http://www.amazon.co.uk/Culture-Wars-Discipline-Devils-Regions/dp/1481943324/ref=pd_rhf_gw_p_t_1_63VW
In this book the author argues in favour of traditional art which develops within traditional forms, and shows his distaste for modern artists whom he considers need to shock to get recognised: a trait which he concludes is negative and harmful. He questions whether an object is magically transformed just by being placed in an art gallery and calls upon our young artists of today to uplift and revive our civilisation.
He then moves on to discuss modern architecture and is similarly critical of the way Britain's modern towns and cities have been transformed for the benefit of local councils and commerce and not for the country as a whole. The resultant brutalist architecture has left communities culturally dispossessed by these ideological schemes and only the highly articulate and professional classes can defeat them. The book then goes on to list many of the horrors that have been constructed in our major cities from London to Liverpool and the author describes how these dwarf and intrude upon the elegance of the buildings juxtaposed alongside.
If you are one of those who trails through a modern art gallery completely unmoved by the random daubings on the walls, or who shudder as a much loved elegant building is demolished only to make way for yet another culturally and aesthetically devoid concrete block, then you will delight in this book.
David Hamilton Culture Wars: To Discipline the Devil's Regions (Paperback)
The underlying premise of this original book is that our civilisation is being destroyed from within by anti-artists and their sponsors. Unlike other critics of contemporary art and architecture David Hamilton does not write in abstractions from fear of making bold statements but uses practical reasoning and gives ample examples of the destruction of our culture and towns and cities. He names names. The dynamic is to take the artistic and cultural establishment head-on. This is not the work of a reactionary but a traditionalist who is bringing traditional ways and thinking to bear on contemporary problems. He exposes the attempt to destroy our art and culture from within and how the perpetrators fund this with money confiscated off taxpayers who do not want their art and culture destroyed and by funding from Global Corporations who do want to break down cultural distinctions and national boundaries.
it
is a seminal work and begins the process of cultural renewal and that
is something we can all join in our own ways. It is not a negative
work. The author makes positive suggestions and gives solid reasons
for his conclusions.
What struck me is that he offers a new definition of art which is different from contemporary unfathomable abstract definitions and is suitable for a counter cultural revolution. He explains the dichotomy of “technique” versus “applied knowledge.” The modern time is one of technique, which is rote use of linear thinking. The difference between technique, which produces form; and artistic talent or the knack which produces content or the meaning which is born into one as a “gift” and can not be taught. He uses a very enlightening explanation of how the two interact: the partnership of The Beatles and producer George Martin,who gave form to their natural genius. (pp.12 – 13).
The book opens with the degeneracy of the modern visual arts, with the revolution of the 60s which made art vulgar "mass culture", stopped the sacred fount of artistic creativity and substituted sterile shock techniques in its place. The examples Hamilton provides of the increasing use of pornography in modern art are enlightening because they reveal that these, often literally, excremental productions are ardently promoted by "art"-collectors.
He demonstrates that contemporary anti-artists are spreading evil by promoting paedophilia and the abuse of children. As evidence of how anti-artists encourage paedophilia but encourage the murder of children, he quotes Jake Chapman saying that the boys who murdered Liverpool toddler James Bulger performed "a good social service".(1) He cites the starving of a dog in an art gallery in Nicaragua and states that we are on the way back to human sacrifices as art.
What struck me is that he offers a new definition of art which is different from contemporary unfathomable abstract definitions and is suitable for a counter cultural revolution. He explains the dichotomy of “technique” versus “applied knowledge.” The modern time is one of technique, which is rote use of linear thinking. The difference between technique, which produces form; and artistic talent or the knack which produces content or the meaning which is born into one as a “gift” and can not be taught. He uses a very enlightening explanation of how the two interact: the partnership of The Beatles and producer George Martin,who gave form to their natural genius. (pp.12 – 13).
The book opens with the degeneracy of the modern visual arts, with the revolution of the 60s which made art vulgar "mass culture", stopped the sacred fount of artistic creativity and substituted sterile shock techniques in its place. The examples Hamilton provides of the increasing use of pornography in modern art are enlightening because they reveal that these, often literally, excremental productions are ardently promoted by "art"-collectors.
He demonstrates that contemporary anti-artists are spreading evil by promoting paedophilia and the abuse of children. As evidence of how anti-artists encourage paedophilia but encourage the murder of children, he quotes Jake Chapman saying that the boys who murdered Liverpool toddler James Bulger performed "a good social service".(1) He cites the starving of a dog in an art gallery in Nicaragua and states that we are on the way back to human sacrifices as art.
The author admits to being a Traditional or National Conservative. This has led to false comparisons with Roger Scruton but Scruton is more of a German Idealist than a Conservative. Scruton constructs abstract arguments or quotes un-Conservative philosophers like Kant and Plato. Hamilton has none of these confusions and quotes Edmund Burke and Michael Oakeshott's Rationalism in Politics and follows the British Empirical tradition. He notably entitled his essay on the environment and animals Another Vindication of Natural Society.
Hamilton is a former journalist and salesman who travels around photographing interesting things and having a few pints with locals.
