There's a protest against censorship on the steps of the Met today, because of the Smithsonian banning of David Wojnarowicz' video, 'Fire in my Belly,' above.
I, for one, am disgusted. I am disgusted because people are such goddamn dupes.
You don't have to censor art to get rid of it. All you have to do is ignore it. 'Censorship' was the best thing to happen to Wojnarowicz' work; tens of thousands of people have now watched this video who would otherwise never have heard of it.
We're still completely missing his message, however.
For those of you who are confused as to exactly why an ant-covered crucifix offends some people; it's because the message of Christ is that he was crucified and resurrected. Ants imply the presence of rot; Christ, allegedly, didn't. But we, the people, crucify each other every day and leave the corpses to rot. That's the message.
David Wojnarowicz died of AIDS in 1992. Today, there are saviors dying of hideous diseases all around us, but we're ignoring them on behalf of self-righteous protests, for and against 'censorship.' We are allowing ourselves to be overtly manipulated by the forces which profit from people's deaths.
Because do you know what ELSE happened this week? Republicans, on behalf of the wealthiest .1% of us, filibustered a bill that would have provided healthcare to 9/11 first responders who are dying of cancer.
They did this because it is in the financial interests of the ruling class for the other 99.9% of us to be distracted and at each other's throats. While we're blaming our neighbor for being bigoted, immoral, intolerant, depraved, degenerate, lazy, and generally a Bad Person, we're ignoring the ways in which ALL of us are being exploited by the plutocracy which is destroying this country.
Artists: Christians are not the enemy. Christians: Artists are not the enemy. I know that it is scary to realize that YOU could be the one abandoned by the system when you fall ill, lose a job, or help someone else at your own expense, but sticking your head in the sand doesn't change the reality. Your neighbor is your natural ally, whether he be a starving artist, an offended Christian, an illegal immigrant, or a dying firefighter--as long as you look at who is REALLY pulling the strings, and refuse to be distracted by trivialities.
Wake up.
1 comment:
Bravo! I get frustrated and indignant when I hear about thoughtless knee-jerk reactions to events such as these. Sacrilegious? So what. Not everyone believes in your god. Ants crawling on a crucifix? No one is adversely affected, except maybe someone's sensibilities. Don't look at it. My visual senses are offended every day just walking down the street. What keeps me up at night are the people dying, troops and civilians, in Afghanistan and Iraq; the money we are hemorrhaging in the Middle East, not necessarily accounted for, which could be spent on education here in the US; the people who have lost homes and jobs because of greedy, detached bank CEOs, Wallstreeters and politicians. I could go on and on.
Let me look at your mandala work a little closer and I'm sure I can find some offensive religious meaning that will bring loads of media attention, protesting, and an audience.
Post a Comment