In his current Journal, David Byrne discusses the completely arbitrary and unexplained denial of visas to a wide range of foreign artists and musicians. Because those denials can come at any time, many US promoters are simply not booking foreign groups, because any member of those groups is likely to be denied a visa, causing the cancellation of the tour. Byrne is tempted to see some purpose to these INS actions, and it’s not Homeland Security.
An ill-informed, isolated, ignorant populace is a populace easily manipulated. Fed a diet of reality shows coupled with faith-based reasoning (an oxymoron if ever there was one) and you have a perfect recipe for a country in which the government that can do more or less whatever it wants. Democracy becomes a farce without access to information. And culture — music, theater, dance, etc. — is information for the heart.
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