1. Imaginative works such as novels, plays, films, fairytales, and legends present a more accurate and meaningful picture of human experience than do factual accounts. Because the creators of fiction shape and focus on reality rather than report it literally, their creations have a more lasting significance.

2. The arts (painting, music, literature, etc.) reveal the otherwise hidden ideas and impulses of a society.

3. "It is the artist, not the critic, who gives society something of lasting value."

4. As long as people in a society are hungry or out of work or lack the basic skills needed to survive, the use of public resources to support the arts is inappropriate -- and, perhaps, even cruel -- when one considers all the potential uses of such money.

5. In order for any work of art -- whether film, literature, sculpture, or a song -- to have merit, it must be understandable to most people.