A week ago, a panel discussion at the Juilliard School of Music featured, among its participants, the odd match-up of Stephen Sondheim and Antonin Scalia debating government funding of the arts. What I find even odder is that I think I agree with Scalia. Here's a quote — I think this constitutes "fair use" — of an article that may have now disappeared into the "pay" section of The New York Times…
"The First Amendment has not repealed the basic rule of life, that he who pays the piper calls the tune," Justice Scalia said. "When you place the government in charge of funding art, just as when you place the government in charge of providing education, somebody has to pick the content of what art is going to be funded, what subjects are going to be taught. The only way to eliminate any government choice on what art is worthwhile, what art isn't worthwhile, is to get the government totally out of the business of funding," he said.
I disagree with the implied message there that the government ought to get out of providing education…and actually, I don't think Scalia is against government paying for education, just with controlling its content. But I do think the government has no business deciding what art is worthwhile. (Before you write me the same angry e-mails I got the last time I said this: I am not in favor of yanking all PBS funding tomorrow. I think there might even be ways that tax incentives could encourage private individuals and corporations to donate more to the arts. But I don't think Senators and Congresspeople should be deciding to spend our tax money on some works of art and not others, and of course they can't fund any of it without making those decisions.)
I also disagree with one other thing Scalia is quoted as saying in the Times coverage, and this is a good day to disagree with it…
They [Scalia and Sondheim] even parted ways in a discussion of the definition of art. Mr. Sondheim said one element was a work's ability to endure. Justice Scalia said that the Abbott and Costello routine "Who's on First?" would certainly last a long time. But "it will never be art!" he said. The composer took issue with the example, saying it was not that old and that half the people in the theater probably did not even know it. Justice Scalia called for a show of hands, and many shot up. "Ask anybody under 30," Mr. Sondheim said. "They won't know."
I'm not sure Sondheim is correct that no one under thirty knows the routine or that, if they don't, funding for the arts would do anything to change that. But I'm sure Scalia is wrong that it will never be art. It already is…plus, it makes a lot more sense than George W. Bush, et al., Petitioners v. Albert Gore, Jr., et al.