Hamilton refuses to dumb down and treats his readers as intelligent people. It is a complicated book and as Brett Stevens (amerika.com) says in his excellent and insightful Foreword:
"Readers new to the idea of traditional thinking may take a few moments to adapt to the winding, seemingly care free form. Over time it becomes clear that this style is designed to bring out the sentiment and aesthetics of the subject matter, and not to be merely functional in the way that a catalogue description, law or instructions to a factory worker might be. This is a text to get lost in, to mull over, and enjoy in front of a warm fire. Unlike modern texts, which have one speed, this one goes as fast as you do, and you get out of it what
you put into it.
The result is an insightful introduction into the world of traditional thought. This form of conservatism pre-dates the Enlightenment and the French Revolution, and is as organic as the society it idealizes. As he says, "Traditional culture has depth: you can penetrate its productions as far as you have the depth to go.""
The idea of conservation and conservatism is explored along with the contemporary ruination of our countryside by the coalition, which is led by non-conservatives, is exposed as un-necessary and self-interested. The new HS2 high speed railways are EU directives and the British government has to obey. It will lead to villages being demolished and farmland lost to save a few rich people 20 minutes travel time between Birmingham and London.
Hamilton explicates the source of the decay that has been imposed on Britain from the top, the unrelenting subversion of the Christian faith that was the original source of the great art of Britain from the Middle Ages until the early twentieth century. He reminds us, "Traditional culture grows from religion" (p.81) and the real source of art is the "numinous" as it "is the basis of the
yearning for beauty, awe, grandeur in public buildings" (p.67).
The sub title is from line 4 of
hexagram 64 of the I Ching and refers to combating the Forces of
Decadence. This deals with the capitulation of the Anglican church
and the way they have closed the public out of their cliquey,
declining church.(p .80)
The substitution of pornography
for art, ugly functionalism for architecture or "angry young
men" and subversive Cultural Marxist drama from the 1960s,
substituting dramas of desperation and misery for the essentially
religious tragedies of the classical world, the morality plays of the
Middle Ages and the Elizabethan and Jacobean tragedies in England..
These essays on drama expose the harmfulness of Nihilist writers and the subversive bourgeois Cultural Marxist writers who were amply rewarded from taxpayers money by the new elites for trying to destroy their culture from within. He states in the opening sentence, that there is a war on British culture and in the opening to the essay on Elizabethan and Jacobean drama “that twentieth century Cultural Marxist drama was nihilistic and subversive and moves from order to chaos; although Elizabethan Revenge and Overreacher Tragedies were gory, but moved from barbarism to civilisation and the plays have a positive sense of coming together not being dislocated”. (p115)
In
the final paragraphs of this essay he makes more practical
suggestions: Contemporary playwrights write Politically Correct
platitudes leaving a vacuum
to be filled by a contemporary explanation of our world by new
Traditionalist playwrights. As they would be refused money by The
Arts Council and refused a stage by the theatres they would need
places to develop plays and perform. This also applies to musical or
other artistic endeavours.
Many pubs
need custom since the smoking ban and excessive taxation ruined the
business for so many, and traditionalist actors and writers could
book rooms above these pubs to develop a drama for our time. The task
of these drama phalanxes would be to re-link to certain traditions
and convey our history and continuity.(p114)
To those who love traditional Britain but have to look on helplessly at the the rapid, deliberate and ruthless destruction of the art and culture of their nation and feel pushed out Culture Wars will serve as a beacon of light, an extraordinary moral support and encouragement. This is not a systematic work but discursive essays. The author told me that essentially tradition means re-linking with our common ancestors and our common roots.
He also uses examples from ordinary art like the mural of Charles Dickins' characters in the Peter Kavanagh, and the mural that John Lennon had a hand in in The Jacaranda, two Liverpool pubs, to show that art produces many affects not only shock. (p.8)
To those who love traditional Britain but have to look on helplessly at the the rapid, deliberate and ruthless destruction of the art and culture of their nation and feel pushed out Culture Wars will serve as a beacon of light, an extraordinary moral support and encouragement. This is not a systematic work but discursive essays. The author told me that essentially tradition means re-linking with our common ancestors and our common roots.
He also uses examples from ordinary art like the mural of Charles Dickins' characters in the Peter Kavanagh, and the mural that John Lennon had a hand in in The Jacaranda, two Liverpool pubs, to show that art produces many affects not only shock. (p.8)
In
an essay on contemporary architecture he warns us, we suffer from a
"syndrome of social, cultural, political and environmental
pressures that are dissociating people from their communal identity,
severing them from traditional civilizing structures that their
ancestors could take for granted" (p,69).He
shows that contemporary buildings disjoint the areas and communities
where they are built and pushes people out of their communities by
its ugliness instead of drawing them in as traditional architecture
does. He shows how the estates people are being forced into have a
very detrimental affect and causes the people to lose fellow-feeling
and rob, mug and burgle their neighbours. He compares the
state-sponsored degeneracy of the working-classes with what the
Canadian government did to the native Innu. (p.39)
Destructive assaults on town and city landscapes, which he calls Urbiscapes, such as the London "Shard" designed by Renzo Piano, are extolled by art critics like Tim Abrahams (who edited the leading architecture and design magazine, Blueprint). Spiked Online refused to publish an alternative view from the author but said he could cut it down and send it as a letter! He related that this anti-art is promoted and funded by the national Arts Council with public monies from the government and the National Lottery.
