tolerance for cretins -- room at the hotel

('no room for those who censor art' -- lex HL, 6-16)
Tolerance is funny stuff. You’d suppose tolerance was a general state of mind that should apply equally all around, but it isn’t. Sat in a coffeehouse one time with a citizen of a most tolerant society who told me the one thing they wouldn’t tolerate was intolerance, so don’t ever blow your horn in traffic there. Closer to home it’s the art people who are most strange when it comes to tolerance. Art people are against any censorship whatsoever, and sometimes what they do seems little more than a dare to anyone who might consider it.

There’s an attitude that would aggressively present graphic porn as personal expression in a public gallery, this actually happened in lex, but which won’t tolerate anyone who questions -- it’s worthiness as art, it’s appropriateness for presentation with tax dollars, the blatant absurdity of tawdry sensationalism pretending to be anything else. Open a window. In fact, let’s back off this notion that worthy art necessarily challenges and provokes altogether.

The new hotel, 21C, promises to present an array of art to the general public and not everyone has to like it. It doesn’t matter, they’re not trying to sell it. They sell hotel rooms. They’re exhibiting art as a sort of civic minded, extremely clever way to establish an unique identity in an overcrowded industry. Everyone’s invited to look. If they see something they don’t like they may begin to consider what they do like, and the principle will be served. It’s a good idea all around. Nothing will be presented as damaging to mind and soul as the four hours 7 to 11 on major TV networks, and if anyone really doesn’t like what they see they don't have to go back.