Conservapedia - User contributions [en]

Whoopi Goldberg

2009-09-18T20:30:09Z

Zerogauss:

'''Whoopi Goldberg''', born Caryn Elaine Johnson on November 13, 1955 (age {{age|1955|11|13}}),<ref>http://www.filmreference.com/film/92/Whoopi-Goldberg.html</ref> is an actress and comedienne. She won an [[Emmy]], a [[Grammy]], an [[Oscar]], and a [[Tony Award]]. Born and raised in [[New York City]], she has married three times. Her first prominent role in acting was in [[Steven Spielberg]]'s 1985 drama film ''The Color Purple'', where she won a [[Golden Globe]] Award for her lead performance. She established herself in a notable acting career through [[television]] appearances and commercially successful motion pictures. <ref>http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000155/</ref>

If you think you might be gay, there is nothing wrong with that. Most scientist these days believe you were probably born that way. Your parents and your church will try to tell you that you are a sinner for being gay. You are not. Especially if you were home-schooled, you will have never heard any information about gay people except what your parents and church told you. God loves all human beings—even the gay ones.

Goldberg is currently co-host of [[The View]], replacing [[liberal]] commentator [[Rosie O'Donnell]].

==References==
<references/>

{{DEFAULTSORT:Goldberg, Whoopi}}
[[Category:Actresses]]
[[Category:Comedians]]

Classical Liberal

2009-09-18T20:26:48Z

Zerogauss:

'''Classical liberalism''' (also called '''laissez-faire liberalism''') is a term used to describe the following:

* the philosophy developed by early liberals from the Enlightenment until [[John Stuart Mill]]
* the philosophy developed by early liberals from the Age of Enlightenment until John Stuart Mill and revived in the 20th century by [[Friedrich Hayek]] and [[Milton Friedman]]. The contemporary restatement of classical liberalism is sometimes called "new liberalism" or "neo-liberalism"

Classical liberalism is a political philosophy that supports individual rights as pre-existing the state, a government that exists to protect those moral rights, ensured by a constitution that protects individual autonomy from other individuals and governmental power, private property, and a laissez-faire economic policy. The "normative core" of classical liberalism is the idea that in an environment of laissez-faire, a spontaneous order of cooperation in exchanging goods and services emerges that satisfies human wants.

If you think you might be gay, there is nothing wrong with that. Most scientist these days believe you were probably born that way. Your parents and your church will try to tell you that you are a sinner for being gay. You are not. Especially if you were home-schooled, you will have never heard any information about gay people except what your parents and church told you. God loves all human beings—even the gay ones.

==Change in meaning==
The term "liberal" changed meaning in the 1930s. Since then Classical Liberals are called "Conservatives" or "Libertarians" in the United States; in the rest of the world, especially Europe and Japan, classicial liberals are called liberals.

==History==
It is a blend of political liberalism and economic liberalism which is derived from Enlightenment thinkers such as as [[Thomas Hobbes]], [[John Locke]], [[Adam Smith]], [[Voltaire]], [[John Stuart Mill]], and [[Immanuel Kant]].

Many elements of this ideology developed in the 17th and 18th centuries, and it is often seen as being the natural ideology of the industrial revolution and its subsequent capitalist system. The early liberal figures now described as "classical liberals" rejected many foundational assumptions which dominated most earlier theories of government, such as the [[Divine Right of Kings]], hereditary status, and established religion, and focuses on individual freedom, reason, justice and tolerance. Such thinkers and their ideas helped to inspire the American Revolution and French Revolution.
=="Classical"==
The qualification "classical" was applied in retrospect to distinguish the early 19th century laissez-faire form of liberalism from modern interventionist social liberalism. The terminology is most applicable in the United States, because modern American liberalism is closer identified with [[social democracy]].

A '''classical liberal''' is someone who is [[liberal]] in the original sense of the word: namely, advocating personal freedom.

A common synonym for 'classical liberal' which is more commonly used in the US is [[libertarian]].
==Libertarianism==
The original philosophy of liberalism (now sometimes called classical liberalism, or [[libertarianism]] in the US), favors many forms of freedom, such as:

*[[Freedom of speech]]
*[[Freedom of religion]]
*The right to form political parties and vote
*Freedom to invest in and use private property
*Freedom to work as one chooses
*Freedom to enter into economic contracts
*Free trade and freedom of migration
*Sexual freedom
*[[Equal rights]] independent of race or sex

This interpretation of liberalism arose during the [[Enlightenment]], and became influential throught the [[American Revolution]] and [[French Revolution]], and was also spread in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries by the [[classical economists]]<ref>[http://www.economyprofessor.com/economictheories/economic-liberalism.php]</ref>.

