{"id":3730,"date":"2025-02-11T08:45:06","date_gmt":"2025-02-11T16:45:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/?p=3730"},"modified":"2025-02-11T08:45:08","modified_gmt":"2025-02-11T16:45:08","slug":"on-art-and-the-pursuit-of-power","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/2025\/02\/on-art-and-the-pursuit-of-power\/","title":{"rendered":"On art and the pursuit of power"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/image-5.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"582\" height=\"1000\" src=\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/image-5.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-3731\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/image-5.png 582w, https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/image-5-175x300.png 175w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 582px) 100vw, 582px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The arts themselves, as I considered the matter, by their ultimately sensual essence, are, in the long run, inimical to those who pursue power for its own sake. Conversely, the artist who traffics in power does so, if not necessarily disastrously, at least at considerable risk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>A Buyer&#8217;s Market<\/em> (1952).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The arts themselves, as I considered the matter, by their ultimately sensual essence, are, in the long run, inimical to those who pursue power for its own sake. Conversely, the artist who traffics in power does so, if not necessarily disastrously, at least at considerable risk. A Buyer&#8217;s Market (1952).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":3731,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-3730","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-issues","8":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/image-5.png","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3dIW5-Ya","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2241,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/2017\/11\/soft-power-and-the-arts-13\/","url_meta":{"origin":3730,"position":0},"title":"Soft power and the arts (1\/3)","author":"Michael Rushton","date":"November 10, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"This week saw the release of two major studies in the UK on culture and soft power: Soft Power Today from the British Council and the University of Edinburgh, and The Art of Soft Power from King's College London. There's a lot of depth to each of the reports, and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;issues&quot;","block_context":{"text":"issues","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/category\/issues\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"who would have thought?","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/BTS1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/BTS1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/BTS1.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/BTS1.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/BTS1.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/BTS1.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2250,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/2017\/11\/soft-power-and-the-arts-23\/","url_meta":{"origin":3730,"position":1},"title":"Soft power and the arts (2\/3)","author":"Michael Rushton","date":"November 15, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"The British Council and the University of Edinburgh have teamed up to prepare an empirical analysis of the actual effects of soft power (my introduction on soft power and the arts is here). How does this work? The idea is to take measures of different assets of a country that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;issues&quot;","block_context":{"text":"issues","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/category\/issues\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Recall","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/2015-Mercedes-Benz-E400-4MATIC-coupe-134-626x382.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/2015-Mercedes-Benz-E400-4MATIC-coupe-134-626x382.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/2015-Mercedes-Benz-E400-4MATIC-coupe-134-626x382.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2263,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/2017\/11\/soft-power-and-the-arts-3-3\/","url_meta":{"origin":3730,"position":2},"title":"Soft power and the arts (3\/3)","author":"Michael Rushton","date":"November 21, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Soft power is the ability for a country to have international influence through means other than the threat of military action or aggressive economic policy (i.e. hard power). How do the arts and cultural diplomacy work as soft power? What ends are being pursued, and how do the arts serve\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;issues&quot;","block_context":{"text":"issues","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/category\/issues\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"...on the Lake Geneva shoreline","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/unog.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4196,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/2025\/08\/unesco-and-the-united-states\/","url_meta":{"origin":3730,"position":3},"title":"UNESCO and the United States","author":"Michael Rushton","date":"August 7, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"O wad some Pow'r the giftie gie us... In the\u00a0Washington Post, Charles Djou, who was a Biden administration official and briefly held an Hawaiian congressional seat,\u00a0says the US should not, once again, remove itself from the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), but should instead remain in and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;issues&quot;","block_context":{"text":"issues","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/category\/issues\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/image-1.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/image-1.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/image-1.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/image-1.png?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/image-1.png?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/image-1.png?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":3653,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/2024\/12\/art-politics-trump\/","url_meta":{"origin":3730,"position":4},"title":"Art, Politics, Trump","author":"Michael Rushton","date":"December 5, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"A favourite old book of mine from my childhood is Kenneth Clark\u2019s\u00a0Civilisation, which goes along with his television series. It is old-school history of western civilisation, observant and wise. In his first chapter he travels to those monasteries around Ireland and Great Britain - Skellig Michael, Iona, Lindisfarne (pictured above)\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;issues&quot;","block_context":{"text":"issues","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/category\/issues\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/image-1.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/image-1.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/image-1.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/image-1.png?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/image-1.png?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/image-1.png?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1617,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/2014\/10\/amazon-and-monopoly-encore\/","url_meta":{"origin":3730,"position":5},"title":"Amazon and monopoly: encore (updated)","author":"Michael Rushton","date":"October 14, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"The debate that won't die. I've posted on whether Amazon is a monopoly (it isn't) here and here. Today Joe Nocera joins Matt Yglesias and Annie Lowrey in his critique of Franklin Foer's New Republic article that tries to claim dangerous monopoly powers at Amazon. Artsjournal.com blog neighbor Scott Timberg\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;issues&quot;","block_context":{"text":"issues","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/category\/issues\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"still don't need it","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/jail-card-monopoly.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/jail-card-monopoly.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/jail-card-monopoly.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/jail-card-monopoly.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3730","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3730"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3730\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3732,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3730\/revisions\/3732"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3731"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3730"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3730"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3730"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}