Dark Days
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(This a LONG post, and it's largely about politics, but it does relate to music--bear with me, I hope you'll find it to be worth your time...)Is anybody else feeling freaked out about the detainee bill that Congress passed last week? In short, the bill legalizes the kind of torture that took place at Abu Ghraib, it allows the government to conduct surveillance without a warrant, and as this article points out, it significantly expands the definition of "enemy combatant". Under this bill, an activist, musician, professor, etc. who demonstrates or speaks against this administration could theoretically be arrested and imprisoned indefinitely without ever being charged with a crime. I don't think it's an overreaction to say that by removing the writ of habeas corpus (a legal safeguard that many consider to be a hallmark of a "free" society), from the rights of prisoners, this bill marks a very dark moment in American history, one of the most distressing in my lifetime. A few hours after the bill passed, I went to see Richard Lloyd give a presentation on his book Neo-Bohemia: Art and Commerce in the Post-Industrial City. Lloyd examines the way that musicians, artists, and other neo-bohemian "hipsters" changed the culture of Chicago's Wicker Park neighborhood in a way that pretty much paved the way for establishment forces (real-estate companies, big corporations, "yuppies", etc.) to take over the neighborhood, driving out a majority of those neo-bohemians who had made it their home, not to mention the poor minority populations who were there long before the hipsters. Forrest Perry's article "Why Hipsters Aren't All That Hip" is an excellent summation of Lloyd's central analysis. It poses questions that were echoed in the discussion after Lloyd's presentation. Several people wondered aloud how artists, musicians and other so-called bohemians in Wicker Park could participate so willingly in a process that essentially undermined their entire community. Others wondered if the creative citizens of Wicker Park in the 90s were even concerned with community, leftist politics, or anything other than making a buck and getting famous. At one point in the discussion, someone bellowed sarcastically, "I mean, does anyone REALLY believe anymore that music can change anything?"It's a good question. As a kid I listened to bands like Midnight Oil and U2, bands fronted by outspoken men who railed against societal injustices and raised money for noble causes, pumping their fists in the air and calling on thousands and thousands of fans to sing along and change the world with them (or maybe just to sing along). In later years I became pretty cynical and jaded about such bands, their egomaniacal leaders (I'm referring specifically to Bono, don't know about Peter Garrett), and the moral/ethical compromises that too often come with wealth and fame. I more or less gave up on the idea that music could really inspire the kind of social change that the great protest music of the 1960s had promised. Of course, I didn't give up on MUSIC, I just changed my expectations--a particular album or song might change my life, but I wasn't going to expect it to make any difference in the larger, increasingly fucked-up world around me. Now I write and record albums and songs, some of which have been described as "political". It is definitely my hope that by questioning my own privilege and place in the world (ie. talking about the war and my own connection to it in this song) I might inspire other people to do the same. But I'm reluctant to use music as a platform for my own personal politics. I don't want to be or come off as pretentious, I don't want to preach to anyone, and I believe that music can and should speak for itself...Nevertheless, these days I'm finding myself wondering if it's enough to just live my life, to work my job, to make nice music and play shows with other nice bands for audiences who drink and smoke and cheer and maybe buy a CD or two. When it comes down to it, I don't think it's enough--not when my government is legalizing torture, not when the presence of a privileged white artist-type dude like me directly assists the gentrification that threatens long-term residents of my neighborhood, not when (insert societal injustice and/or current news headline here)...So what do I do? What do we do? There are of course no easy answers. Each person must define their own responsibility to themselves, to their immediate community, and to the larger world. For a very long time, I've held to the belief that my primary responsibility to myself and the world around me is to make the best music and art I possibly can. I still believe that, but I know that I must do more. So today, inasmuch as this MOG community is my community, I'm posting this rambling collection of thoughts with the hope that it might inspire one of you to learn or do something...And tomorrow, I'm going to this protest. I doubt that it will drive out the Bush regime, but it's something, and it beats sitting around feeling powerless and depressed. Peace...Kent
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