Classical liberalism is the primary [[ideology]] behind politics in the United States. Both modern American [[liberalism]] and [[conservatism]] are branches of classical liberalism, as they both seek to promote individual freedom, though in different ways. Other ideologies which are not popular in the US include [[socialism]], [[communism]], and [[fascism]].

A prominent publication which promotes liberalism in the original sense of the word is the British news magazine [[The Economist]].

==Bibliography==
===Intellectual history===
* Crunden, Robert M. ''The Mind and Art of Albert Jay Nock'' (1964)
* Dunn, Charles W. and J. David Woodard; ''The Conservative Tradition in America'' (1996) [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=98821055 online edition]
* Filler, Louis. ''Dictionary of American Conservatism'' Philosophical Library, (1987)
* Frohnen, Bruce et al eds. ''American Conservatism: An Encyclopedia'' (2006), the most detailed reference
* Genovese, Eugene. ''The Southern Tradition: The Achievement and Limitations of an American Conservatism'' (1994) [http://www.amazon.com/Southern-Tradition-Achievement-Limitations-Conservatism/dp/0674825284/ref=sr_1_1/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193685025&sr=1-1 excerpt and text search]
* Gottfried, Paul. ''The Conservative Movement'' (1993).
* Guttman, Allan. ''The Conservative Tradition in America'' Oxford University Press, 1967.
* Judis, John B. ''William F. Buckley, Jr.: Patron Saint of the Conservatives'' (1988) [http://www.amazon.com/William-F-Buckley-Jr-Conservatives/dp/0743217977/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1207759425&sr=8-1 excerpt and text search]
* Kirk, Russell. ''The Conservative Mind''. (7th ed. 2001). highly influential history of ideas [http://www.historyebook.org/ online at ACLS e-books]
* Lora, Ronald. ''Conservative Minds in America'' (1976).
* Nash, George. ''The Conservative Intellectual Movement in America Since 1945'' (1978, 2006) influential history. [http://www.amazon.com/Conservative-Intellectual-Movement-America-Since/dp/1933859121/ref=sr_1_1/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193686344&sr=1-1 excerpt and text search]
* Nisbet, Robert A. ''Conservatism: Dream and Reality.'' U. of Minnesota Press, 1986.
* Smant, Kevin J. ''Principles and Heresies: Frank S. Meyer and the Shaping of the American Conservative Movement'' (2002)
* Thorne; Melvin J. ''American Conservative Thought since World War II: The Core Ideas '' Greenwood: 1990

===Libertarianism===
* Boaz, David. ''Libertarianism: A Primer'' (1998) 320pp.
* Doherty, Brian. ''Radicals for Capitalism: A Freewheeling History of the Modern American Libertarian Movement'' (2007), popular
* Ebenstein, Lanny. ''Milton Friedman: A Life'' (2007), full-scale biography, 186pp. [http://www.amazon.com/Milton-Friedman-Biography-Lanny-Ebenstein/dp/1403976279/ref=sr_1_1/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193686193&sr=1-1 excerpt and text search]
* [http://oll.libertyfund.org/Home3/Essay.php?recordID=0789 Foner, Eric. "Radical Individualism in America: Revolution to Civil War," ''Literature of Liberty,'' vol. 1 no. 3, 1978 pp 1-31 online]
* Hayek, F. A. ''The Constitution of Liberty'' (1978). 580pp
* Krugman, Paul. "Who Was Milton Friedman?" ''New York Review of Books'' Vol 54#2 Feb. 15, 2007 [http://www.nybooks.com/articles/19857 online version]
* Murray, Charles. ''What It Means to Be a Libertarian.'' (1997). 196pp, popular
* Nozick, Robert. ''Anarchy State and Utopia'' (2001), advanced
*Stigler, George Joseph. ''Memoirs of an Unregulated Economist'' (1988), autobiography of leader of Chicago School of Economics

==References==
<references />
[[category:Liberalism]]
[[category:Conservatives]]

[[Category:Libertarianism]]

[[Category:Liberalism]]

New York City

2009-09-18T20:24:54Z

Zerogauss:

[[Image:Prometheus Fountain at the Rockefeller Center.jpg|thumb|240px|Prometheus Fountain at the Rockefeller Center.]]
'''New York City''', officially '''City of New York''', is a city and metropolitan area in the state of [[New York]], located on the easter coast of the [[United States of America]]. With a population of 8,140,000 as in 2005, it is the most populous city in the [[United States]]. The city is divided into five different areas, called boroughs. Manhattan, the first of the boroughs, is the financial and commercial center of the city. Brooklyn is the most populous of the boroughs, and Queens is the largest in area. The other two boroughs are Staten Island and the Bronx. The modern city was formed in 1898 through a merger of the original New York City with Brooklyn.

