is working hard on a solution. In the interests of efficiency, he ought to be out of a job.” – Norman Lebrecht
Many companies on furlough will choose to go into administration once government schemes end, others restructured along the lines of the woke inclusivity 10 year plan demanded by ACE, who hold the purse strings. Freedom of expression and the pursuit of excellence is no longer a consideration. Why would any artist want to work in such an oppressive and restrictive environment? Thousands of self-employed artists not on contract have had no financial help during lockdown, and for the future, they see the writing on the wall, it is spray painted in large letters, BLM.
The BLM agenda is constantly changing as they go mainstream, the language of intersectionality is taking hold, and power-hungry converts embed their new religion into our institutions.
“We are self-reflexive and do the work required to dismantle cisgender privilege and uplift Black trans folk, especially Black trans women who continue to be disproportionately impacted by trans-antagonistic violence.
We build a space that affirms Black women and is free from sexism, misogyny, and environments in which men are centered.
We practice empathy. We engage comrades with the intent to learn about and connect with their contexts.” – BLM we believe page 15.07.2020
In New York, at the Juilliard School of Music, two senior members of staff on the vocal faculty have been under investigation for racism. This charge was brought against them by a white student, then retracted. The accusation alone was enough to begin the investigation which is ongoing. One person has already been declared ‘innocent’ by a committee, but for the SJW’s there is an endless supply of the ‘guilty’ to correct, coerce, smear and dispose of.
At the Manhattan School of Music (MSM), there is a petition initiated by a former disgruntled white student to cancel one of the heads of department, on grounds of ‘racism’. This witch-hunt is straight out of the Maoist youth playbook, where pupils named and shamed their teachers and professors, many of whom went on to be killed by the mob, or were ‘encouraged’ to commit suicide after ‘struggle sessions’. Some were even cannibalised by pupils. Who will be next on the menu?
Online petitions and twitter shaming are the new equivalent of hanging a banner around the neck of the accused. The wording is poisonous and absolute:
“Along with the racist behaviour shown by ………., there have also been reports of homophobic aggression and body shaming directed at students.
…….. is a danger to the arts community, .. must be fired from … position at Manhattan School of Music immediately. We are calling on the President, Provost and others in leadership positions to do what is right and terminate .. ……. tenure at MSM. … ……. is not fit to teach, this is evident. “ — ex student MSM
The student’s profile goes on to explain:
“I never felt that my path was set out in high school. Some students knew that they wanted to be a doctor or a lawyer or a teacher. I didn’t know where I fit in. And since I didn’t go to a performing arts high school, everything wasn’t planned out. Today I’m grateful for that, because I feel like a more well-rounded person.”
Considering the venom and self-righteous enthusiasm with which these students are possessed and the power they are wielding without accountability, there is no telling where this might end, but careers and lives can be ruined, they are being ruined all over academia in the push for a dominant left radical ideology.
For their own security, classical music staff will need to film lessons and be constantly vigilant as to their language. BLM have achieved what they desired, the infiltration of yet another industry and the elevation of the informer to hero and useful weapon. For BLM activists it is just sport. These students will have plenty of time to examine their consciences in years to come. They would do well to look to the testimonials of survivors and informers from Mao’s cultural revolution. Many accusers find it unbearable to live with the guilt of what they did to the professors whom they revered.
For classical dancers, singers and musicians, decades of dedication to an art form from a very young age, most of their childhood, is necessary before being considered for a job, often at the expense of everything else in their lives. Totalitarian regimes are not kind to artists and writers, they are often the first to be disposed of or are forced to comply with the tyranny of the mob and driven underground.
Without excellence there is no art and there is no audience. Great art is often formed out of desperation, and there will be plenty of that in years to come. Perhaps ROH are unaware of the takeover at ENO, perhaps MSM are not aware of the inquisition taking place at Juilliard. This is a systematic power-grab, no different from an attempted takeover of a board at a corporation. You will soon find your product is under the control of a foreign power and you will have given it away through fear of standing up to the threat.
For the new children of the revolution, 2020 is year zero. There is no place for the old ways, old culture, old systems. The composers we hear performed today will have no place in a future where the past is exorcized of anything that might offend sensibilities, it will be ‘re-imagined’ in their own distorted image. BLM are looking for reparation for past sins, the classical world is full of sinners.
INTO THE VOID
Outside the arts, even in this poisonous climate of fear, some companies and individuals are beginning to push back, they are the heroes. Red Bull CEO Dietrich Mateschitz has fired not only two of his top US executives for pushing the woke SJW agenda, but also laid off his entire marketing and culture teams, who had been dedicating themselves to introducing their toxic politics into his company. This is the model for the arts. Artists must speak up if the industry is to be saved, if free speech is to be saved. You cannot appease the mob, you have to fire these bullies. Stop hiring them, and above all, stop funding them.
The arts are a perfect environment for untalented middle-management executives wishing to exert power over creatives. Politics has no place in our publicly-funded institutions, the public’s money must be protected from this cult, by legislation if necessary.
The politicisation of state subsidised theatre is the first sign that governments are losing control of the narrative and allowing the system change from within. This is without the consent of the electorate. It is extremely troubling that the first to fall are the elites of opera and ballet. This significant shift is sinister. The radical left failed to take power at the ballot box, knowing the taxpayer will never vote for their policies, so they come in by the back door. It is a lurch to the left with the blessing of establishment politicians who are fixated on the globalist corporate structure and keeping power at any cost, and who don’t give a damn about the people who voted for them.
The BBC have still not been defunded, for the government, they are a convenient way to police the nation with propaganda. Big tech are not being held to account for censoring dissenting views. No one has yet been prosecuted for the 4 year coup on Trump by state security operatives still working for the Obama administration. For the globalists, Trump is a blip, something to delegitimise and erase. The outcome of the 2020 presidential election could, if the Democrats seize power, set the course for a totalitarian future inhabited by the radical left.
‘Remember that we live in a city that is largely liberal white supremacists. So when we say ‘fuck Donald Trump’, remember to say ‘fuck Eric Garcetti’. – Melina Abdullah co-founder BLM.
Eric Garcetti is the radical left wing Mayor of Los Angeles, for BLM, he is also the enemy, he is simply the wrong colour.
Never has the result of an election been so important for the survival of democracy in the West. America is standing at the edge of a cliff and there is little time to escape the fall. The responsibility is on the shoulders of the American people to get out and vote and defend the constitution, and defend it they must with everything they have. It is not just their own country at stake. Democracies all across the West watch in disbelief as the cultural marxists infiltrate their countries.
Western governments seem fearful of taking action, instead they silence and lock down law-abiding citizens and let the most violent and forceful activists take control of the narrative and the justice system. The world is holding its breath as the last few months of the US presidential election runs its course. It is a terrifying moment in history. If this anarchy can happen in America, it can happen in any democracy. Britain could be the next to fall.
Covid-19 has allowed governments to speak and act in absolutes, to remove freedoms and impose lockdowns and emergency laws in an unprecedented and randomised way. They will not willingly return power to the individual. We may never see democracy again in our lifetime. The enemy is upon us, this is the eleventh hour, the Balkanisation of the US is one election away. This could be the generation that beckons in the extinction of Western democracy.
“Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same.” – Ronald Reagan