The guardians of culture are afraid

Do you hear the directors of our cultural institutions chattering their teeth?.

The guardians of culture are afraid

Do you hear the directors of our cultural institutions chattering their teeth?

From one end of the country to the other, these brave public servants are trembling in their breeches.

At the CRTC, at Telefilm, at the NFB, at Radio-Canada.

In museums, festivals, universities, libraries.

Everywhere, it shivers, it shivers.

It quivers.

THE PLEUTERS

It is because they are afraid, our guardians of culture!

They have the female dog!

When these intellectuals take part in free seminars in Sweden or all-expenses-paid conferences in Japan, they're on a roll!

They speak of freedom, audacity, courage!

They praise the artists who dared to stir the cage, to think against the current, to attack the benevolent of their time!

Long live Caravaggio! Dalí! Kandinsky! Mapplethorpe!

Long live the rebellious artists who stand before the clergy of all kinds!

But when the same defenders of culture find themselves alone in their offices, it is something else.

They curl up in a ball under their work table, praying to the heavens not to be caught up in controversy!

Oh God, please don't let me receive an email from an anonymous internet user who felt offended by an exhibition, movie or TV show!

Otherwise, what the hell am I going to do?

I risk losing my job!

My expense account!

My prestige! My trips !

I am not a brave artist, I am only a puny little civil servant!

Freeloader, not Picasso!

Protect me!

LET'S GET THE SCISSORS!

All it takes is a little rabbit hiding under the pseudonym of Bizoune24 to send them an email at three o'clock in the morning telling them that he had to call his shrink in the middle of the night after hearing a public radio columnist utter a bad word for our guardians of culture to put on their Roman collar and turn into censors.

Quick, let's send a reprimand against the evil broadcaster who made the N-word heard!

Yes, but the columnist in question was quoting the title of a classic of Quebec literature...

It does not matter, blame!

Yes, but a distinguished member of the French Academy used the same word in the title of one of his books...

It doesn't matter, let's get tough!

Yes, but the great Martinican poet Aimé Césaire himself held to the concept of negritude...

It doesn't matter, let's censor!

Yes, but in 1983, Martinican filmmaker Euzhan Palcy made a magnificent feature film entitled Rue Case-Nègres, a film that won 17 international awards...

It doesn't matter, let's punish!

Yes, but Omar Bongo, the former President of the Republic of Gabon, published a collection of interviews entitled Blanc comme nègre...

It doesn't matter, let's punish!

Yes, but in 1966, the magazine Présence africaine, under the patronage of the great Senegalese poet Léopold Sédar Senghor, organized the World Festival of Negro Arts, an exhibition considered one of the greatest events in African cultural history. .

It doesn't matter, let's cut!

And it's these little things that control our media, our museums and our granting agencies?

It would be hilarious if it wasn't so pathetic...

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