Friday, April 25, 2008

Anonymous Benefactor: Threat or Menace?

Long time readers of this blog already know that some of America's finest choose to keep their identities secret.

But even the greatest four-color adventurers must doff their hoods to the unknown hero who donated the original Steve Ditko art for Amazing Fantasy #15 -- the first appearance of Spider-man! -- to the Library of Congress' Prints and Photographs division.

Yes, donated.

As in "gave it away for free to the people of the United States of America!"

We will never know just how much cash our hero gave up by not selling the 24 pages of original interior artwork at auction.

But I can tell you that the current record holder for the highest comic book art ever sold in the world -- a single original 1932 Hergé painting for the cover of “Tintin en Amérique” -- sold on March 30 for over US$1,014,000.

So we are probably talking about a gift worth millions of dollars.

And the irony of the most valuable work of Steve Ditko -- a notorious proponent of Ayn Rand's laissez-faire capitalism cult -- being socialized via a donation to a branch of the U.S. government is simply too delicious for words.

Update -
Well-argued speculation about the identity of The Man who donated Ditko's artwork.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

something donated voluntarily...even to a government agency...can hardly be said to have been socialized. "socialized" is when the government seizes private property without consent. if the irony is "too delicious for words," maybe it's because there is nothing ironic about this. of course it shouldn't be expected for leftists to understand either property rights or freedom to dispose one's of property at will.

So-Called Austin Mayor said...

Jimmy,

Thank you for raising the important issue of the national educational shortcomings at the grammar school level.

While there are many extraordinary grade school teachers, too many Americans, like yourself, never learn basic skills. They, like you, remain ignorant of fundamentals that should be understood by every 4th grader -- in your case: ignorance of proper capitalization and the use of a dictionary.

But this is a full-service blog, so here is a free capitalization tip: The first word of a sentence is capitalized.

And here are the three definitions of "socialized" from the American Heritage Dictionary. Please note the utter absence of any mention of "force" or "seizure".

so·cial·ize (sō'shə-līz') - 1. To place under government or group ownership or control. 2. To make fit for companionship with others; make sociable. 3. To convert or adapt to the needs of society.

Remember, the words in the dictionary are in alphabetical order. And if you don't know a word's first letter, you can always ask your teacher or one of the smart kids.

And finally, don't worry too much about being unable to find a job with your limited skill set, Jimmy. At the rate that the military is lowering the standards for enlistment, soon even you will be able to be all that you can be.

Best wishes etc.,

-- SCAM
so-called "Austin Mayor"
http://austinmayor.blogspot.com

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