Beatles. Immediately all sorts of previous
recipients of the same medal are busy sen-
ding back their's with comments worthy of
the Pharisess. What is the reason for this?
in the realm of entertainment, the Beatles oan
say and do what they like, much as the role
of mediaeval clown was to anchor the mo
narch to reality by insulting him in a humo-
rous and impertinent fashion - let the clown
suddenly advise the King on foreign affairs,
however, and he would fall out of favour.
Why? Because the foreign-minister isn't able
to replace the clown, and almost anybody is
able to replace a foreign-minister. Even other
foreign ministers have done so. In case it be
thought that I am going a litle far - and in
case there are any foreign ministers or clowns
present - 1 will make that statement more
palatable by suggesting that a foreign minis
ter seeking to replace a clown would be dis-
covered in a matter of minutes unless he
was exceptionally gifted whereas a clown
could probably last for six months to a year
before someone said, „Have you noticed how
remarkably intelligent our foreign policy has
been of late?"
The fact is that in so-called free countries,
the uncharted division between entertainment
and reality is as palpable a frontier as that
between two nations. This is the result of a
degree of sophistication which has never been
attained in so-called unfree countries. In so-
called unfree countries, the Entertainer is taken
so seriously that it is problaby true to say
that the last war became inevitable at the
very moment that the first German comic was
arrested for making fun of Goering's size -
it was clear at that moment that the Nazi ma
chine had been constructed deliberately -
without safety valves. The endless self-accu-
sations of Soviet artists would hardly have
been necessary if the relative importance of
the artist in society was as low as it is in
the West. In the socalled unfree societies,
ladies and gentlemen, they make the flatter-
ring mistake of taking the artist seriously and
regarding him as a potential influence on the
man in the street. Up to recently, the so-
called free societies have never been guilty
of such a cumbersome miscalculation. How
ever since both the so-called free world and
the so-called unfree world are busy with the
aggravating business of co-existence, a state
of affairs which has been brought about by
the fact that they both have the bomb - for
when Germany was divided the German scien-
tists were divided also - they are now busy
rather shyly imitating each other to the extent
that, whereas the Russians are cautiously in-
troducing an artificial element of competi-
tion into their production, and pretending
that that was Lenin's eventual plan all
along President Johnson suddenly de-
cides, in an extraordinary rebuttal of demo
cratie traditions - to have a cultural fieldday
at the White House. Naturally he was not to
know that one of his guests was not going
to play the game according to the rules laid
down by centuries of habit.
This guest, a distinguished poet, took the op-
portunity of answering his invitation in prose,
and in very pertinent and trenchant prose at
that. Goodness knows what came over him at
that moment of folly - that same moment at
which the clown gained the disfavour of the
King by making a serious contribution for
which his intelligence if not his station fitted
him perhaps he wondered if fundamental
human ethics were not being sacrificed on the
altar of sheer technique? - Perhaps he was
willing to accept, as we all must be, that cer-
tain actions however unpleasant, are neces
sary but hidden, because military and state
secrets are not available to us all but in
accepting this, could he not have reflected
that in the history of the world there never
have been, there are not, and there never will
be, moral secrets and therefore that the
death of women and children underthe bombs
is wrong, whatever the long-range strategy
which dictates such a policy to military men?
Perhaps he feit that a sense of expediency
was taking the place of the studied upright-
ness of tradition - for countries with very
large armed forces invariably find it difficult
not to use them every now and then, if only
to justify their existence to the taxpayer? Per
haps he even considered the character of a
president, in the awful loneliness of his po-
sition, corsetted by a constitution yet buffetted
by pressures from within, compelled to react
visibly to every external event in order to
prove to the world that he is in control, and.
terrible word, strong?
Be that as it may, Mr. Lowell, great and sen-
sitive poet, hit below the belt in refusing his
invitation to the White House. Such an action
was not expected. Why was it not expected?
Because those who reach the top of the tree
are those without the necessary qualifications
to detain them at the botiom. Mr. Lowell is a
poet. His qualifications detained him where
his gifts belong - at the botom. In a moment
of commendable and courageous folly, he
forgot just how important he is, and passed
a judgment on the actions of those far less
gifted than he, those who forge his and our
destinies.
Our function, as artists, ladies and gentlemen
- and the function of the cinema - is to en
tertain. But by entertainment I don't mean
anything more than that we must acquire the
technique for keeping our audience awake -
in that sense, the politician and even the
priest must also entertain if they wish to
convince. Apart from that, we need to be
flexible as opposed to petrified. We must
accept nothing that we are told; believe
nothing without examining it minutely. We
must not be afraid of making ourselves con-
founded nuisances if the opportunity presents
itself. Mr. Lowell took the opportunity thanks
to the generosity of Mr. Johnson; I have taken
the same opportunity thanks to the genero
sity of Mr. Sluizer.
The arts are always a fortress of moral cou
rage, and of independence of thought in a
world in which great bulks of opinion tend
to congeal more and more rapidly into dull,
insensitive masses. Is it any wonder that
scientist so often abscond with their secrets
to some opposing political bloc, in the mis-
guided belief that conditions will be different
there? Why, they think, should their work be
pressed into the service of the great stupidi-
ties? They, invariably end up embittered and
saddened creatures, riddled with compromi-
ses, their horizons sometimes reduced to the
size of a prison cell. The artist is luckier.
He may be taken seriously but not on a
practical level. He has nothing to offer but
magie.
And yet how heartening when a prize such as
this one, a European prize, a Dutch prize, an
enlightened prize, honours two of the most
magical magicians at work today, Charlie the
Tramp and Ingmar the Hermit. The botom of
the tree is a fine place to be in such company.
In gesprek. De heren
de Vries, van Vriesland,
Haanstra en Povel
met hun dames.
479
