Culture barons
Capitalists snatch precious historical gems
Watch out, America.
Bill Gates, the country’s richest
man, is at it again.
Gates, the embodiment of
American capitalism (for good or
for bad), is continuing his orgy of
consumerism.
Last year, Gates reportedly
purchased Leonardo da Vinci’s
notebook. The notebook contained
da Vinci’s famous sketches of
human anatomy, flying machines
and the dozens of amazing inven
tions he proposed so many centuries
before his time. A priceless artifact
of Western culture.
Well, not exactly, because Gates
named a price, and now the book is
his.
Last week, Gates took another
step toward controlling the visual
history of the world when he
purchased the Bettmann Archive, a
collection of 16 million historic
photos.
The visual history of the world,
once again, proved to be pricey, yes,
but not nearly priceless.
The archive is merely another
notch in the Bill Gates belt that
already includes images from the
National Gallery of London, the
Philadelphia Museum of Art and the
State Russian Museum.
I’m not sure if anybody knows
what Gates intends to do with his
, new stash. He couldn’t have bought
them for personal viewing—
looking at each picture only once,
for a mere five seconds, would take
925 days. That’s without eating,
sleeping or answering nature’s call
(but then again, maybe Gates has
someone on staff to do that for him).
Maybe he plans to put all the
photos on CD-ROM and destroy all
the negatives, so would-be viewers
would have to buy more of his
stupid Microsoft products. From a
business standpoint, it makes a
perverse kind of sense.
Or maybe Gates looked down
from his lolly perch above corporate
America and saw some peon
Doug Peters
“Imagine Orson Welles
(in ‘Citizen Kane’)
galavanting around the
screen in a pastel blue
suit, his yellowish-pink
cheeks standing in stark
contrast to the blinding
neon-green grass. But I
digress. ”
wearing the famous T-shirt:
He who dies with the most toys,
wins.
“Damn that Ted Turner,” he may
have thought at the time, “he’s going
to beat me if I don’t start buying
stuff.”
In case you don’t already know,
Ted Turner is the man responsible
for the bastardization — I mean
colorization — of hundreds of
American film classics.
Turner’s collection includes over
3,000 films, including such greats as
“Casablanca,” “Gone With the
Wind,” and “Citizen Kane.” And
one by one, he’s ruining all of them.
To get an idea of Turner’s
disregard for the country’s cultural
heritage, imagine Orson Welles
galavanting around the screen in a
pastel blue suit, his yellowish-pink
cheeks standing in stark contrast to
the blinding neon-green grass.
But I digress.
Gates and Turner, and others of
their ilk, probably see nothing
wrong in buying up the images and
sounds of history. To them, it’s just
another investment.
They are the beneficiaries of the
information revolution, just as the
Camegies, Fords and Rockefellers
were beneficiaries of the industrial
revolution.
But this new frenzy of acquisition
is a different kind of capitalism than
America has seen in the past.
The great robber-barons, the
kings of industry, those who became
ultra-rich as a result of the industrial
revolution, certainly amassed
unbelievable amounts of money and
property, too. Granted, they weren’t
always model citizens. But instead
of buying up culture, they spread it
around.
Now, in the afterglow of the
Reagan ’80s, capitalism has taken
an odor more typical of the nastier
traditions of America.
America, which was built around
the disenfranchisement of native
inhabitants. America, which
developed around the practice of
slavery. America, the only country
in the world where Donald Trump
could become a hero to millions,
where nothing comes for free and
where the idea of something
belonging to everyone is shouted
down with cries of “communist!”.
This is the world of the new-and
improved robber barons, who ante
up their 24 dollars’ worth of beads
and trinkets and leave the table with
sole rights to the control of some
thing precious.
Our cultural heritage should
belong to everyone.
Until then, though, hide those
holiday snapshots and home movies
— you never know where these guys
will strike next.
Peters is a graduate student of journal
ism and a Daily Nebraskan columnist.
Cold words
U.S. can’t sidestep Russia’s chilling signals
Officially the Cold War has been
over for more than four years, but
recent comments by Russian
President Boris Yeltsin have been
awfully chilly.
And each time the climate drops
a bit more President Clinton —
underscoring three years of grim
foreign policy displays — either
fails to comment or dances around
the issue.
Dealing with Russia is serious
business. Its economy may be in
shambles now, but it’s still a strong
nuclear power with too many vital
resources to remain in an economic
rut.
It is therefore the responsibility
of U.S. leadership to roll up its
sleeves and not tolerate traditional
Cold War rhetoric and policies.
But President Clinton, Secretary
of State Warren Christopher and
other key administration officials
continue to reach for extra sweaters,
suggesting Russian cold fronts are
either political remnants of the old
regime that will dissipate with time;
or that they can be managed at
summits, like the one this week.
The past, however, has firmly
established that Yeltsin is a smart
politician who spins rhetoric and
policies skillfully to achieve his
desired objectives.
Last Thursday, Yeltsin issued
harsh words to NATO and the
United States. He then threatened to
dismiss his foreign minister, Andrei
Kozyrev, who has the reputation of
being the West’s favorite Russian
son.
Attempting to drive home his
disappointment with the West,
Yeltsin went so far as to start
pounding on a table, a comical but
alarming allusion to Nikita
Khruschev’s notorious 1960 shoe
banging incident at the United
Nations.
On Bosnia, Yeltsin said, “We
Neil Feldman
“Next year, Russia has
presidential elections
too, and it is absolutely
paramount that its
leader. . . understands
that the U.S. will not
tolerate policies and
rhetoric reminiscent of
Khrushchev and
Brezhnev. ”
will not fight under NATO com
mand.”
