We don't want to have innocent bystanders beinmg killed in the crossfire do we, when we get justifiably wrought up?

"Personally they gave me the same feeling as Gilbert and Sullivan operettas, a silly fiction" (Chet).

Complaining that Gilbert and Sullivan operettas are silly fictions is like complaining that Pete Seeger played a banjo, or Margot Fonteyn danced classical ballet. You don't like silly fictions, fair enough. But it's hardly a relevant personal prejudice to bring up in this context.

And in fact, however silly you might think, Gilbert came up with sharp little digs at the system on the way.

For example:
"The House of Peers, throughout the war
Did nothing in particular
and did it rather well
Yet Brritain set the world ablaze
in good King George's glorious days"

Or:
"For he might have been a Roosian
A Frenchman or a Proosian
Or perhaps Italian
But in spite of all temptations
To belong to other nations
He remains an Englishman.

As for the main topic - I reckon the least corrupting type of "public" sponsorship is from the local state. Where that gets corrupt it tends to do so in a less murderous fashion than the central state. The same goes for sponsorship from business operations.

And of course let's not forget organised crime, from the Medicis and Borgias to the Mafia and beyond. Where would jazz have been at times without Prohibition Barons? If you had to choose between Henry Ford and Al Capone which had the more blood on its hands? Or Monsanto and Escobar?