Doing what you're told is generally overrated. More crimes are committed in the name of obedience than disobedience. It's those who follow any authority blindly who are the real danger.

Most rebels blow chunks, though. Banksy makes beautiful music. Going after that old con artist Mother Theresa is perfectly tuned.

I'm more of a zen buddhist (or I'm just saying I mostly slack and observe) but the most valuable lesson I learned from MT is somewhere in this poem attributed to her. Maybe the last line.

People are often unreasonable, illogical and self centered;
Forgive them anyway.

If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives;
Be kind anyway.

If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies;
Succeed anyway.

If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you;
Be honest and frank anyway.

What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight;
Build anyway.

If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous;
Be happy anyway.

The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow;
Do good anyway.

Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough;
Give the world the best you've got anyway.

You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and your God;
It was never between you and them anyway

So she didn't mention in the poem either what she did with the $20 million a year? Hmm. I guess we'll never know.

The woman was a crook.

Someday people will pay a lot of money for Banksy's creations. Other people will laugh at them really hard.

and some won't care either way...

The only real art is a room full of grannies sewing quilts. Conceptual art is just pretentious bullshit.

At face value, she was a rich middle-eastern looking Christian woman working in India. mmmmmmmm think of all the pent-up sexual frustration oooooooh goin at it tantric style ahhhhhhhhh having to barter for it (heavy breathing) talk about an M.I.L.F! talk about getting screwed! The woman's life was Thee Art of the 20th century. Now in the infancy of the new millenium, we have...Banksy? Can't we just zoom ahead 50 some years?

It is undeniably and incredibly brilliant to make "art" that makes you think, put it in a public place, have it distributed throughout the world via pretty much all media and do it all w/o many people knowing who the fuck he/she/they is/are. Some of the quotes and writing in his book is equally brilliant. One of my favorites being "no one paid attention to me until they didn't know who I was." (or something to that effect.)

I especially love the he puts the Art world on notice, and I hope they're noticing. Banksy beats the shit out of almost everything that's ever been sold by a dealer.

And, yes. nice post by Kerri Harop. Whoever the hell she is;-}

Generally excellent Slog commentator, for one.

Hmm - don't want anyone to think I was dissing Banksy. I was bemused about the likelihood that his work may well someday be part of the high-falutin' art marketplace despite their (spot-on) criticism of its participants.