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Art and Its Political Hijacking

15 Friday Dec 2017

Posted by pnoetx in Art & Politics

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Annie, Art for Art's Sake, Bob Weir, Che Guevara, Edgar Allan Poe, Hamilton The Musical, John Perry Barlow, Joseph Campbell, Karl Marx, Pareto-Improvement, Tendentious Art, The Grateful Dead, The Music Never Stopped

Art and politics have a long connection that is often quite awkward. One philosophy holds that art cannot be divorced from its social origins, that it is a legitimate platform from which to confront injustice and oppression, and indeed, that art must “serve some moral or didactic purpose”. In the nineteenth century, the contrary view was expressed by the phrase “art for art’s sake“, which has been credited to several individuals including Edgar Allen Poe. At the time, Marxists said the slogan served to prop-up the “petty bourgeois”, as if artistic beauty and exploration must themselves be inspired by political interests. Exploiting art to promote a point of view is not the exclusive domain of the Left, however. The Right has its own variations on political expression through art. But all such varieties on the Left and Right make me cringe just a bit; I cringe even when the intent of art is to promote views with which I strongly agree.

Art and Advocacy

Great art derives from an amorphous combination of talent, certain acquired technical skills, and inspiration. Inspiration can come from anything that might be, strictly speaking, non-art, such as natural beauty, any kind of human drama, the spiritual, or even politics. While many of us can agree that certain artistic works are great, it will always be a subjective matter to one degree or another.

Art may cross subjective boundaries of propriety, and it may offend. No matter the specific topic or the intent, art becomes confrontational and political when some parties object to whatever is portrayed, and especially when attempts are made to suppress it. A work of art is tendentious if the intent is to promote a political viewpoint or a policy, either as a matter of protest or when it is used by either the state or “subversive elements” in an effort to propagandize. It ranges from state-sponsored “artistic” propaganda to private but jingoistic expression, to “protest art”, and to any kind of politically-motivated art.

Obviously, tendentious art can be good from a purely technical perspective even while the subject matter is unappealing to a particular observer. As well, TA can appeal to the emotions effectively, and it can be interesting as a sociological exercise. However, art can portray conditions, dire or otherwise, and appeal to emotions without advocating social policy, and art can be abstract and devoid of any political implication whatsoever.

Even worse than tendentious art are attempts to either censor it or subsidize it. May tendentious art live on as a tool in the marketplace of ideas, free of government involvement. However, on the whole, public or private, I find it unappealing.

Why I’m Averse to Tendentious Art 

Here are several propositions about tendentious art (TA) to which I subscribe. They are overlapping to some extent, and I emphasize they are often matters of degree rather than kind:

  1. It compromises artistic standards;
  2. Persuasion is its purpose, making art subsidiary to the politics;
  3. It demotes art to a tool of delivery, subservient to the message;
  4. TA exploits art for political purposes;
  5. Art often functions as a refuge or escape; TA cannot;
  6. TA is often angry;
  7. the appeal of TA is often self-reverential;
  8. It confuses artistic value and political “virtue”;
  9. practitioners of TA often engage in willful historical distortion;
  10. TA can be self-antiquating;
  11. TA often recycles and co-opts existing art;
  12. It is never Pareto-improving.

I’ll elaborate on some of these points:

TA demotes the art part: To the extent that the art and the political message are separable, art becomes subsidiary to the message, and that is almost always true when the message is explicit. In fact, art becomes a mere conveyance.

Artistic compromise: Your political message does not make you an artist. This is worth extra emphasis in the age of the meme and the meme “artist”. I’ve seen what I consider bad art. I’ve seen a great deal of bad TA. It is as if the artist can be forgiven for an unimpressive artistic effort so long as the message is valued by like-minded partisans. In this way, TA creates confusion over artistic value relative to political “virtue”.

Politics attempts to exploit art: I am appalled at the recent treatment of certain celebrities, artists or otherwise, who are facing demands to publicly state their political views, to support or denounce this or that person or policy. Whether or not one’s work intersects with the political sphere should be up to the artist. It is within one’s rights to be apolitical.

