The Arts are not essential to life and do not merit government subsidies

“The Arts are not essential to life and do not merit government subsidies.” Discuss

I will never forget the first time I went to the theatre in France. It was one of the most famous Molière's comedies called Le Tartuffe, performed by a small Parisian theatre troupe. This play has had a great impact on me. Basically, the play talks about the religious hypocrisy and that reminded me my native country Iran. Such a play would be forbidden in Iran because it denounces exactly what the Iranian government is supporting. Indeed, in all authoritarian or fascist regimes, Arts have been the first to be controlled, watched and manipulated, because, and that is what I will try to demonstrate, Arts can have a great impact on our life. Therefore, they merit government subsidies.

Surely, if you put someone in a cell, you can keep him alive with only food and water. But is the human life limited to his primitive needs? I do not think so. The fact is that as human beings, we are endowed with a reason and the need to use it and transmit our thoughts in one way or another. The Arts have always been one of the ways to communicate. And communication helps a better understanding between people, this understanding creates links, links might lead to solidarity, and solidarity makes our life easier and richer. For example, a photography exhibition of James Nachtwey about wars around the world is much more heartbreaking than just a short article in the newspaper, and if governments does not support these artists, lots of them could not afford to travel or to organise an exhibition.

Indeed, if the government does not provide subsidies for the Arts, not only less artists could devote themselves to their art, but the works of the few artists who can afford it would stay in some very small groups of rich elites. Without the government support, normal middle-class people could never go to the museum, which probably would not exist anyway.

To conclude, I would say that Arts are as important as foods for the blossom of human beings. What is food if you do not have the right to have an opinion, to be free, to communicate, to endorse a cause? Arts allow us to do all of this and without them, we are more animals than human beings.