A call to arms!
Published on Thursday, December 10, 2009 by CommonDreams.org
Artists: Raise Your Weapons
by Stephanie McMillan
In this time of escalating exploitation, poverty, imperialist wars,
torture and ecocide, we don’t need a piece of art that consists of a
mattress dripping orange paint, cleverly titled “Tangerine Dream.” In
this time, as countless multitudes suffer and die for the profits and
luxuries of a few, as species go extinct at a rate faster than we can
keep track of, we don’t need an orchestra composed of iPhones. In this
time, when the future of all life on Earth is at stake, spare us the
constant barrage of narcissistic tweets juxtaposing celeb gossip with
quirky food choices.
If we lived in a time of peace and harmony, then creating pretty,
escapist, seratonin-boosting hits of mild amusement wouldn’t be a
crime (except perhaps against one’s Muse). If all was well, such art
might enhance our happy existence, like whipped cream on a chocolate
latte. There’s nothing wrong with pleasure, or decorative art.
But in times like these, for an artist not to devote her/his talents
and energies to creating cultural weapons of resistance is a betrayal
of the worst magnitude, a gesture of contempt against life itself. It
is unforgivable.
The foundation of any culture is its underlying economic system.
Today, art is bullied to conform to the demands of industrial
capitalism, to reflect and reinforce the interests of those in power.
This system-serving art is relentlessly bland. It is viciously
soothing, crushingly safe. It seduces us to desire, buy, use, consume.
It entertains us and makes us giggle with faux joy as it slowly sucks
our brains out through our eye sockets.
The system exerts tremendous pressure to create art that is not only
apolitical but anti-political. When the dominant culture spots
political art, it sticks its fingers in its ears and sings, “La la
la!” It refuses to review it in the New York Times or award it an NEA
grant. Political art is vigorously snubbed, ignored, condemned to
obscurity, erased. If it’s too powerful to make disappear, then it is
scorned, accused of being depressing, doom-and-gloom, preachy,
impolite, and by the way, your drawing style sucks. Also by the way,
you can’t make a living if your work’s not vacuous, cynical and
therefore commercially viable, so go starve under a bridge with your
precious principles.
We’re taught that it’s rude to be judgmental, that to assert a point
of view violates the pure, transcendent and neutral spirit of art.
This is mind-fucking bullshit designed to weaken and depoliticize us.
In these times, there is no such thing as neutrality — not taking a
stand means supporting and assisting exploiters and murderers.
Let us not be the system’s tools or fools. Artists are not cowards and
weaklings — we’re tough. We take sides. We fight back.
Artists and writers have a proud tradition of being at the forefront
of resistance, of stirring emotions and inspiring action. Today we
must create an onslaught of judgmental, opinionated, brash and
partisan work in the tradition of anti-Nazi artists John Heartfield
and George Grosz, of radical muralist Diego Rivera, filmmaker Ousmane
Sembãne, feminist artists the Guerrilla Girls, novelists like Maxim
Gorky and Taslima Nasrin, poets like Nazim Hikmet and Kazi Nazrul
Islam, musicians like The Coup and the Dead Kennedys.
The world cries out for meaningful, combative, political art. It is
our duty and responsibility to create a fierce, unyielding, aggressive
culture of resistance. We must create art that exposes and denounces
evil, that strengthens activists and revolutionaries, celebrates and
contributes to the coming liberation of this planet from corporate
industrial military omnicidal madness.
Pick up your weapon, artist.
Stephanie McMillan is a cartoonist. She creates the daily comic strip
“Minimum Security,” and the weekly editorial cartoon “Code Green.” She
has a graphic novel with Derrick Jensen, “As the World Burns: 50
Simple Things You Can Do to Stay in Denial(2007, Seven Stories Press).
Her website is at stephaniemcmillan.org.
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David Bacon, Photographs and Stories
http://dbacon.igc.org
