European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - September 24, 1989, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 10 the stars and stripes columns George will capital gains Battle is All about class Middle Back when our communist Adver Saries were More adversarial they predicted intensification of class conflict As capitalism entered its death throes. The were right judging by the rhetoric boil ing around the proposal to Cut the capita gains tax. Democrats and republicans arc at daggers drawn. So arc Liberal democrats and a few conservative democrats. In the hyperbole sweepstakes. Democratic critics of the Cut arc routing its Republican supporters denouncing it As an Extension of the Reagan terror for grind ing the Middle class to dust. Republicans counter that without the Cut capitalism will be in terminal crisis. With the Cut. The Middle class will swim in wealth the result of reduced taxes on sales of stocks Bonds and houses and from the acceleration of economic growth. Actually in the Guise of serious moral strife we have the same old stuff bipartisan consensus that the purpose of government is to rain benefits on the Middle class. Sen. Lloyd Hunt san d Texas. Who once favored cutting the Cap ital gains tax now vows to die in the last ditch opposing this sop to the plutocracy. He proposes instead restoring and expanding Ikas individual retirement accounts which would please a Broa spectrum of Middle  economists not that their Opin ions matter much in this political argument differ about these measures. Economists says George Stigler who is one one with a Nobel prize were first identified As a separate Spe cies toward the end of the 18th  they have been deplored Ever since be cause they arc constantly talking about the costs of life and they supposedly arc less sensitive than the rest of us to moral rather than merely efficient courses of action. But they do know things including what it is that cannot be known. There is a consensus that cutting the capital gains rate would yield a modest William Buckley spurt of revenues by advancing some investors decisions to realize capital gains. The spurt would not matter much to the $1 trillion Federal budget or the $5 tril lion Economy. And Here the economists certainly As opposed to certitude ends. The Long term effects of a Cut arc unclear. However no one Here cares because in Washington the Long term is measured i months. The spurt of revenues would help with this autumn s budget minuet. Similarly the possibility that the medi care catastrophic care program might produce a surplus this year before be coming a sea of red Ink is the Micro reason some in Congress and the administration resist repeating it. The Micro reason Why Many democrats oppose the capital gains Cut is that democrats voting for the Cut blur the distinction Between the parties. So the party is in the words of chairman Ron Brown drawing a line in the Sand on capital gains. It is an unfortunate metaphor lines in the Sand do not last. Supporters of a capital gains Cut com prise an intense minority of voters whose intensity manifested in pressure on con Gress derives from the Prospect of immediate Concrete gains. Opponents of the Cut have an abstract ideological objection. In Washington intensity and  matter As can be seen re Garding the catastrophic care program. The Fate of that program shows that raining benefits on the Middle class can be dangerous. If us seems probable the program is repealed that will be in Large measure because the program incorporated a novel principle beneficiaries should finance their own benefits. That was enough of an affront to the  yet was the fact that Many had adequate coverage already. The collapse of the program if it comes to that will reflect its Slipshod beginning. Former president Reagan endorsed catastrophic care after a Cabinet meeting in which various colleagues offered anecdotes about the hardships suffered by elderly people they knew. The final remarks before Reagan left the room came from Otis Bowen Secretary of health and human services whose wife had died of cancer after a protracted illness and whose Mother was in a Nurs ing Home. In his message to Congress Reagan boasted the catastrophic care would give americans the last full measure of Securi  that was nonsense but fascinating  blandly endorsed the Ideal of government providing everyone with thelast full measure of Security. As the Congress apologizes for the Catas trophic care surtax and As the capital gains argument is presented As a Battle of Arma Geddon Between sharply divided parties remember this the class struggle is a Strug Gle to Comer credit for making the Middle class purr contentedly. Wii Kinglon poll  i Ioup some works of Art have earned our neglect the critics of those who joined sen. Jesse Helms in protesting the use of Public Money to finance