TA is Pareto-violating: Tendentiousness makes art unappealing to certain observers, and that might even be what the artist intends. A particular policy position embodied in TA, if adopted, might actually be threatening to some individuals in terms of their economic welfare or personal liberties. Even worse, extreme forms of TA might serve to incite violent action (free speech demands that government may not engage in “prior restraint”). The point I’m making here is distinct from any issues posed by physical presentation, such as high volume or lighting, that might make a third-party worse off.

In economics, exchange is said to be Pareto-improving if two trading parties are made better-off while no one is made worse off. Of course, one can always ignore certain forms of art, or one can try to if its expression is non-threatening. But someone may well be made worse-off by an exercise of TA, and in a value-free sense, that makes TA inferior to other art.

Trapped like a rat: TA tends to be ineffective as a refuge or escape, no matter how cathartic some might find the message. The observer is bound by the political reality and the conflict it implies. Art doesn’t have to transcend reality to serve as an escape, but it can transcend explicit advocacy.

Your art and your virtue: I don’t think it’s unfair to say that an observer who enjoys tendentious art indulges in a pleasure that is strongly self-reverential. They feel virtuous, and that is the wrong sentiment to derive from art. TA derives some of its value and power by stroking the ego of the observer.

Distorting history: I have seen many examples of inaccurate historical accounts in theatre and elsewhere. The musical Hamilton is prominent in this respect. The musical Annie has its share of distortions regarding the largely similar policies of Herbert Hoover and Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Che Guevara is sometimes depicted in art as heroic, yet he was murderous, misogynistic, and tyrannical. Got any Stalin shirts? I could go on….

TA can get stale: In some circumstances, TA can make art self-antiquating: captive to the time in which it is created and reducing its relevance as times change, especially if the artist is on the losing side of the politics.

What Prompted This? A Band Beyond Description

This post was motivated by my observation of comments on “fan pages” to which I belong on-line. I’ve been an avid follower of a certain group of musicians over the years, and these fan pages give me an opportunity to interact with other enthusiasts, view concert video, and get news about the band. The fans tend to be affable and we share a certain cultural zeitgeist. However, there is division on these pages over politics, and while I’d describe many of the fans as leftist, there is more diversity of opinion than one might guess. One fan page actually has a “no politics” rule, as it’s proven to create unwelcome strife on other pages. I believe the page administrators are correct in viewing politics as “off-topic”. That is not censorship; it is private governance — house rules, as it were, to which I can’t object. Some fans just can’t help violating the rule, however. There, and on other fan pages, a significant segment of fans seem to believe that one cannot really “get” the band and their music without sharing certain political opinions. That doesn’t surprise me, but I dislike the “groupthink” attitude it reflects.

I realized early-on that the band tended to avoid tendentious art, greatly to their credit. Their music often focuses on traditional themes like love, love lost, celebration, the human condition, and many fascinating stories populated with colorful characters. They even cover some biblical topics that are just great stories. Other frequent musical themes are quite abstract, by turns sinister and dreamy.

There is no doubt that the members of the band have opinions about politics. They have supported a number of causes such as the anti-war movement, ending the drug war, environmental causes, and gay rights. But I believe they have intentionally avoided explicit advocacy in their music. They tend not to use the stage as a pulpit, except generally as a pulpit of musical celebration and fun. They sing sweetly (mostly) and they can rock!

Again, the distinctions I’m making are matters of degree. For example, occasionally the group plays concerts to benefit causes or even candidates for office. That’s fine. I might not support their candidate, or I might disagree with a policy position, but that sort of explicit advocacy seldom if ever intersects with their music. It imposes little or nothing on me.

The band has written and performed a few songs expressing concerns that I don’t fully share. In my opinion (in seeming violation of some of the principles I listed above), I consider those songs to be great from a purely musical perspective; the lyrics are well-turned; and they tend to reveal general sentiment and anxiety about things we’d all like to resolve, rather than direct advocacy of specific policies. I like those songs, though I might disagree with the policy prescriptions of the musicians themselves. In any case, they don’t claim technical expertise in those subject areas. I like their art and don’t really care about their policy preferences, unless they rub my nose in them. But they don’t.

