I can’t let Alex Ross’s refreshing anti-Chávez comments in the The New Yorker of Dec. 3 go without praise here. Writing about Gustavo Dudamel’s recent New York appearance with the Simón Bolivar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela, Ross reflects on the celebratory atmosphere during the encores:
The players don jackets with the Venezuelan national colors and swivel around, marching-band style. Delirium inevitably ensues. I joined in, although I wondered about the wisdom of putting on such a patriotic display at a time when other Venezuelan students have been protesting Hugo Chávez’s increasingly anti-democratic regime. Will Abreu’s fantastic project [Venezuela’s music education network, or ‘el sistema’] become a propaganda tool for a dictator-in-training? History shows that when musicians trust politicians to take care of their needs they put themselves at the politicians’ mercy. Stalin, too, was a great believer in music for the people.
These remarks are well-timed, for tomorrow, after the referendum, we will learn whether a plurality of Venezuelans have chosen to hand their liberty and future over to a sinister clown, preferring to ignore the historical warnings that Ross sets out so succinctly.
It’s almost redundant to say there’s liberal bias in the field of music and art criticism. As a proud liberal, I wouldn’t have it any other way. What I oppose is leftist bias. It’s excellent to see Ross reject the pro-Chávez mindlessness that has taken hold of many in the entertainment world (Sean Penn, Harry Belafonte, Danny Glover), not to mention the activist left in general. Ross has set out to deflate that sort of orthodoxy before (scroll to the end), and I hope he’ll continue to do so.
See my previous posts on Chávez here, here and here. Anne Applebaum breaks down the celebrities-shilling-for-dictators phenomenon here.
To be clear: this is not to suggest that Dudamel is a shill, or undeserving of the widespread praise he has received.
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