the Art of Robert Mapple Thorpe and Andres Serrano did a hell of a Job of caterwauling about the provincialism of the boo Borisic who protested the exhibitions. And now we have the final gesture of abject surrender an official apology by the Corcoran gallery in Washington. An apology for having elected to feature a display of photographic homoerotic sadomasochistic Art no no. The Corcoran s director Christina Orr Cahall apologized to the Public for cancelling the exhibit. Here was a modern Auto a pc not for count enhancing Here by but for denouncing it. I swear the critics arc going to end up convincing the trendy of this world that a Crucifix immersed in human urine is an expression of spiritual Joy. An in sight of artistic penetration the new stupor Mundi of the artistic soul. Listen carefully because we need to distinguish As a very first step two Phenomena. The first is the historically redundant failure of the literati of the world to recognise Genius. Examples abound Van Gogh sold one Canvas Dur ing his lifetime the score of Bach s St. Matthew s passion was used As wallpaper Joyce s Ulysses was not admitted into the United states until 1933. Those who wish to add to this list can do so at Telephone Book length. Which tells us what that every other Day the work of a great artist is being neglected. The problem in the current Case is that is All that is being told us. What is not being told us is that every other Day the work of an artist is being neglected which neglect is Well earned. Mapplethorpe can be said to be an accomplished photographer but this docs not mean thai everything he chooses to photograph becomes great Art. Picasso commanded perhaps the greatest technique of the Cen Tury but this docs not mean that Ever use to which he chose to devote that technique resulted in great Art. This would be so Only in inc collectors sense which would also attach a considerable value to a building sketch drawn by Adolf Hitler because Adolf Hitler was a considerable historical character. Mapplethorpe is not yet in the Picasso league. And assuming that he were the auspices of a collection of his work in which objects protruding from a male rec Tum were a feature might be presented As examples of conceptual and perverse failures by great artists. That an artist should dominate the language or the Paintbrush or Clay docs not mean that he will use that skill for aesthetic let alone exalted purpose artists can profitably use their skills to demonstrate the despicable Side of life which is often tied to the poignant Side of life. The new York times asks rhetorically whether Tou Louse Lautrec s depictions of prostitutes Are obscene to which the answer in t necessarily the spastic of course not. Much depends on what the artist intended. A painting of a detail of the holocaust is one thing executed by an artist who seeks to convey i Chorror of it All. It is something quite different executed by an artist whose intention is to celebrate a historic attempt at genocide. The whole quarrel Over Art has in recent weeks tended to Overlook the utterly important negative Crit ical function which is the right of the exhibitor to say no this in t something to which i wish to devote the half acre s space in my gallery during the month of May. There is competing work by other artists that is of wholesome interest by which is meant not photo graphs of Little orphan Annie but photographs and statuary by artists who do not seek to outrage Conven Tion in the Case of Mapplethorpe by celebrating the kind of activity that caused him to die of aids and in the Case of Serrano the kind of infantile Antinomian ism that thinks it amusing to paint swastikas on the Walls of synagogues. Enter now the political dimension. We seem to be hearing the critics say no guidance of any sort is Toler Able in the course of conveying Public Money to the support of the arts. Let the dispensers of that Money proceed immune from official Public scrutiny. To which the answer is surely Why it requires artistic Nesci ence to take the position that anything presented by the Corcoran gallery with Public Money ought to be absolutely immune from scrutiny by the Public Agency that conveys that Money. Why should the Art critics themselves the historical practitioners of artistic neglect and misjudgment be alone responsible for pass ing judgment sen. Helms erred in my opinion in failing to qualify his suggested criteria by exempting from them any artwork Over so years old since that passage of Lime can season the judgment sufficiently to distinguish Between pornography for instance and eroticism the work of Rodin is an example. But a failure by sen. Helms to react against the excesses of Mapple Thorpe and Serrano would have represented a far greater indifference to artistic sensibilities than is being shown by his critics. C in Luerul Preu Syndicate