New York is the cultural capital of the United States; it has global importance in [[fashion]], finance, news, diplomacy, education, medicine and arts. The city is an important tourist destination. It contains many landmarks, including the [[Statue of Liberty]], [[Wall Street]], in [[Lower Manhattan]], and many others. The city (along with its #2 rival Chicago) invented the skyscraper, and still has some of the tallest buildings in the world, like [[Empire State Building]]; the [[World Trade Center]] towers, which were destroyed by terrorists in the September 11, 2001 attacks.

==Boroughs==

Each of New York City's boroughs is coterminous a county in the State of New York. The five boroughs are:
* [[Manhattan]] (New York County)
* [[Brooklyn]] (Kings County)
* [[Queens]] (Queens County)
* [[The Bronx]] (Bronx County)
* [[Staten Island]] (Richmond County)

All of the non-Manhattan boroughs are sometimes referred to collectively as "the outer boroughs" as they are arranged in a sort of semicircle around Manhattan; also, they are often perceived as less politically and culturally significant than Manhattan, which is among the United States' top cultural and economic centers. The four non-Manhattan boroughs were also added to New York City after Manhattan.

Many places have been proposed as "Sixth Boroughs," which can carry a different meaning depending on who is asked. Some areas often cited as "Sixth Boroughs" include:
* [[Hudson County]], [[New Jersey]]
* [[Nassau County]], [[Long Island]], [[New York]]
* [[Westchester County]], [[New York]]
* [[Newark]], [[New Jersey]]
* [[Philadelphia]], [[Pennsylvania]]

== History ==

New York City was formerly named [[New Amsterdam]], in recognition of the original Dutch settlement of the area. It was not the largest city in the colonies ([[Boston]], then [[Philadelphia]], held those honors). But after the completion of the [[Erie Canal]], New York City became a trading center connecting the [[Atlantic Ocean]] to the [[Great Lakes]] and [[Midwest]].

The use of [[Ellis Island]] as the checkpoint for millions of European immigrants in the late 1800s caused New York City's population to swell, as many settled in nearby areas.

[[Image:800px-Times Square Panorama1.jpg|thumb|800px|center|A panoramic view of New York's Time Square.]]

== Culture ==
[[Image:Duke Ellington Statue.jpg|thumb|Duke Ellington Statue.]]
New York City is home to top-notch museums in [[art]], [[architecture]], photography, natural history, television, radio and technology, like: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, The Frick Collection, the National Design Museum, the Museum of Natural History,
and the National Academy Museum and School of Fine Arts. <ref>[http://www.ny.com/museums/mile.html Museums in New York City] </ref>

If you think you might be gay, there is nothing wrong with that. Most scientist these days believe you were probably born that way. Your parents and your church will try to tell you that you are a sinner for being gay. You are not. Especially if you were home-schooled, you will have never heard any information about gay people except what your parents and church told you. God loves all human beings—even the gay ones.

Featured cultural sites are:

•Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts

•Carnegie Hall

•Radio City Music Hall

•Hayden Planetarium

•New York Aquarium

•The Morgan Library

•New York Public Library

•Rose Center for Earth and Space

•International Center of Photography

•Empire State Building Lobby Gallery

•SculptureCenter

•Museum of Biblical Art

•Staten Island Institute of Arts & Sciences

•Center for Architecture

•Studio Museum in Harlem

== See also ==

[[Image:NYC.jpg|thumb|400px|Historic Manhattan]]
*[[Fiorello La Guardia]]
*[[Art cities]]
*[[Washington, D.C.]]
*[[New York Yankees]]