Again, while these are matters of degree, this band has always tended not to use their music as a political soapbox. Perhaps the band’s greatest luminary once said the following:

“You need music, I don’t know why. It’s probably one of those Joe Campbell questions [who said, ‘Follow your bliss.’], why we need ritual. We need magic, and bliss, and power, myth, and celebration and religion in our lives, and music is a good way to encapsulate a lot of it.“

Denouement

My admittedly subjective opinion is that the explicit messaging of tendentious art cheapens artistic expression in several ways: it demotes art in favor of political messaging; it subverts the role of art as an escape; it may be inferior by making third-parties worse off; its enjoyment is something of a self-reverential exercise; it confuses artistic value with political “virtue”; it makes art less durable to the extent that the message it embodies may become less relevant with time; and it is usually angry.

The band I’ve referenced in this discussion is the Grateful Dead. I’ll continue to celebrate their great music with anyone who appreciates it as music. (The name of the band originally appealed to the group partly because it seemed somewhat repellent to conformists. That’s a bit confrontational, perhaps, but the name is folkloric.) Their politics don’t much matter to me because I believe they are artists first. They have kept their art largely free of politics.

I close with lyrics to a Grateful Dead song about music and it’s effect on the human spirit, written by John Perry Barlow and Bob Weir. It is non-tendentious:

The Music Never Stopped

[First voice]
There’s mosquitoes on the river
Fish are rising up like birds
It’s been hot for seven weeks now
Too hot to even speak now
Did you hear what I just heard?

Say, it might have been a fiddle
Or it could have been the wind
But there seems to be a beat now
I can feel it in my feet now
Listen here it comes again

[Second voice]
There’s a band out on the highway
They’re high-stepping into town

It’s a rainbow full of sound
It’s fireworks, calliopes and clowns
Everybody’s dancing

[First voice]
Come on children, come on children
Come on clap your hands

The sun went down in honey
And the moon came up in wine
You know stars were spinning dizzy
Lord the band kept us so busy
We forgot about the time

They’re a band beyond description
Like Jehovah’s favorite choir
People joining hand in hand
While the music plays the band
Lord they’re setting us on fire

Crazy rooster crowing midnight
Balls of lightning roll along
Old men sing about their dreams
Women laugh and children scream
And the band keeps playing on

[Second voice]
Keep on dancing through to daylight
Greet the morning air with song
No one’s noticed but the band’s all packed and gone
Was it ever here at all?
But they kept on dancing

[First voice]
Come on children, come on children
Come on clap your hands

Well the cool breeze came on Tuesday
And the corn’s a bumper crop
And the fields are full of dancing
Full of singing and romancing
The music never stopped

Who Brought the Melting Pot To the Pow Wow?

11 Wednesday May 2016

Posted by pnoetx in Censorship, Free Speech

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Tags

Bollywood, Censorship, Chinese New Year, Cinco de Mayo, Cultural Appropriation, Cultural Exchange, Delta Blues, Eugene Volokh, Exclusivity, Fighting Words, Flower Drum Song, Hate Speech, Huckleberry Finn, Intellectual Property, Jewish Community Center, Mardi Gras Indians, Moon Festival, Native Americans, Neverland, Peter Pan, Pow Wow, Rivalrous goods, Separate But Equal, The Grateful Dead, The King and I, Ugg-a-Wugg, Washington Redskins

Chris Rock

I ran into a Chinese colleague in a break room at work and mentioned that I’d seen her engaged in a “pow wow” with a senior staffer, and she asked, “Pow wow?” I tried to explain the Native American origins of the term for a gathering or meeting, and I think she liked that, but I joked that my use of the term might represent “cultural appropriation” (CA). A second colleague who’d entered the kitchen glanced at me with a raised eyebrow. Knowing them well, I’m not sure either of them knew what I meant. As it happens, describing the pow wow as a celebration is more accurate, so my use of the term to describe a meeting was too narrow. In fact, in modern usage by Native Americans, it is a celebration of culture, but meetings take place at these events as well.

