Culture in times of financial crisis

The weekly Die Zeit hails the liberation of art from the economy that it claims the financial crisis has brought. "It may be that the bank crisis will mean the end for one or two cultural projects. Promotional funding that took an indirect route through culture could become scarce. But culture itself, the arts and sciences in the narrower sense, will profit from the crisis. All of a sudden they have been freed from the constrictions of the economy and regained their original elevated status. They need no longer fear that the sticky fingers of party guests from the business sector will sully their naked flesh. ... It is undoubtedly always painful when a book doesn't sell, but at least the tills will no longer be pronounced the yardstick for quality. ... On the contrary, the appeal of the arts and research will be greatly increased by the fact that their qualities cannot be ruined by an economic crisis. Knowledge and beauty are not governed by the same laws as supply and demand: a truth remains true, even if it has no commercial value or cannot even be traded. ... The tide has turned: it is no longer art that must learn from the economy but the economy that must learn from art."

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