Date: Sun, 14 Mar 2004 12:40:00 -0600
Subject: Re: the new avant-garde BETA
From: David Westling <dwestling-AT-sbcglobal.net>



Bill Spornitz, Canadian:

> Actually the Canuckistani Peso is doing a lot better these days ;->
>
> I don't mean to cause offense, and I understand how, without 
> consulting the link, my reply would be a little confusing, but this is 
> what I'm on about:
>
> it's a trend - life in the US gets worse, and life around the globe 
> gets worse because of it, and the US punditry nets are full of very 
> smart people in full conversation madly trying to avoid the questions: 
> how did this happen, what are we going to do when he's re-elected and 
> how can we take responsibility for this, seriously?
>
> Now, I know yours was a harmless art conversation, and I apologize for 
> interrupting, it's just a little frustrating, that's all.
>
> -b
>
> ps - gay mariage? It's the land of the free and the home of the brave, 
> isn't it? - that pretty much describes those couples and officials 
> that are making it happen in the States... up here it's just normal 
> for legislators and jurists to respect our Charter of Rights and 
> Freedoms, down there it's par-for-the-course for them to f*ck with 
> such esteemed artifacts of democracy...

No doubt Spornitz is already amassing his army North of the Border to 
prevent W. from carrrying out his nefarious plan to end democracy in 
the USA...while we ineffectual artistes are carrying on our harmless 
art converation blithely unaware of the dangers.

There are those of us who believe that art is more than just 
beautifying living rooms and city parks.  To be specific, the 
interwining of art and politics dictates that artists might do better 
to  eschew a direct frontal approach to the problems of our day in 
favor of focusing on the basic philosophical presuppositions that make 
everything go.  Merely discussing politics at the tip-of-the-iceberg 
level is not going to do much good.  One might do better to ask 
questions that address the underlying problem, such as:  What is the 
relationship between political liberalism and autonomy?  The Liberal 
assumes that this relationship is without serious conflict, but it's 
just not the case.  Believeing in the notion of the greatest good for 
the greatest number commits one to a certain subservient status in 
relation to the society as a whole.  The US's winner-take-all political 
system encourages that mental state of just going along with the 
program even more than other democracies do.  We are now a nation of 
underlings...the manufacture of consent is a resounding success, and it 
is my opinion that for any real change to happen something must happen 
at the level of the individual that ameliorates the dynamic which I 
have spoken of.  I assure you, art has the capacity to engage reality 
at this level, and having an approach separate from politics as such is 
important to keep these issues untainted by the pitfalls that appear 
when a strictly political approach is used.

David Westling




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