CA occurs when aspects of one culture are used in some way by others. It is criticized for trivializing the traditions or symbols of the source culture or because it robs it’s members of intellectual property (IP) rights. I can think of examples of cultural trivialization, such as the “Ugg-a-Wugg” song from the musical Peter Pan. Such complaints strike me as hyper-sensitive, but perhaps the umbrage taken by Native Americans to this song is understandable. Nevertheless, I stand more strongly behind the right of free expression. This song, which is rarely performed today out of respect for Native Americans, was part of a larger Neverland fantasy that has great appeal. And after all, the Indians were good guys in the story!

Works such as Peter Pan and Huckleberry Finn are historical and reflect the times in which they were created. As such, some argue that they should be left in their original form. And I agree, in general. However, in the case of a musical that is performed publicly again and again by various professional and amateur groups, I am sympathetic to the notion that potentially offensive elements can be excised if the changes do not do great damage to the story. If it is not in the public domain, the owners of the story’s rights have the final say.

The IP argument is flawed to the extent that IP arguments are always flawed: ideas are non-rivalrous and non-exclusive. Moreover, even IP rights recognized under U.S. law are limited to individual “property”; they do not extend to the traditions and symbols of various cultures that coexist in society.

Another area emphasized by critics of CA has to do with historical grievances against a dominant culture, often without regard to current circumstances. Apparently, such grievances place the minority culture off-limits. Under this view, cultural exchange is fundamentally bad, which is fundamentally absurd. It has the faint ring of “separate but equal” — paradoxical given the avowed desire among critics of CA for an end to racial and social division.

While European colonialists certainly exploited the native inhabitants in many lands, today’s liberal order in the West is attractive to members of different cultures around the globe.They adopt similar institutions and practices at home, and some of them bring their cultures to us. We all gain in the exchange.

Strong condemnation of CA has been all the rage on college campuses over the past few years (see several of the links here). It reflects a hyper-sensitivity about the normal mixing of cultures. Cultural exchange tends to elevate appealing aspects of all cultures into the larger society. Should we really condemn any of the following harmless activities?

  • Yoga classes at the Jewish Community Center?
  • Cinco de Mayo celebrations by non-Mexicans?
  • Caucasians celebrating the Chinese New Year or Moon Festival?
  • St. Patrick’s Day celebrations by non-Irish, non-Catholics?
  • Flower Drum Song or The King and I?
  • Caucasians playing Delta Blues?
  • African American Mardi Gras Indians?
  • Caucasians watching Bollywood movies?
  • The Grateful Dead at the Pyramids?
  • Caucasians cooking “ethnic” foods?

I grant that respect dictates avoiding use of another group’s sacred symbols. Beyond that, it is difficult to conceive of any objections to activities like those above. They are all forms of cultural cross-pollination, even if they seem to trivialize in some cases. This sometimes  involves cultural interpretation by “others” that might not be accurate, but that is always the case when cultures mix. People incorporate or adapt features of other cultures that they enjoy, which is hardly a sin.

Curious about pow wow, I found the following qualification in the Wikipedia entry for pow-wow:

“…the term has also been used by non-Natives to describe any gathering of Native Americans, or to refer to any type of meeting among non-Natives (such as military personnel). However, such use may be viewed as cultural appropriation, and disrespectful to Native peoples.“

Well, well, well! Pow wow is used in conversational english to lend an air of informality or lightness to certain proceedings. It may simultaneously convey a serious diplomatic purpose and an opportunity to resove differences. Sometimes, non-Natives might even use the term to sound clever, like using the French term soirée rather than “party”. Or perhaps they are amused by the image of corporate managers seated akimbo around a camp fire, passing a peace pipe. Or any pipe. Trivial? Maybe, but if that possibility outrages Native Americans, it strikes me as an over-reaction. After all, the joke is partly on “the suits”, and there isn’t much the Indians can do about it under the law.

