We read in the ARA that Barcelona City Council has received a notification warning them that none of the funds from the American government can be used for "programs that promote diversity, equity, or inclusion." The "funds" were sent to the Ignasi Iglésias - Can Fabra Library, with a project to "promote cultural exchange and dialogue between Barcelona and the United States."
If diversity is not to be encouraged, Donald Trump will want to encourage uniformity; if equality is not to be encouraged, he will want to encourage inequality; and if inclusion is not to be encouraged, he will want to encourage marginalization. To start with, the library's name needs to be changed. Ignasi Iglésias, long before names were even mentioned. modernists, rejected "ageism" in his work Old.
Art has always attempted to give direction. Romanesque works of art attempt to make the populace, terrified by the terrible torments of hell they see in altarpieces, get along and believe. And Víctor Jara, in his work I remind you of Amanda, tries to make those who listen to him understand the inhuman working conditions of the workers. Prohibiting what doesn't suit us? It's as old as walking and it's useless. And what is indisputable, however, is that a work of art that gives you a "directive," due to the recipient, may foster precisely the opposite of what it intends. If you read Mein Kampf, by Adolf Hitler, which depicts a short, dark-skinned man's desire to create a superior "race" of tall, blond men, you'll react by feeling that the work unwittingly promotes diversity, equality, and inclusion. The best work of art Donald Trump has done in support of these concepts (which I would argue are logical) is, precisely, to ban their dissemination.
