Why Dylan didn´t ring chimes of freedom

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Why Bob Dylan didn't ring the chimes of freedom over Ai Weiwei

Those who wanted pop's once-political poet to condemn China's treatment of Ai Weiwei haven't been paying attention to his career

Bob Dylan was criticised last week for failing to speak up on behalf of detained artist Ai Weiwei during his tour to China. He was also accused of allowing songs such as The Times They Are a-Changin' to be censored from his playlist. What a lot of nonsense: if you thought Dylan would ever take an obvious political line you haven't been following him carefully enough. It's understandable for human-rights campaigners to wish for public support from Dylan. It is obtuse, however, for them to suggest that he is somehow betraying his own values as a political songwriter by not protesting. Dylan betrayed those values, deliberately and gleefully, in the mid-1960s. He has never looked back.

The canting voices on this particular story will fade, but they will be going strong on other subjects. We live in a time when people feel pressured to make sententious, pompous and completely false statements about the arts. Art does not have an inherent social or political responsibility. Today, with arts funding slashed, there are even more temptations than usual to pretend otherwise – to insist that art can save derelict urban areas, that it can heal the sick and make flowers grow. But the very language that claims to defend art can smother its wild nature. A work of art, if it is any good, is enigmatic, remote and takes centuries to understand. Read more at www.guardian.co.uk

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