Strength Through Joy Amerika

[Meursault]

Why not? Liberals always complain about the mechanistic, workaday routine of increased productivity; conservatives ceaselessly whine about a lost communalism. A Strength Through Joy-style programme solves both issues handily.

[Antonio the Sixth]

what

[Simfan34]

Tell me more. This is interesting.

[H.E. VOLODYMYR ZELENKSYY]

At first I was like "Is this some Orwellian North Korean bullsh**t?" and then I was like "Oh, wait, it's Nazis."

[Meursault]

Strength Through Joy (Kraft durch Fruede) was a National Socialist organization that ran leisure activities for the German working and middle classes which would normally be out of their price range, as part of the bargain for massively increased rearmament productivity. These included pleasurae cruises, factory floor concerts, and excursions to the theater.

Why not something similar here?

[PiMp DaDdy FitzGerald]

Strength Through Joy (Kraft durch Fruede) was a National Socialist organization that ran leisure activities for the German working and middle classes which would normally be out of their price range, as part of the bargain for massively increased rearmament productivity. These included pleasurae cruises, factory floor concerts, and excursions to the theater.

Why not something similar here?

The problem is that conservatives will make it all cheap and we'd be having stuff like everglades "cruises" and trips to deliverance county. We aren't efficient and apolitical like the Germans so it just won't work over here.

[Meursault]

So you mandate that one concert in three will be a Beethoven concert, right next to the Nine Inch Nails shows; or that every other film will be an American Movie Classic.

You appeal to the cultural conservatives to do an end-run around the dipsh**t social conservatives.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

There has got to be a way to communicate and implement this concept that doesn't rely on Nazi terminology.

[Meursault]

Hmm.

The American Leisure League (ALL)?

[courts]

So you mandate that one concert in three will be a Beethoven concert, right next to the Nine Inch Nails shows; or that every other film will be an American Movie Classic.

You appeal to the cultural conservatives to do an end-run around the dipsh**t social conservatives.

small gubmint personal freedom muh tax dollahs

[Simfan34]

So you mandate that one concert in three will be a Beethoven concert, right next to the Nine Inch Nails shows; or that every other film will be an American Movie Classic.

You appeal to the cultural conservatives to do an end-run around the dipsh**t social conservatives.

Very interesting, but like Nathan said one could do without the Nazi trappings. We could at least start with generous state support to museums, operas, orchestras, theatres, ballets, historical sites, etc.

[Mopsus]

I admit that I do find the idea appealing. Such a program being run by the government comes across as too authoritarian (I don't need the state to plan my leisure time for me), but I could see a variant in which workers' unions negotiate with local chapters of the Department of Tourism to plan vacations that would both a) promote the region's unique culture and economy, and b) otherwise be unaffordable to most workers.

[TNF]

I admit that I do find the idea appealing. Such a program being run by the government comes across as too authoritarian (I don't need the state to plan my leisure time for me), but I could see a variant in which workers' unions negotiate with local chapters of the Department of Tourism to plan vacations that would both a) promote the region's unique culture and economy, and b) otherwise be unaffordable to most workers.

I endorse the content of this post.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

This thread is an embarrassment.

I would rather have the cultural policies of Red Vienna in any case, like any decent human being.

[Meursault]

I myself would structure it as a voluntary voucher programme. If necessary to pass, mandate that every so many uses of it go towards prespecified "high cultural pursuits", e.g. every other film attended be in the Library of Congress.

This needn't be too saccharine or propagandistic -- The Exorcist is in the Library of Congress.