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Publication Details

Culture Politics and the Politics of Culture

(Original title: Kultúrna politika a politika kultúry)
Filozofia, 24 (1969), 5, 463-467.
Type of work: Papers and Discussions
Publication language: Slovak
Abstract
Practice in culture and with culture in history shows that it is inevitable to distinguish these two concepts. Culture politics is, strictly speaking, an activity performed by the states and their power organizations in the relation to culture. On the other hand, the politics of culture itself means the effect of culture activity upon the social life. For culture politics, culture is an object of treatment, manipulation, use and sometimes also of misuse. In good case, it is indulgence which is rendered to culture by the political power: in the negative case, it means cutting off the wings, preventing the access of oxygen, suffocating culture. On the contrary, the politics of culture grows from the possibilities of culture itself and of its disciplines. However, it also has two faces. In good case, it means a program contribution to the humanization of society and of the human history. In the negative case, it manifests itself by anarchic aspirations of the cultural activities, by a sort of cultural exhibitionism. Culture is freedom in act. In culture, man doubles and immortalizes his better face. Therefore, workers in culture perform, in the politics of culture, the best politics of which they are capable and competent.
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