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CounterPunch
February
12, 2003
Artistic Sign
Language
Symbols of the Coming Bush Fall
by BERNARD WEINER
Sign is symbol, symbol is sign. Consider:
*Powell goes to the United Nations so
that the missile attacks on Baghdad and Basra can begin -- and,
in the lobby of that grand building, Picasso's "Guernica"
painting, which depicts the horrific results of the Nazi bombing
of that Spanish town, is covered over prior to Powell's arrival.
No use embarrassing the U.S. by reminding folks of what's in
store for Iraqi civilians.
*Ashcroft, in his police-state zeal,
begins shredding the Constitution's Bill of Rights with its
guarantees of due-process of law, and, early on, has the huge
lobby statue of the Goddess of Justice draped and covered over
because of its exposed breast. How appropriate to shroud Justice
so that she can't see what's being done in her name.
*First Lady Laura Bush cancels a poetry
workshop at the White House because she suspects that a number
of America's high-profile poets, in the sacred grounds of that
seat of power, will raise the issue of the coming war with Iraq.
Did you notice the thread that unites
these events? In all three cases, symbolic shrouds are placed
over art, so that nobody will notice the bad things that are
being done in American citizens' names.
But art knows. Art sees beyond, often
before the general public is aware of what's going on. (Often
before the artists themselves are conscious of what they're
revealing.) Art points us in new directions that make us think
and question.
To those inclined more to rigid-order
mentality, art is a virus that needs to be stamped out, or,
at the least, tightly controlled. ("When I hear the word
culture," said Nazi leader Goebbels, "I reach for
my revolver.")
It's all part of the so-called "cultural
civil war." Those who control the signs and symbols control
the polity. Thus, minions are trotted out to denounce artists
and their tendency to look for complexity, ironies, hypocrisies,
hidden humor. To incipient fascists, the world is a Manichean
one, divided into black and white, those who are Good and those
who are Evil ("You're either for us or against us").
And since they are certain that God obviously
favors their side, it follows that those in opposition -- or
even (or especially) those who point the way to other visions
of complex reality -- are part of the enemy forces and must
be dealt with.
One problem with authoritarianism --
whatever brand comes along: Stalin's communism, or Hitler's
fascism, or Islamic Talibanism, or whatever we're moving into
in America right now -- is that it makes art more delicious and
tempting. The public is not dumb and eventually comes to figure
out that the "truth" being propounded by the frightened
rulers does not match the world most citizens actually live
in. And so they begin to seek out and support art and artists
and, most of all, comedians -- those sly artisans, those holy
fools, that can shake the foundations of power with a well-aimed
dart.
Musicians, playwrights, poets, painters,
sculptors, dancers, novelists, filmmakers, online satirists,
comics -- everything these artists do in an authoritarian society
comes to be seen by the public in the light of the repression
visited from above.
A story to illustrate this point: American
avant-garde theater artist George Coates was invited to bring
his visual extravaganzas to Poland during the dark times there.
One of the huge slide projections used by Coates was of a manhole
cover, which image covered the entire staging area. Various human
forms emerged from the holes -- i.e., real actors came out of
holes in the stage, but, given the projection, they appeared
to be emerging from the holes in the manhole cover.
The audience took this in with rapt silence
and then a few brave souls began clapping. Then waves and waves
of applause and cheering washed over the actors. Coates was
mystified by the audience reaction. Audiences in the U.S. loved
this bit of theatrical magic, to be sure, but nothing like this
Polish crowd.
After the show, various Polish theater
artists came backstage to talk to Coates and his cast. They
nudged Coates in the ribs and whispered their admiration for
his willingness to confront the Polish Communist rulers by celebrating
the "underground." Yes, what was merely an interesting
use of a visual image for Coates was a cunning reference to
the underground resistance of a budding Solidarity movement.
After a few attempts at explaining himself, Coates simply smiled
and nodded as the Poles heaped praise on his revolutionary "political"
art.
Art has power. Art unmasks. Art tells
lies in the service of truth. (Whereas governments lie in order
to conceal truth.)
The more lies authoritarian governments
tell their citizens, the more a sub rosa consciousness bubbles
up from the culture's artists and then from its ordinary citizens.
It's a slow-growing and, at times, dangerous movement -- which
is why the forces of reaction try so hard to stomp on it -- but
it is an amazingly strong and vital and resilient force.
Because totalitarian governments rest
on fake foundations, when those regimes fall, they fall with
amazing quickness and ferocity. One day there's a wall, the
next day it's torn down and the celebrations begin. One day there
is officially sanctioned art, the next day those huge statues
are toppled. One day, the culture arbiters and censors are in
control, the next day they are in disgrace -- or in jail.
Americans, still gripped by fear from
9/11, have tended to be in a state of animated numbness, putting
up little resistance to the machinations of the authoritarian
rulers. Similarly, out of great sympathy for the post-9/11United
States, various nations around the world bowed to the wishes
of the Bush government.
Bush&Co., meeting little resistance,
interpreted this relative lack of opposition as full support
for their programs, foreign and domestic. And so they've continued
to want more, tighten the screws more, reach and then over-reach
for more. Their motto and guiding principle seems to be: "We
can't be stopped, so let's just go take it all."
Suddenly, though, Bush&Co. are running
into overt opposition. Their allies abroad are telling them
-- to their face -- that current American policies are mad,
wrong, dangerous. More and more conservative allies at home are
warning the Bush Administration that their dash toward imperial
rule abroad and draconian Constitution-shredding at home is
a violation of what America stands for, and will bring the United
States (and, given the economic interweavings between nations,
much of the world as well) nothing but disaster.
The current U.S. rulers will not alter
their course. It's war with Iraq, full speed ahead and to hell
with the rest of you -- especially ignorant "old Europe,"
and American dissidents at home. It's a proposed extension of
the so-called USA Patriot Act, to give the federal government
even more martial-law-like police powers in controlling the
society -- the "cover" is hunting for terrorists,
of course -- and to hell with the protections guaranteed by
the Bill of Rights.
These Bush&Co. leaders are so arrogant,
so rude, so greedy and power-hungry, so taken with themselves
as God's mesengers and as the world's only Superpower, so convinced
they are right in the tunnel-vision black-and-white world they
inhabit, that it's clear their days are numbered. It may take
a bit longer to build to critical mass -- and there is going
to be death and destruction and persecution while that momentum
is being built up -- but when the time for their fall arrives,
it's going to be quick and nasty. And we'll finally all wake
up from this nightmare that has crushed our economy, diminished
our moral light in the world, disgraced our beloved Constitution
and country.
And at the vanguard of this movement
away from the shadow America and back into the light will be
our our poets, our comedians, our painters, our playwrights,
our novelists, and so on -- "dangerous" artists all,
even when they're not political. They simply see too much, too
clearly.
A toast to their hungry vision.
Bernard Weiner,
a Ph.D. in government & international relations, has taught
at various universities, served as theater critic for the San
Francisco Chronicle, and written widely for progressive journals.
He is co-editor of The
Crisis Papers.
Yesterday's
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Gordon Solberg
We Want Our Country Back
Wayne Saunders
Inside
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Joshua Ruebner
An
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Raytheon-Israel-Congress
John Troyer
An
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Lee Waters
Inside the Bush White House
"Armageddon is Long Overdue!"
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