Russia has historical ties to the
Serbian people and has refused to
compromise on a potential Bosnian
division of Croatian, Muslim and
Serbian regions.
Yeltsin also noted that “Our
weapons are powerful and in many
respects better than American ones.”
Do you feel a draft?
And what does President Clinton
say when pressed by a reporter on
Friday? “It will be an issue on the
table at next week’s summit.”
When asked to elaborate, Clinton
ignored the reporter and addressed
another question.
Wouldn’t General Mac Arthur be
proud!
Even on Chechnya — where
Yeltsin acted vehemently toward the
Chechen minority, bringing back
memories of Soviet nationalities
policy — Clinton was careful not to
specifically condemn Yeltsin.
Instead, he said things like, “It’s
an unfortunate display of aggression
that should and must be confronted
by the West.”
Afterward Clinton sent his
Deputy Secretary of State Strobe
Talbott, who gets little press
coverage, to directly field questions
on Chechnya.
All of these instances underline
how weak and timid Clinton is when
dealing with Yeltsin.
With prime-time campaign
season just around the comer,
Clinton must demonstrate that he
can lay down an iron fist and stand
up to the Cold War nonsense that
has been proliferating out of
Moscow lately.
Next year, Russia has presiden
tial elections too. And it is abso
lutely paramount that its leader —
who, according to most observers of
Russia, will not be Yeltsin —
understands that the United States
will not tolerate policies and
rhetoric reminiscent of Khrushchev
and Brezhnev.
If Russia continues to rail against
the West on Bosnia, NATO — with
U.S. leadership — should charge
forth with an aggressive and fair
policy, irrespective of Yeltsin’s pro
Serbia stance.
If Clinton, though, continues to
put on a sweater every time the
temperature drops, things could get
a little too close for America’s
comfort. And he could pay a heavy
price at the polls.
Feldman is a senior international af
fairs major and a Daily Nebraskan colum
nist
n fetfeji... from the
—dseasi
Tattoo fulfills need
for rite of passage
Adria Chilcote
A few weeks ago I turned 18
years old. I am now officially an
adult. I’m a child no more.
Big deal. I don’t feel any
different now that I’m 18.1 had
no ceremony of any kind an
nouncing to the world my passage
into adulthood. My life hasn’t
drastically changed in the past
few weeks.
Ever since I was a little girl my
image of an adult was of someone
who’d moved out of their parent’s
house, had a job, did stuff like
pay the bills and write checks.
1 don’t exactly fit that image. I
still live with my mom, I’m
unemployed, I’ve never payed a
bill, or signed my own name to a
check.
Another thing about being an
adult is that I can now buy
cigarettes. But I don’t smoke.
I could vote now, if there were
an election going on.
If I commit a crime now, I’ll
be convicted as an adult, instead
of a minor. I should have gone on
a crime spree while I could have
gotten an easier sentence.
I have a valid I.D. now that
proves I am an adult.
When I turned 18,1 felt the
need to use that power somehow.
I needed to perform some act,
some rite of passage.
I didn’t want anything else
pierced, so I decided to go ahead
and get that tattoo that I’ve
wanted for quite some time.
I walked into Ray’s Tattoo
place fairly confident. I had made
an appointment the day before to
have a tribal style lizard tattooed
onto my stomach — its little tail
going around my navel.
I thought the pain wouldn’t be
that big an issue for me. I thought
I was tough.
Two hours of needles repeat
edly going into my skin gave me a
whole new perspective: Pain is a
bad thing, and should be avoided
at all times.
The first time I worried about
the pain was when I was lying
down, my stomach bare and
sterilized. Watching Ray prepare
his instrument of torture, I asked
him what the pain was like when
compared to having your ears
pierced.
He said that it was completely
different, and he was right.
He also said that it was like
plucking your eyebrows, and he
“He kept on saying
that after this or that
was done it would be
all downhill. I don’t
know what hill he was -
talking about, but the
hill I was going down
was very large,
covered with thorns,
and I was sliding
down on my
stomach. ”
was wrong, very wrong.
When I plucked my eyebrows
it didn’t hurt all that much, and it
didn’t last for two long hours.
Getting a tattoo is so much worse
than plucking your eyebrows.
It wasn’t all that bad at first.
After the first half hour 1
wasn’t sure I would make it.
First he did the outline. At that
point I was thinking that it looked
pretty good like that. I didn’t
need to have it filled in.
But he said that after the
outline it was all downhill. Like
an idiot I believed him. There was
still another hour left.
He kept on saying that after
this or that was done it would be
all downhill.
I don’t know what hill he was
talking about, but the hill I was
going down was very large,
covered with thorns, and I was
sliding down on my stomach. Not
exactly a pleasant experience.
I was very incredibly relieved
when it was finally done. It
definitely fulfilled my need for a
rite of passage into adulthood.
It seems that in a rite of
passage the participant should be
proving something.
Proving I can take a lot of pain
is something I don’t need to
prove.
If I ever need another rite, I
think I’ll try something mentally
challenging instead.
It’s a funny thing that when I
tell people that I got it done, they
! ask if it hurt. Shouldn’t it be a
' given that a tattoo hurts? You
don’t have to ask.
Now that I’ve done something
to exercise my adulthood, all I
need to do is move out of my
mother’s house, get a job, pay
some bills, write a check, buy a
pack of cigarettes, and vote for
somebody.
But I don’t want to waste my
money on cigarettes, and I’ll vote
when the time comes.
I think, instead, I’ll wait until
my next birthday to perform any
of those other responsible adult
activities.
Chileote is a freshman women’s stud
ies major aud a Daily Nebraskan colum
nist.
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Or by phone at (402)-472-l 782.