Art in Nazi Germany, at Smarthistory. After reading the article in the book and watching the online video, and based on your und
erstanding of the threat that ideas generated by the arts can have to repressive governments, what are your thoughts on something like this happening in the United States? Do you think in our current information-saturated culture that the arts still have the ability to sway popular opinion?
Nazi art was used, mainly to stimulate the concept of superiority, which stimulated the action of the highly abusive Nazi government. In this regard, we can consider that an event like this could happen in the USA, since American society has very ingrained concepts of superiority and imperialism. However, many current artists have been involved in social and humanistic causes and these artists could undermine the proliferation of arts that advocate and encourage authoritarian and abusive governments in the USA.
Art is still a powerful tool for influencing popular opinion, especially in a society with so much information, like ours. This is because, with the rapid re-proliferation of information, art is able to be less elite and can reach more people, eliminating the formation of an opinion on a given subject.
