The Political Compass

Originally posted by lausey
I took the test a while ago and cannot find my results (the topic came up a number of times in RHP, might do it again soon if I have the time).

I was also in the far bottom left quadrant.

All nice and intelligent people are.

Originally posted by shavixmir
All nice and intelligent people are.

However intelligent and nice they may be it still doesn't compensate for their lack of taste in the arts, I know all of you are probably great admirers of abstract art.

Originally posted by shavixmir
Hitler's fascism, for example, took the stance that abstract art isn't art.

Generally, linear, black/white thinking people don't enjoy abstract art (or so the argument goes):
People who dislike abstract art, therefore, will prefer rigidity in laws, heiriarchical societies, harsh punishments, etc.

So did Stalin's Communism.

It also came up during the McCarthy era, by some reactionary in office who argued that abstract art was inherently communist, not realizing that Socialist Realism was pretty much the official art form in the Soviet Union and China and that abstract art was "bourgeois indulgence."

Not in Cuba though. Picasso is well-regarded there. Also by the Republicans opposed to Franco in Spain. But then Franco had Dali on his side, so abstract art can also be fascist as well as socialist.

Originally posted by Kunsoo
So did Stalin's Communism.

It also came up during the McCarthy era, by some reactionary in office who argued that abstract art was inherently communist, not realizing that Socialist Realism was pretty much the official art form in the Soviet Union and China and that abstract art was "bourgeois indulgence."

Not in Cuba though. Picasso is well-regarded t ...[text shortened]... t then Franco had Dali on his side, so abstract art can also be fascist as well as socialist.

Not really.
Stalin's communism was about as communistic as I'm the Messiah incarnate.
Harsh, rigid, heiriarchical. That's what Stalin was about (State capitalism would be a better name for it). So, yes, abstract art wouldn't go down too well (notably, the USSR used the same "uber-mensch" imagery as the nazi's).

I think the appreciation of Picasso in Cuba is, as you put it, a throw back to Picasso actively opposing Franco's fascism.
The mere fact that Spain did appreciate abstract art (even though it was a fascist dictatorship) is, so I once read, a cultural anomaly due Moorish influences.

I'm not sure how far I'd go with that though, but it does sound plausable.
However, Mussilini's fascism wasn't really opposed to abstract art as far as I know either. Maybe that was due to Italy's fascism being a somewhat laissez faire affair (as laissez faire as fascist dictatorships go, then).