how important musical instruments are and why their use should never be discouraged
Is somebody doing this - discouraging the use of musical instruments somewhere? I'd be curious to know, if so.

In the world around me, I see *singing* more discouraged, if anything. Plenty of people on guitars and ukes strum strum strumming "songs" - as they call them, though they have no words and they consist only of chord progressions in repetitive rhythm.

And if anything, Guthrie helped set the popular notions both that "folk singing" is properly accompanied by a guitar (or: person singing to his/her own acoustic guitar = folk in some form...even when it's country, even when it's blues, even when it's rock) and that someone singing to their own guitar is really "saying something important." I haven't done a survey, but I think if you did (!) in which you showed people pictures of people singing with and without instruments, played by themselves or by others, and a range of diff. instruments, one with a person playing acoustic guitar his/herself would be rated as someone who "obviously felt very deeply and strongly." Could be a fun experiment :-)

Uh-oh, I guess I'm discouraging the use of Guthrie's chosen instrument. (I'm not, really, but if it was a ukulele I would be.)