I have always been fascinated by American Indian history and culture. I do not use the term pow-wow in disrespect. I use it because it’s colorful and I like it. The cross-pollination of language and culture is borne out of the utility of a particular word or practice. It can hardly be bad that a few shards of Native American language and culture are incorporated into broader American society.

My sister has a beautiful scarf bearing the profile of an American Indian in full head dress. She has always had an interest in the art and culture of the American southwest, which has benefitted from the heavy influence of Indians who are native to that region. So it was unsurprising to me that she would be drawn to the beauty of the scarf. It is a work of art and she does not wear it out of disrespect for American Indians.

Certain acts of CA are thought to intersect with racism, however. How about the Washington Redskins football team name? The team logo and merchandise use Native American symbols. The same goes for the Atlanta Braves and other teams. However, the term Redskin almost certainly has overtly racist origins as a description of an enemy thought to be savage, much as “Nips” was a derogative used by Allied soldiers in World War II as a term for the Japanese.  Defenders of the team claim that “Redskin” is not meant to trivialize or denigrate Native Americans, but instead to recognize their honor and ferocity in battle. The team owner and many fans insist that the tradition of the team name should continue in tribute to American Indians. Nevertheless, the name is understandably objectionable to Native Americans today as a crude description of their genealogy. My friend John Crawford tells me of a proposal to change the team logo to a red-skinned potato, but apparently the idea was rejected by the U.S. Patent Office.

In all of these matters, free speech outweighs all other considerations. While cultural appropriation is sometimes regarded with hostility, that does not give the aggrieved special rights to prevent it. The same is true of racism, however regrettable it is. Even so-called hate speech is protected under the U.S. Constitution, short of “fighting words”. Critics of cultural appropriation can seek to educate, influence, boycott and to shame those believed to have run afoul of their standards. In most cases, however, I think the best advice is to chill out.

 

Netflix: Oops… No, Let’s Not Regulate The Internet

10 Tuesday Mar 2015

Posted by pnoetx in Net neutrality

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Broadband ISPs, Common Carrier, Croney Capitalism, FCC, Geoffrey Manne, John Perry Barlow, L. Gordon Crovitz, Net Neutrality, Netflix, Reed Hastings, regulation, The Grateful Dead, Wall Street Journal

john-perry-barlow

Netflix was heralded only recently as a strong supporter of net neutrality, but the company has changed its position in the wake the the FCC’s decision to reclassify broadband ISPs as common carriers. The link goes to a Google search page. The top article listed there should be ungated, from L. Gordon Crovitz in the Wall Street Journal. I have posted a number of times on the misguided policy of net neutrality (see here, here, here, and here). While I hesitate to post on the topic again, I think a short description of the Netflix flip-flop, or should I say its “evolving position“, is worthwhile, and especially with a few quotes from the Crovitz article.

Crovitz notes that Netflix videos “take up one-third of broadband nationwide at peak times.” The company’s support for so-called neutrality seemed grounded in its frustration at the prospect of having to negotiate for massive use of resources controlled and sometimes owned by the ISPs. Here’s Crovitz:

“Today Netflix is a poster child for crony capitalism. When CEO Reed Hastings lobbied for Internet regulations, all he apparently really wanted was for regulators to tilt the scales in his direction with service providers. Or as Geoffrey Manne of the International Center for Law and Economics put it in Wired: ‘Did we really just enact 300 pages of legally questionable, enormously costly, transformative rules just to help Netflix in a trivial commercial spat?‘”

Indeed! But the powers at Netflix have had a revelation:

“Net-neutrality advocates oppose ‘fast lanes’ on the Internet, arguing they put startups at a disadvantage. Netflix could not operate without fast lanes and even built its own content-delivery network to reduce costs and improve quality. This approach will now be subject to the ‘just and reasonable’ test. The FCC could force Netflix to open its proprietary delivery network to competitors and pay broadband providers a ‘fair’ price for its share of usage.