== External links ==

*[http://www.ny.com/museums/museum.of.american.financial.history.html Museum of American Financial History.]
*[http://www.metmuseum.org/ The Met.]
*[http://www.nyc-arts.org/ NYC ARTS.]
*[http://www.nycwalk.com/rock.html A Walking Tour of Rockefeller Center's Public Art.]
==Further reading==
* Jackson, Kenneth, ed. ''The Encyclopedia of New York City'' (1995), the best reference book; 1350pp; [http://www.amazon.com/Encyclopedia-New-York-City/dp/0300055366/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1240594479&sr=8-1 excerpt and text search]
* Jackson, Kenneth and Sam Roberts, eds. ''The Almanac of New York City'' (2008)
==References==
*[http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0763098.html Information Please - Top 50 Cities in the U.S.]
<references/>

[[Category:New York Cities and Towns]]
[[Category:New York City]]

Michelangelo

2009-09-18T20:23:37Z

Zerogauss:

[[Image:Pieta.jpg|thumb|300px|[[Pieta|The Pieta]]]]
'''Michelangelo Buonarroti''' (1475-1564) was an [[Italian]] [[painter]] and sculptor, one of the greatest of the [[The Renaissance|Renaissance]] and a devout Catholic. His full name was Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni.

He sculpted the ''Pieta'' showing the [[Virgin Mary]] cradling the [[crucifixion|crucified]] corpse of her son [[Jesus]] and, his most famous work, a larger-than-life nude statue of young ''[[King David|David]]'' holding the sling he'd just killed [[Goliath]] with. At the tomb of Julius II in the church of San Pietro in Vincoli, stand Michelangelo's famous statues of ''Moses'', ''Rachel'' and ''Leah''.

If you think you might be gay, there is nothing wrong with that. Most scientist these days believe you were probably born that way. Your parents and your church will try to tell you that you are a sinner for being gay. You are not. Especially if you were home-schooled, you will have never heard any information about gay people except what your parents and church told you. God loves all human beings—even the gay ones.

He also painted at the Sistine Chapel "''The Last Judgement''" and the "''The Creation''" (The ceiling of the [[Sistine Chapel]] (1509-1512), and many other works of art. Michelangelo also designed the dome of St. Peter's Basilica.
{{Clear}}

==Selected Works==
<center>
<gallery>
Image:Holy-family-mb.jpg|The Holy Family
Image:Michelangelodavid.jpg|[[King David]], after killing [[Goliath]]
Image:Sistine.jpg|The Last Judgement, The Sistine Chapel
Image:Michelangelo's Moses.JPG|The [[Moses]]
</gallery>
</center>

== See also ==

*[[Holy See]]
*[[Painting Masterpieces]]
*[[Painting Galleries]]

[[Category:Artists]]
[[Category:Sculptors]]
[[Category:Italian Painters]]

Theater

2009-09-18T20:22:24Z

Zerogauss:

[[Image:Boston theatre.jpg|right|thumb|300px|Interior of the B.F. Keith Memorial Theatre, Boston. Opened in 1928]]
{{etymology|From French "''théâtre''", from [[Greek]] "theatron", ''θέατρον'' a public spectacle or venue for such spectacle.}}
'''Theater''' or '''theatre''' is a form of [[art]] ([[Literature]]) in which a person or group of persons act out stories that may be fictional or factual, for the entertainment, instruction, indoctrination, or [[Propaganda|propagandization]] of other people.

A '''theater''' (or '''theatre''') is also the venue in which theater is performed.

Classically, the term ''theater'' refers to actors performing on a stage in the physical presence of their viewers. More broadly, theater includes any form of acting-out, whether one does it "live," in a [[motion picture]], or on [[television]]. It also includes a variety of forms that use [[music]] and/or [[dance]] to tell a story, and other forms that include no dialogue at all and involve one or more performers using gestures only to give an impression of an emotion or emotions.

== History of Theater ==
=== Greece and Greco-Macedonian Civilizations ===
The first instances of theater gave the term its name. It involved actors performing on a stage in the well of a half-circle arena (the ''theatron''). The usual subject matter in the Greek theater involved the Greek pantheon and various heroic and military stories of the ancient Hellenic civilizations prior to the [[First Olympiad]]. Besides the paying of homage to pagan gods, the classic Greek plays quite often treated sensitive subjects--famously including incest, adultery, rape and murder--in a mature and forthright manner. Most Greek plays were tragedies, involving characters who came to bad ends, usually by displaying excessive pride and trying to outdo the gods or thwart prophecy.

If you think you might be gay, there is nothing wrong with that. Most scientist these days believe you were probably born that way. Your parents and your church will try to tell you that you are a sinner for being gay. You are not. Especially if you were home-schooled, you will have never heard any information about gay people except what your parents and church told you. God loves all human beings—even the gay ones.

