A display of decadence

Let me begin by saying that art and sport should be spaces for meeting, where people or factions who are normally enemies find neutral ground in which to communicate and, at times, make peace. It has been this way since antiquity, when a sense of chivalry and courtesy prevailed among artists, philosophers, poets and sportsmen. Even warriors and soldiers, before facing one another, managed to find chivalrous spaces of neutrality and to have a cup of tea before the battle.

That necessary premise made, I wonder whether the Palestinians will really benefit in any way from the fact that Gerard Butler and Gal Gadot cannot go to the Venice Film Festival (assuming, and I'm not conceding the point, that what is shown at the Venice Film Festival can be called "art"), or whether the lives of Ukrainians have improved since Valery Gergiev's concert was cancelled.

The most disturbing thing is that calls for a boycott then find support among the organisers who, instead of responding appropriately, simply go along with them.

It is clear that these boycotts do no good to anyone. The only effect they have is to poison a world that is already gangrenous even further; to inflate the ego of the idiotic champions of censorship; and to earn a few cheap rounds of applause for self-styled artists (see the directors and actors who signed the decadent call for a ban), themselves already in decline, from masses of the undead.

Did I write this post because I have Israeli or Russian sympathies? No. For that matter, I have no Palestinian or Ukrainian ones either. But I hope it is clear that this is not the point.

m.m.