WHAT'S ON BRITSKÉ LISTY

Without Dilemma There Is No Culture

13. 9. 2010 / Bohumil Kartous

In my kitschy dream, President Klaus makes Richter minister in the Prague Castle, while a monkey with ageing pop singer/composer Michal David's face, indiscriminatelly yelling at the president's ear his 1980s hits. The whole scene then acts as a backdrop of some "epic" musical play and the audience is frantically aplauding an ensemble of celebrities. Interestingly, the public looks a bit degenerated and mutilated, which I explain to myself as being basically their media images...

Surprisingly the president bears the whole thing with dignity (his own), and during the friendly appointment confirmation, smacking Richter on the shoulders, gesturing to Hájek, who then pours some champagne in a silver bowl and put it on a table at the ceremony hall's corner. Monkey/David then jumps towards the bowl, nevertheless before that he, in a servile way, crawls over Hájek's shoulder, who gives him a slap for his shouting stunt. Everyone present, including Hájek, have a lot of fun with it all. I am unable to analyze well enough this scene, but I imagine that it has something to do with Hájek's decided anti-darwinist claim that he didn't evolve from primates.

This nightmare repeats itself rather often and mostly, as it generally happens with dreams, it is triggered by some controversial news involving our cultural scene. They have been afflicting me very often lately, since the new center right coalition government named a dentist (and once Beroun mayor) minister of education. A manager/doctor approach to the financing of culture certainly suits the government's objective of saving budget money by ministers reducing their expenses and making cuts without emotions or excessive insight, so as to not foment uncalled for dilemmas. Just that there are always dilemmas behind the development of culture. I am afraid that without dilemmas there won't be culture.

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