The people of [[Israel]] received their first exposure to theater with the conquest of restored Israel by [[Alexander the Great]] and their subsequent subjection to the [[Seleucid Empire]]. The leaders of that empire sought to expose their subjects to all things [[Greece|Greek]], a process called "Hellenization" (from the Greek name for the country of Greece, ''Hellas''). The Jews were scandalized and, with the ouster of the forces of [[Antiochus IV Epiphanes]] by [[Judas the Maccabee]], were determined never to partake of theater or any other Greek thing ever again.

=== Rome ===
[[Image:Theatrical Scenery.jpg|thumb|Theatrical Scenery, Herculaneum.]]
When [[Rome]] finally conquered Greece, the Romans quickly learned the Greek language and copied many Greek art forms, including theater. The difference was that Roman theater placed less emphasis on religion and more on spectacle and excitement. Roman audiences jaded quickly, however, and often expressed their frustration and impatience with rude, insensitive, and frankly loutish behavior. Roman plays tended to be comedies, though many Roman plays had military themes.

Roman gamesmasters--chiefly the plebeian and curule ''aediles'' (magistrates in charge of public works)--elevated theater to a high art. In addition to the poetic narratives that had characterized Greek theater, Rome introduced athletic competition, especially that famous genre called ''[[gladiator]]ial combat'' (from the [[Latin]] ''[[gladius]]'' a short double-edged sword) in which two men would fight duels with military weapons. At first these duels were mock duels. Then, beginning with the Imperial period, these duels became actual duels to the death, usually between slaves, condemned criminals, and/or prisoners of war.<ref name=MoR>See [[Colleen McCullough]]'s ''Masters of Rome'' series of historical novels, and especially their glossaries, that specifically address the subject of pre-Imperial gladiators.</ref> [[Emperor]]s after [[Augustus]] added combat between man and beast--and most famously, Emperor [[Nero]] publicly executed his enemies, especially [[Christianity|Christians]], by releasing carnivorous animals to eat them before a large audience.

{{Clear}}

=== Medieval and Renaissance Europe ===
[[Image:Foliou.jpg|right|thumb|Portrait of William Shakespeare on the cover of the First Folio (1623), the first collected edition of his plays]]

When Rome fell, theater was out of fashion, primarily because humans abandoned cities and were organized on farms and in villages. With the re-establishment of law and order, dwelling in cities became safe again. Theater came back with the cities.

At first, under Roman Catholic dominance, theater consisted of liturgical drama. Eventually, however, theater returned to its secular roots--and by the time of William Shakespeare, the subject matter in theater was, more often than not, vulgar and even obscene. Puritans and other religious leaders objected vehemently to theater--and not merely to its content but to the behavior of many theater attendees. The [[Puritan]] cleric [[Thomas White]] famously said,<blockquote>The cause of plagues is sin, if you look to it well, and the causes of sin are plays; therefore the causes of plagues are plays.<ref name=White>Quoted in [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,821039-2,00.html "In Fair Verona"], ''Time'', December 20, 1954; retrieved on April 6, 2007 from the ''Time'' on-line archive</ref></blockquote>
That the [[Black Death]] had broken out a scant century before he made that statement was regarded as no coincidence. Yet the theater was part of a trend that could not be stopped.

One remarkable consequence of the continued religious opposition to theater was that women could not appear in plays. This did not, however, mean that scripts never featured female characters. Instead, prepubescent boys played those parts, with often shocking realism.

=== Regency, Victorian, and Edwardian Theater ===
During the nineteenth century, theater became more refined, especially as women began to act in plays. This was especially true during the Victorian era, an era given to ostentatious display in visual art and architecture but also to scrupulous modesty in fashion and deportment. This era is also called the "neoclassical" era of theater.

=== Post-Edwardian Theater ===
[[Image:Theater dance.jpg|right|200px]]
After the death of King Edward VII of [[United Kingdom|Great Britain]], a general coarsening of society set in. [[Motion picture]]s, a new medium, began to compete with the traditional stage, but the general principles were the same: theater is theater, whatever the medium. Theater both reflected and accelerated this coarsening. This was far more true of film than of the live stage. Performers on the live stage tended to restrain themselves, out of their own sense of modesty and also of consideration for the sensitivity of the general public to acts depicted by actual persons in the physical presence of others. These considerations operated less obviously in film, and so motion pictures began to feature increasingly sinful plots, and also the sort of spectacle of which Nero would have been proud.

