There is a new "organization" in town:

The Ministry of Culture.

A group of Artists and creative individuals who have dedicated dacades to the cultural scene in Los Angeles and abroad have formed a new venue where everybody can have a voice in the way we shape our culture. This announcement is meant to spread the word!

The text below is taken from www.ministryofculture.org

The way we see it, when we first hear the phrase “ministry of culture”, we see a foreboding state department structure or building that is the gatekeeper of all art that is acceptable and non decadent, perhaps cultural expression that fortifies the state position against it’s opposition, say running dogs of Yankee imperialism, or the axis of evil; jingoism for all.

Well, we certainly need to change that perception don’t we? We are also struck by the idea that a ministry is a pulpit, from the rank lunatic on a wooden box in Times Square to the cathedrals of excess that remove all doubt God is good, God is great, God is a capitalist.

No. Not what we have in mind either. Although we are concerned with lifting your spirits, we hardly have interest in your religion. It is fairly clear that there is some sort of smart ass liberal bent to our position, not devoid of a deeper, more serious meaning.

Thus in defining who we are, we start with who we are not. For the agents of the Big Department of Governmental Watch Dogging, we are not terrorists, we do not promote violence, unless it is beating piñatas, which we consider very serious ritual, and we love the place in which we live, so much that we are willing to protect it against the stupidity of its current government. We are the rebel protectoriants of the stupiditiness of governmentalisticalism.

To the ultra paranoid left, we are not agents of the military industrial fascist complex, parading as saboteurs but drawing out enemies of the state into exposed e-mail trees.

In the old days, the wise fool kept his head despite mocking the king because he was quick witted albeit lightly regarded, creative, and kinda funny looking. That is more like us. Bear in mind the issue at hand is serious, the most non humanitarian concept of our United States policy since the omission of slaves and women as citizens in the initial Constitution, the internment of Americans based on ethnicity, the – well, it’s up there, this wall, this fence, pean to the last vestiges of just us justice and good old days gone.

The key to understanding who we are, is to regard Culture as the most important word in our self appellation, and to see Ministry as a verb. We have decided upon mockery as the weapon of mass disrespect, and ridicule as the method for true democratic transition. At this point I should qualify that my partner, the Minister of Culture to the Ministry of Culture, well, we don’t agree on every thing including even the Manifesto to the Great Wall of Chinga. Isn’t that just like a bunch of quasi-intellectual Bohemians in Black?

In the Jewish faith, there is purposeful ongoing review and debate of canon and law, with participants willfully taking up positions of advocacy and contradiction for the purpose of testing the truth of the law. We gladly steal this concept and apply it to our own identity.

The Ministry of Culture is not defined by this indulgent narrative, it is defined by who participates and what is reflected in creative dissertation and dissent that is called for from this point forward. We are not smart enough to completely define the Ministry of Culture, we need your participation. In that sense, the Ministry of Culture is fluid, we are willing to go with the flow, open the floodgates but let the water take its course. It is the desire of the Minister of Culture, (I think, for he is so moody), and the Architect of Folly, (today, because he changes his mind more often than his underoos) that we throw open to the bully pulpit, vox populi, and creative forces, the opportunity to create art and culture; a forum by which who we are and what we do becomes what is our Ministry of Culture.