It’s fitting that one of the most high-profile events of the fall arts season is a musical adaptation of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, because lately it’s seemed we’ve all been headed down the rabbit hole. The No-Bama crowd calls for the truth about healthcare, but traffics in outright lies. The president says the so-called public option is a key aspect of his plan, then says it isn’t, then says it is. The St. Petersburg Times wins a Pulitzer for PolitiFact, then backs a mayoral candidate, Bill Foster, who believes in such “facts” as this statement: “None of Darwin’s theories can be replicated or proven in a laboratory…”
So what’s all this got to do with the fall arts season? Easy. If you’re starved for the truth, start listening to artists.
This article appears in Aug 26 – Sep 1, 2009.