[londons_explore]

Culture is really a slow motion war game. If you can make your films and music popular across the world, that will eventually buy you influence with the people of the world, and that in turn will turn into political influence.

That's part of the reason nearly every country spends taxes to support the arts/music/theatre/film.

By restricting foreign actors, you are restricting foreign countries culture spreading, and giving your own actors/filmmakers/musicians a boost. That in turn will translate into more worldwide cultural influence for your country.

To be honest, I'm really surprised all countries don't ban artists from non allied countries.

[justinclift]

They're hiking the fees for artists from allied countries as well. ;)

[lurking15]

wasn’t it betolt brecht who really pioneered getting state funding of theatre as a way to advance communism (and line his pockets)?

[portaouflop]

Extremely cynical and reductive look at one of the most meaningful things humans can do in their lifetime. War eats everything, don’t let it eat your soul.

Edit: also not clear how restricting foreign actors in your country would boost your cultures influence in another country.

I would even argue that giving foreign artists the opportunity to be influenced by your culture, in turn will strengthen your cultures influence outside of it.

[ecjhdnc2025]

> Extremely cynical and reductive look at one of the most meaningful things humans can do in their lifetime. War eats everything, don’t let it eat your soul.

But it is not really a cynical statement about art. It's a cynical statement about government policy towards the arts.

In the UK, Brexit has done a great deal of slow-motion damage to the prospects of British artists (and the opportunities for British audiences) and it is difficult not to see the government's intransigence towards work travel restrictions for artists as an arts policy rather than just an immigration policy.

[londons_explore]

Battling with songs and shows is far better than battling with guns and bombs.

Those who have visited Ukraine will know quite how many free art galleries, sculptures, children's playgrounds etc all had EU, Russia and even USA flags on a little plaque saying "Proudly sponsored by...". The cultural war predated the traditional war by 20+ years. You can see the same cultural war in the '-stan' countries, Georgia , etc today. I