File spoon-archives/postcolonial.archive/postcolonial_2003/postcolonial.0304, message 220


From: "David McInerney" <borderlands-AT-optusnet.com.au>
Subject: Re: wasted votes?
Date: Mon, 21 Apr 2003 22:26:30 +0930


Hi gr3g, the following are just some quick thoughts I have in response to
your reply to my previous post ...

----- Original Message -----
From: "Maldoror" <insektus-AT-yahoo.com>
To: <postcolonial-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu>
Sent: Monday, April 21, 2003 11:40 AM
Subject: Re: wasted votes?


> > Napalm Death's "I Abstain", which has the lyric
> > "don't substantiate the act" (from the album "Utopia
> > Banished").
>
> i remember napalm death from the high school days
> (daze?). right on! it's always good to inject artforms
> (whether they be musical or otherwise) into political
> studies.

Certainly.  But it is also important to use popular art as a political
force.  If we are as excluded from the mainstream media as you suggest, then
the subversive power of music, visual art, and literature -- in all of its
various forms -- can provide a means not only of criticising the viewpoints
of the mainstream media but also provide information that otherwise young
people would not have access to, or, just as importantly, listen to and
respond to.  One of the effects of the mainstream media is stupefaction and
pacification of the public, turning people into consumers of disinformation,
and many kids have become cynical towards it. That said, there are many
people who do read conventional forms of media, such as newspapers, and the
provision of alternative content, through socialist newspapers, radical
websites etc can shake up the sedimented layers of apathy just a little.  To
return to Napalm Death, as their vocalist Barney Greenway says at the end of
their cover of "Nazi Punks Fuck Off" (on the DVD, "Punishment in Capitals",
2002 -- the documentary included with it includes discussions of their
political views) -- THINK!  More than anything the challenge is to get
people thinking!

>
> > could easily be confused with not voting
> > because of laziness
> > and/or apathy,
>
> confusion can always occur, but that doesn't mean my
> not voting is laziness. i don't support the system due
> to the blatant corruption of it, so i don't
> participate in it. when only 2 parties (1 whatever)
> have the funding to advertize themselves only 2 have
> the possibility to be voted into office (outside of
> miracles of course).

This is fair enough, but my point was that if you are not voting as a
political act, then you should make a political point of it.  You could put
it into music, such as ND did, or print a t-shirt, or do something.
Otherwise, you could vote for Nader etc to show that you refuse the
two-party non-alternatives.  But to just not vote and leave it at that you
will just blend in with all of the people who, due to the pacification and
stupefaction engendered by the mainstream political culture, just couldn't
be arsed.

political elections have their
> roots in marketting. the reason coke and pepsi are at
> the top is because they have more funds to advertize
> than does fanta or faygo. ppl buy those products out
> of the effects of advertising and ppl vote for the big
> 2 candidates for the same reasons. if a person like
> nader had the funding to advertise he would've had a
> much better chance because he'd be seen as one of the
> big boys but alas he had not the finances and was thus
> delegated to the non-debate areas where his voice
> could not be heard, his face not seen.

I guess it's up to us to make ourselves heard.  When people start making a
noise on the street then perhaps the apathetic masses will take notice?

> you mentioned that votes do count, how does the 1% to
> the little guy (hypothetically speaking- i don't
> recall how much nader actually received) affect the
> other 99% going to the big boys? when 99% is going to
> the republicrats, they look at it like well 1% is
> upset but the other 99% is happy so the 99% are not a
> threat to the policies in place. herein lies my
> discontent with the system.

If voting is close then perhaps little parties can push the
Democrats/Labour/Labor etc to the left in the effort to scrape up those few
extra votes?  I realise this is a problem in the two-party preferred system,
as the major parties assume that the left votes will go to Labor anyway.
Perhaps the minor parties can affect Labor etc by taking away their
grass-roots membership?   I think we need multiple strategies.  One strategy
is not enough.  We need to use everything at our disposal to shift politics
left.

> blast that napalm death loud and proud baby. a healthy
> dose of rage against the machine and system of a down
> is always good too. i'll be rockin the new manson disc
> on may 13. ;)
>
> gr3g
>

check out the Napalm Death website: http://www.enemyofthemusicbusiness.com/
The following comment by vocalist/lyricist Barney Greenway on Iraq are taken
from the forum on the site:

Napalm_Lover
BARNEY RULES!!!  Posted 4-9-2003 23:56

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
----
Here is what Barney said about war on Iraq:

NAPALM DEATH Frontman On War With Iraq: 'Two Wrongs Don't Make A Right' -
Apr. 7, 2003

NAPALM DEATH's notoriously-outspoken frontman Mark "Barney" Greenway has
slammed U.S. President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair for their
decision to invade Iraq, saying that "two wrongs don't make a right" and
predicting that things are "going to get worse" as a result of their
actions.

"People have kind have said to me, 'Look, I told you it was going to be
alright' now that the Western troops have moved right into Baghdad,"
Greenway told BLABBERMOUTH.NET in a written statement. "But I think that
it's going to get even worse from now on, if that's possible. As if the
footage of US troops with 'Kill 'em all' daubed on their helmets, whooping
as they decimated Iraqis equipped with popguns (comparatively speaking)
wasn't depressing enough, even British troops have been heard remarking on
the 'bloodlust of their fellow liberators.'

"I don't need any kind of propaganda to tell me that Saddam is pretty
unhinged, and I'm not excusing his brutality, but two wrongs (i.e. this
war), as they say, don't make a right," Barney continued. "With this
so-called interim government that is going to step in once Saddam's men have
been ousted, it's going to be headed up by some American Vietnam vet guy
whose own company stands to benefit financially from rebuilding contracts
(surprise, surprise), and who is very pro-Israel in terms of how Sharon is
literally crushing the rights and very existence of the Palestinian people.
How on earth is this going to provide the basis of any relationship in an
Arab country?

"Bush and Blair are assuming that these people want their form of democracy,
but how the fuck would they know? If the idea of democracy is being able to
speak your mind and purse the path that you desire, there's a good chance
that Iraqis will not want conservative capitalism riding roughshod over
their own cultural history and traditions. How will this be dealt with? More
action to crush the will of those who have every right to hang onto their
identity?

"At the moment, most of the Arab world is getting angrier by the day with
the pictures of civilian casualties and George 'God Is On Our Side' Bush. If
the aim was to create peace and subdue terrorism, then he couldn't have got
it more wrong."

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
----
Thanx Barney for that comment... Keep stigmatizing leeches &q scumbags...!
Cheers.
BARNEY RULES!!!
Posted by: Napalm_Lover on 4-9-2003 23:56

---------------------------------------------------------------------

Dr. David McInerney
review editor
Borderlands e-journal
www.borderlandsejournal.adelaide.edu.au




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