▶ Your Answer :
The issue of whether governmental money should go to the arts or athletics is a controversial matter. Some people think highly of the arts, on the other hand others regard the athletics more deserve to receive governmental support. I think that it is better for government to support the athletics than to support the arts. The reasons for this argument are as follows.
Athletics, in particular included in the Olympic teams stand in the front line position to enhance national honor. These athletics represent the name and value of the nation, so they deserve to receive reasonable succor from the government. Moreover, sufficient governmental support would guarantee the athletes' morale when they partake the important matches such as Olympic games, thereby increasing the possibility to attain good results, such as gold, silver or bronze medals. For instance, a legendary and renowned Korean figure skater Kim Yuna is the very one literally respected and loved by most Korean people, in general. It is not an overestimation that she played a very significant role in enhancing the honor of Korean nation. She is heroic in that she opened the era that Korean skater can put up a good performance in the field of figure skating mostly ruled by many European or American figure skaters, enhancing the pride of Korean people as a whole. Many people regard that she deserves to be supported nationally because she does improve the impression the international people bear about Korea.
In another perspective, governmental support for the arts could be dangerous, especially in democratic society. When deciding which portion of artist should be supported by government, it is entirely possible that governmental leaders would choose the artists in support of governmental ideology or views. This means that some artists bearing the ideas not congruent with the governmental value or direction, or some other artists critical about the regime have less chance to be supported by the government. In case, governmental support for the art section is too much emphasized, it would probably undermine the growth of certain artistic ideas or views. On the other hand, governmental support for the athletics is less susceptible to these issues relative to the artists because athletes are rather independent from governmental values. In Korea, for example, former president Park Geunhye administration made a list of artists in support of governmental ideologies and direction and they were provided with huge amount of money. This is quite problematic in that it will undermine the freedom of expression and diversity in the society. Therefore, too much governmental support for the artist should rather be avoided, relatively support for the athletics is far from this issue.
In sum, it is better to support the athletics than the arts because the athletes playing in Olympic teams are the people enhancing the national honor, and it is quite dangerous to emphasize the governmental support for the arts, in particular, in democratic society.
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