There’s no need for the FCC to override the free-market agreements that make the Internet work so well. Fast lanes like Netflix’s saved the Internet from being overwhelmed, and there is nothing wrong with the ‘zero cap’ approach Netflix is using in Australia. Consumers benefit from lower-priced services.”

I will leave you with my favorite part of the Crovitz piece:

“Last week John Perry Barlow, the Grateful Dead lyricist-turned-Internet-evangelist, participated in a conference call of Internet pioneers opposed to the FCC treating the Internet as a utility. He called the regulatory step ‘singular arrogance.’

In 1996 Mr. Barlow’s ‘Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace’ helped inspire a bipartisan consensus for the open Internet: ‘Governments of the Industrial World, you weary giants of flesh and steel, I come from Cyberspace, the new home of Mind. On behalf of the future, I ask you of the past to leave us alone. You are not welcome among us. You have no sovereignty where we gather.’“

In Praise of Ticket Scalpers

04 Wednesday Mar 2015

Posted by pnoetx in Secondary Markets

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Tags

Allocation of Resources, Fare Thee Well, Jerry Garcia, Mark Perry, Risk managment, Secondary markets, Soldier Field, The Grateful Dead, Ticket Scalping

fare-thee-well-2015

I have been a fan of The Grateful Dead since I was a teenager and have seen the band perform somewhere around 35 times prior to Jerry Garcia’s death in 1995 … I actually lost count. This summer, the four surviving original band members, along with some prominent guest musicians, will perform three reunion shows over the July 4th weekend at Chicago’s Soldier Field. They have said that this will be their last performance together.

Demand for tickets was so high that it surprised the band and the promoter. In January, an initial mail order tallied about 65,000 orders for more than 350,000 tickets, far more than the mail-order allotment and the stadium capacity for three days. On-line requests went mostly unfilled as the system was swamped when tickets went on-sale. Chicago Bears season ticket holders had the right of first refusal on a large number of tickets, which is unfortunate given the probable extent of the intersection between Bears fans and the set of Deadheads. And so there is a problem of scarcity and excess demand, a common occurrence for big concerts and sporting events.

Naturally, a secondary market has arisen to allocate the limited supply of tickets available from brokers and other willing sellers. However, as noted at the links above, asking prices on outlets like StubHub, often well above $1,000 per ticket, have shocked observers. Few transactions will actually take place at those prices. Repricing will occur until enough willing buyers are found. Nevertheless, many “Deadheads” are outraged. There are complaints on Facebook from self-righteous Deadheads, boasting of their honor as music fans and condemning the “greed” of resellers. Needless to say, some of the resellers are, in fact, lucky Deadheads who, having landed tickets, now find the prospect of a pecuniary gain from a resale just too good to pass up!

I am very much in favor of a free secondary market and so-called “ticket scalping.” First and foremost, these transactions are voluntary. There is no coercion involved, just a willing buyer and seller who reach a mutually beneficial deal. A buyer will agree to pay a certain price only if that price is less than the subjective value they assign to the ticket. Of course, a potential secondary buyer would rather have been lucky in what amounted to a lottery for tickets. But if not, they are not shut out altogether. A little patience on the secondary market might bring prices well within reach.

Second, the allocative mechanism in play on the secondary market is little appreciated, but it contributes to social gains. Tickets will be allocated to those who value them most highly. In fact, individuals who value their own time most highly might avoid the time and aggravation of participating in the mail order or joining the on-line sales queue. Instead, these individuals know they can fall back on the secondary market to obtain seats, thereby conserving a valuable resource: their time. Some will contend that all tickets should be made available and allocated via some other, non-price mechanism, such as a lottery or a queue, whereby willingness to pay cash is rendered moot. Unfortunately, such mechanisms have severe drawbacks in the presence of excess demand: they tend to waste time for both the lucky and unlucky participants, they may allocate tickets to buyers who value them less highly, they infringe on personal liberty by preventing individuals from taking part in mutually beneficial exchanges, and they waste scarce law enforcement resources.

