Re: [microsound] [Fwd: Arundhati Roy: ConfrontingEmpire] [OT]

[dbuchwald <dagmar.buchwald@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

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Hi dtaylor,

there was a thread a while ago concerning the question what artists would and could
do concerning the current world situation.  The thread read "sitting on our
hands".  Aaron Ximm asked whether one should engage in composing "political music"
or whether it wasn't better to create an alternative space with one's own artistic
activity.  Ms. Roy is a very political person, not a musician, as far as I know,
but what she suggested in her article seemed to kind of answer Aaron's question.
That's why I quoted the two last paragraphs.  Her option would be not to engage in
either-or activities ("with us or against us") but to: "shame it. To mock it. With
our art, our music, our literature, our stubbornness, our joy, our brilliance, our
sheer relentlessness - and our ability to tell our own stories. Stories that are
different from the ones we're being brainwashed to believe."

I thought that was worth pondering and since we already had a lenghty discussion in
this list about whether to engage politically or not (with one's own compositions
that is, not as a citizen) I thought I'd share this article with the list as a sort
of p.s. to the debate.  I just thought it was interesting.

Dagmar

"dtaylor@xxxxxxxxx" wrote:

> Hi!
>
> Can we yack about music on this list, instead of posting our empty headed
> ramblings like the one below?
>
> on 2/2/03 12:33 PM, dbuchwald at dagmar.buchwald@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
>
> > "When George Bush says "you're either with us, or you are with the
> > terrorists" we can say "No thank you." We can let him know that the
> > people of the world do not need to choose between a Malevolent Mickey
> > Mouse and the Mad Mullahs.
> >
> > Our strategy should be not only to confront empire, but to lay siege to
> > it. To deprive it of oxygen. To shame it. To mock it. With our art, our
> > music, our literature, our stubbornness, our joy, our brilliance, our
> > sheer relentlessness - and our ability to tell our own stories. Stories
> > that are different from the ones we're being brainwashed to believe.
> > The corporate revolution will collapse if we refuse to buy what they are
> > selling - their ideas, their version of history, their wars, their
> > weapons, their notion of inevitability.
> >
> > Remember this: We be many and they be few. They need us more than we
> > need them.
> >
> > Another world is not only possible, she is on her way. On a quiet day, I
> > can hear her breathing."
> >
> > Here is the whole article as posted by Paul D. Miller/DJ SpooKy in the
> > afrofuturism mailing list.  Might be of interest to some people in this list,
> > too:
> >
> >
> >
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> >

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