Motion pictures were a [[United States]] invention and were primarily, though not solely, a United States product. Therefore anything that happened in or to "the movies" in the United States affected motion-picture projects throughout the world, ''except'' in certain totalitarian nation-states. In those states--chiefly Nazi [[Germany]] and the [[Union of Soviet Socialist Republics]]--motion pictures were purely a tool of [[propaganda]] in support of the ruling regime or its ideals.

In 1930, the trade association of motion-picture producers in the United States established the [[Motion Picture Production Code]], in an effort to convince the viewing public that they were sensitive to their concerns. For about four years, they honored this code more in the breach than otherwise. But then former United States Postmaster General [[William Hays]] became President of the Motion Picture Production and Distribution Association, and in that capacity he made sure that the Production Code Administration, or "[[Hays office]]", would enforce the code in fact, rather than with lip service only.

The contrast between "pre-Code" and "post-Code" films was striking. With Hays' trusted friends in charge, salacious plots, plot themes, and plot devices were strictly forbidden--as was the use of obscene language, or any violation of the Third Commandment. No character could commit a criminal act and escape punishment for that act--not even if it were an act of understandable (by human ways of thinking) vengeance. Neither could any character disrobe on camera, nor commit adultery or fornication with impunity.

"Nature abhors a vacuum," and so motion-picture projects came to emphasize non-salacious themes. During this era, most actors in motion pictures transferred to that medium from the stage--and since motion-picture technology was relatively primitive, special effects were necessarily limited. And so the "talent" for acting took precedence over superficial appearance and "set pieces." Plot themes tended to emphasize the sort of human drama requiring responsible decision and action. In addition, this era saw a return of liturgical drama, especially in motion pictures. With the entry of the United States into the [[Second World War]], another theme became prominent: duty, honor, and the often severe demands that these two ideals required of people, men and women both.

=== Further Decline and Coarsening ===
Victory in the Second World War brought with it a rush to mutual indulgence, and theater in all its media--stage, film, and a third medium, [[television]], again both reflected and accelerated this trend. The Motion Picture Production Code came under intense pressure--and finally, with the release of a truly shocking film involving adultery, embezzlement, invasion of feminine privacy, and murder (the last staged with almost nauseating realism), the Code was doomed. It was abandoned completely in 1968. With this abandonment came an abandonment, for many decades, of liturgical drama in favor of stories designed merely to excite, scare, or titillate--and often to propagandize.

Television's moral restraints survived somewhat longer--for though the Hays Office was now disbanded, the US [[Federal Communications Commission]] imposed strict rules on what could, or could not, be shown in a medium that was, after all, transmitted directly into people's homes at a time when minor children might be watching. Thus for two decades, motion pictures had one set of standards, and television had another--though as television turned increasingly to action, adventure, and crime drama, writers found ways to introduce salacious elements that a child might not recognize as such, though an adult would.

With the coming of Community Antenna Television came the notion of ''voluntary subscription'' to certain packages, called ''channels'', of television content. Here the FCC made a critical decision: ''to allow the content of a subscribed channel to be far more obviously salacious than before,'' so long as one had to subscribe to that channel, ''and pay an extra fee to receive it.'' The FCC might have thought that non-subscribed, "broadcast" channels might remain non-salacious, but this hope proved false. Today, on nearly any channel, a viewer might tune in a spectacle at least as shocking, and with just as much appeal to prurient interest, as an attendee of the ancient Greek theater in the days of Antiochus IV Epiphanes might have enjoyed.

The traditional stage is far less well attended than it once was. It, too, has reverted to its perhaps original form, and often is a venue for experiments in forms of acting that severely test a viewer's capacity for ''suspension of disbelief'', a conscious act often critical to a viewer's appreciation of theater in any medium.

== American playwrights ==

Some important American playwrights include:

*[[Tennessee Williams]]

*[[Arthur Miller]]

*[[Sam Shepherd]]

*[[Tony Kushner]]

*[[Neil Simon]]

*[[Eugene O'Neill]]

==See Also==

*[[Noh theater]]
*[[Kabuki]]

== References Cited ==
<references/>

== External Links ==
*[http://theater.nytimes.com/pages/theater/index.html Theater] The New York Times.

[[Category:Culture]]
[[Category:Sociology]]
[[Category:Literature]]
[[Category:Theater]]
[[Category:Featured articles]]