OK, this is actually going to be a rant. I am so sick of artists [all of them, music, art, film, etc] having to apologize because they cross some imaginary line. Yes, yes, I know they in fact do cross lines, but that’s what art is supposed to do, just in case you didn’t know. It’s supposed to take you out of your comfort zone. It’s supposed to make you uncomfortable. If it doesn’t, it’s not art, it’s not new, and it is probably repetitive. Art should poke at your sacred cows. If it doesn’t, well, it’s bad art.
So, there’s that. Leave the artist alone. If you don’t like the art, don’t buy it, don’t listen to it, turn away, and go on your way. Rant about it if that flips your switch, but the outcry for apologies has just got to stop. It is interfering with the expression of the artist and ultimately the ART itself will suffer. And that cannot be tolerated on any level.
It is through the artist that progress is made. It is through the artist that change occurs. Artists dream of a better future and then sing about it to us, or write about it, and then the people can create that better future. Censor the art, and we might as well, well, it’s not pretty. Power takes over completely. Art exposes abuses in power. Art sings us tales of abuse, and that we must band together in order to rectify. Art is the canary in the coal mine.
Every culture needs its art, even the stuff, I just don’t get.
AND, it is outright censorship. Public pressure to silence an artist, is censorship. You may not care today about this, but someday [and it looks to be sooner than anyone could have imagined], someone is going to insist you apologize to your neighbors for your Christmas decorations [or the lack thereof] and maybe lose your livelihood if you don’t buckle down and do it. The threat in this is palpable.
Or say you need to apologize for your political opinions or your spiritual beliefs, under threat of job loss. Sure, we’re just asking high profile people to bend over and suck it up to keep their day jobs, but one day, it’ll be your McDonalds’ job on the line and believe me if you are working at McD’s, you’re not going to want to lose the only job in town. You’ll cave and do whatever it takes to keep your job, and there will be no songwriter to write about that kind of coercion in your workplace. Artists are being coerced into giving up their freedom of expression in order to not be destroyed financially.
Think about that for a minute. I know plenty of people who will say [and have said] “So what?” But it is a BIG so what. We’ve been conditioned into censoring artists ourselves, instead of the government doing it. Nice trick if you ask me. I suppose a little paraphrasing and we could say the smartest thing censorship/control ever did was convince us that it didn’t exist as long as it wasn’t the government doing it. I guess it’s OK if it’s just power brokers.
Does it really matter if the local policeman tells you to shut up or if your boss, armed with a pink slip, does it? Does it? Does it matter to anyone that censorship permeates every facet of our lives now from the media, to art to politics and shows no sign of stopping.
AND, ultimately this permissive attitude re: demanding apologies because someone got their panties in a twist over art, leads us to the Paris bombing. I do NOT care how fucking appalled, or outraged, or offended you are or they [whoever “they” are] are. I do not fucking care if everything you hold sacred is vilified by the guy next door. You CANNOT kill him for it. You cannot censor him. Why do you care what he thinks of your sacred cows anyway?
Suck it up and grow up!! There’s a lot of people trying to live their lives on this planet, and you’re NOT helping. You just CANNOT kill over a belief system. Not democracy, not monarchies, not Islam, not Christianity. Not any of them. People have the right to choose. You don’t get to choose for them, and when you begin to think you have that right, it’s the artists that will remind you that you don’t.