Instead of the proper artistic purpose of the spiritual elevation of man through art there has entered today, through the various academic channels employed by pseudo-art-theorists, a diabolical purpose - the essential corruption of man. Hamilton takes care to highlight to the reader the essence of artistic creation, the importance of tradition in artistic activity and the religious springs of all art. He exhorts his readers to adopt "traditional forms developed for the current time to express emotions and feelings like awe, reverence, the sacred, the holy, the transcendental - positive human feelings." (p.94).
A practical suggestion is the revival of the sixteenth century office of Lord Lieutenant to be appointed by the Crown and endowed with the task of protecting the local communities of Britain from the ideological and commercial aims of financial and political elites (p.46).
Destructive assaults on town and city landscapes, which he calls Urbiscapes, such as the London "Shard" designed by Renzo Piano, are extolled by art critics like Tim Abrahams (who edited the leading architecture and design magazine, Blueprint). Spiked Online refused to publish an alternative view from the author but said he could cut it down and send it as a letter! He related that this anti-art is promoted and funded by the national Arts Council with public monies from the government and the National Lottery.
Instead of the proper artistic purpose of the spiritual elevation of man through art there has entered today, through the various academic channels employed by pseudo-art-theorists, a diabolical purpose - the essential corruption of man. Hamilton takes care to highlight to the reader the essence of artistic creation, the importance of tradition in artistic activity and the religious springs of all art. He exhorts his readers to adopt "traditional forms developed for the current time to express emotions and feelings like awe, reverence, the sacred, the holy, the transcendental - positive human feelings." (p.94).
A practical suggestion is the revival of the sixteenth century office of Lord Lieutenant to be appointed by the Crown and endowed with the task of protecting the local communities of Britain from the ideological and commercial aims of financial and political elites (p.46).
He provides an argument for giving
domestic pets greater legal protection. He states that animals become
part of the family and that relationship requires they be given
greater legal protection. He advocates more severe punishments for
cruelty to animals especially domestic pets because become part of
the family and stealing or injuring them devastates their owners.
Youngsters are especially close to their pets and they are often an
elderly person's closest friend and comfort.
There is a new definition art for a new age, a traditional basis for architecture and town planning, greater protection for animals and the environment, analysis of Nihilist and subversive Cultural Marxist drama, and the superior Elizabethan and Jacobean tragedy, and English Churches and the history, symbolism and legends associated with them.
There is a new definition of art
for a new age, a traditional basis for architecture and town
planning, greater protection for animals and the environment,
analysis of Nihilist and subversive Cultural Marxist drama, and the
superior Elizabethan and Jacobean tragedy, and English Churches and
the history, symbolism and legends associated with them.
This is an updating of
traditionalist thinking for contemporary circumstances and has a lot
to offer people who feel they, their country and its culture are
being destroyed from within by evil and degenerate elites. It is an
original and practical defence of our culture and traditions and a
major criticism of contemporary art and architecture which is
destroying our culture and communities. It is not reactionary but
positive and supplies new ideas and arguments.
Mahatma Gandhi:
My book on the Culture Wars is being ignored by the Establishment book reviewers, because it is a head-on attack on artistic and cultural establishment who are trying to destroy our art and culture.There have been some interesting comments.
Managing Editor, The Salisbury Review: Well obviously he has confused the Salisbury Review with the
First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.
My book on the Culture Wars is being ignored by the Establishment book reviewers, because it is a head-on attack on artistic and cultural establishment who are trying to destroy our art and culture.There have been some interesting comments.
Mark Amory (Spectator) : “I'm not certain about it...but we are not planning to review it.”
Ann Abrams (Novelist): Jeepers! I've had the same reaction to a mandrake root!
Bel Mooney (Daily Mail): ...Well, words fail me.
Ruth Dudley Edwards(Journalist and novelist):
Being strongly written isn't a turn-off for me. I've no time for the Chapmans and am sympathetic to the views expressed here about Cultural Marxism.
Christina Borg (Sunday Times): We are now into books for next month so I won't have to bother (reading the book)
Catherine Belsey(Cultural Marxist Professor and author): It looks ghastly. It seems to be one of those periodic rearguard actions against everything that's happened since about 1880. But I don't honestly think we need feel threatened by a book that can't even spell 'Foreword'. There's a lot of this sort of stuff about (Roger Scruton has been offering a literate version for years). It appeals to a hard core but makes very little impression on the rest of us.
(I don't rule out reading it in the future but I have deadlines to meet at the moment, and this is not my favourite kind of book for obvious reasons.)
Yuk. I can't even bear to read the reviews, especially the one that's nearly as long as the book. (Bear in mind that these people are probably UKIP supporters.)
Quarterly Review: It's too trivial to worry about!
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