The NEA costs each of us about 60 cents a year. The DEA, which is ruining the country, runs into the billions. I wasn't hostile, and certainly not witty, but he turned away as if I had 666 tatooed on my forehead. Then he scurried away. Well, these people, like the Taliban and the Nazis, are Puritans.
Puritans hate art.
Puritans actually hate all kinds of things, but artists are going to be sent to an especially dank and smelly corner of their Shining City. Art is frivolous, art does not bring in the crops, and art gives people the excuse to paint their faces and wear bright colors. Every flowering of the arts, even the mildest renaissance, has been followed by a grim-faced wave of Puritans, sourly hacking away at the remains. Puritans, of course, also hate paying taxes, preferring to kick in for televised prettyboys who describe fiery pits. Never what you'd call merry in the best of times, it's not hard to figure how they feel about that.