Another advantage of the allocative mechanism embodied in the secondary market is its ability to create value in the presence of risk. Performers and promoters are loath to price tickets optimally, partly because there is risk in doing so: damage to goodwill with their fan base and the risk that they will over-price tickets and possibly fail to fill the house. Secondary sellers will gladly accept pricing risk, and the frenzy surrounding an active secondary market can serve as a promotional device for performers. Moreover, by allowing tickets to be allocated to buyers who value them most highly, the venue and the community benefit by bringing in the most appreciative crowd, adding to the success and vibrancy of the local entertainment market. A prohibition on scalping closes off a convenient channel through which some of the most valuable customers can obtain seats to events. Here’s what one ticket market scholar states:

“… a curtailment of scalping markets would not only prevent allocation according to maximization of utility, it would also have the dynamic effect of reducing in the long term the supply of cultural events! This is very rarely mentioned, but following the adoption of an anti-scalping law in Quebec, industry experts have indicated that cultural centers like the Bell Centre in Montreal have reduced events and potential audiences by some 6% to 11%.”

Finally, the fact that prices are high on the secondary market implies great scarcity. The Grateful Dead may have aggravated the situation by stating unequivocally that these would be their last shows. They could have remained silent or vague on that point. But scarcity can be addressed in other ways by performers and promoters: they can agree to price the tickets more highly; they can arrange to perform more shows and appear at more venues; and they can create imperfect substitutes for the actual concert experience, such as providing live-feeds of the show to other venues, including live streaming.

In this case, the band has taken steps to alleviate the shortage. First, they have reconfigured the plan for the floor of the stadium to allow a larger crowd in a “GA Pit” (presumably standing room), and they are opening up the set and directing sound to accommodate seating behind the band. Second, they are discussing the possibility of providing high-quality, live feeds to other venues. This should help to take some of the pressure off prices in the secondary market.

My wish is that the band would also announce additional performances, either in Chicago or a few other cities. My mail order went out on the first day with an early postmark and it is still unanswered. My hopes remain high, but if I don’t get into the show, I’m sure to attend a viewing party!

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The Cholesterol Blog

Nintil

To estimate, compare, distinguish, discuss, and trace to its principal sources everything

kendunning.net

The future is ours to create.

DCWhispers.com

Hoong-Wai in the UK

A Commonwealth immigrant's perspective on the UK's public arena.

Marginal REVOLUTION

Small Steps Toward A Much Better World

CBS St. Louis

News, Sports, Weather, Traffic and St. Louis' Top Spots

Watts Up With That?

The world's most viewed site on global warming and climate change

Aussie Nationalist Blog

Commentary from a Paleoconservative and Nationalist perspective

American Elephants

Defending Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness

The View from Alexandria

In advanced civilizations the period loosely called Alexandrian is usually associated with flexible morals, perfunctory religion, populist standards and cosmopolitan tastes, feminism, exotic cults, and the rapid turnover of high and low fads---in short, a falling away (which is all that decadence means) from the strictness of traditional rules, embodied in character and inforced from within. -- Jacques Barzun

The Gymnasium

A place for reason, politics, economics, and faith steeped in the classical liberal tradition

Public Secrets

A 93% peaceful blog

A Force for Good

How economics, morality, and markets combine

ARLIN REPORT...................walking this path together

PERSPECTIVE FROM AN AGING SENIOR CITIZEN

Notes On Liberty

Spontaneous thoughts on a humble creed

troymo

SUNDAY BLOG Stephanie Sievers

Escaping the everyday life with photographs from my travels

Miss Lou Acquiring Lore

Gallery of Life...

Your Well Wisher Program

Attempt to solve commonly known problems…

Objectivism In Depth

Exploring Ayn Rand's revolutionary philosophy.

RobotEnomics

(A)n (I)ntelligent Future

Orderstatistic

Economics, chess and anything else on my mind.

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