Posted by panchmaster from pool1127.cvx24-bradley.dialup.earthlink.net (209.179.214.107) on Wednesday, October 23, 2002 at 1:06PM :
...what all the hostility is about my getting rich as an Assyrian sculptor.
Our "patriots" are taxi drivers and computer hacks...they have "real jobs"...working for the Man, or in their own businesses. This doesn't qualify however as "Assyrian" work...as no one would give Peter or Aprim a dime for anything Assyrian they produced.
Naturally they believe this makes them "pure" Assyrians...doing it "from the heart". Doing this "volunteer work" in their spare time...evenings and on weekends...like you join a bowling league.
They resent anyone who gets paid for Assyrian work...that taints it somehow...like they'd ever think of taking their kid to an amateur surgeon. But we must settle for part time hacks who appoint themselves politicians and art critics.
They'll fight for a raise of twenty-five cents an hour and resettle their families for an extra thousand a year...but I'm supposed to get a second job, drive a cab, in order to pay for a monument...something at which you have to compete with all sorts of pros... who don't have the handicap of being Assyrian.
We're not talking about any profit either...just what it takes to do the work. They'd far rather I worked as a janitor at a high school and made clutzy doodads...things that wouldn't make them look bad by comparison. That's why we kill our artists...because if they succeed, they shine a light on all of us...and our vermin wouldn't know where to hide their heads. If you could just SEE Golani...you'd know where to stomp.
Attacking a professional artist because he dares make money...is like attacking a doctor because he charges you. Right. You'd have the sort of health care then that we have Art and Culture now...nothing worth the name...deadly even.
Thank god other people run the medical schools and set professional standards...also thank him that there are cultures and museums in the world we can expose our children to. In fact...thank god that other people take care of the real things while we diddle our days away on our knees and in these thingies.
It came down to Nimrod and Bejan and Golani trying to keep the "Assyrian Theatre Review" a safe place for amateurs such as themselves...who would react in fear and terror at a professional company coming to town.
That's all it was about...all this "troublemaker" bullshit.
-- panchmaster
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