J.G Ballard (Empire of the Sun, Crash and many others) writes in his autobiography, Miracles of Life:<\/p>\n
The funds disbursed by the Arts Council over the decades have created a\u00a0dependent\u00a0client class of poets, novelists and weekend publishers whose chief mission in life is to get their grants renewed, as anyone attending a poetry magazine’s parties will quickly learn from the \u00a0nearby conversations. \u00a0Why the taxes of people on modest incomes (the source of most taxes today) should pay for the agreeable hobby of a North London children’s doctor, or a self important idler like the late editor of the New Review, is something I have never understood. \u00a0I assume that the patronage of the arts by the state serves a political role by performing a castration ceremony, neutering any revolutionary impulse and reducing the ‘arts community’ to a docile herd. \u00a0They are allowed to bleat, but are too enfeebled to ever paw the ground.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
I can’t help but\u00a0think\u00a0the state is using much the same tactic with\u00a0community\u00a0development workers, \u00a0third sector and social enterprise communities.<\/p>\n
Even in the for profit sector the state has fallen so in thrall of the ‘start up rate’ that many business are\u00a0started\u00a0in a flabby and flaccid condition because\u00a0of the ‘encouragement’, soft loans and grants made available in some areas.<\/p>\n