Wanted:
Creative Extremists
By Mickey Z.
17 January, 2007
Countercurrents.org
"The question is not whether
we will be extremists, but what kind of extremists we will be. The nation
and the world are in dire need of creative extremists."
When reporting on the infamous New York School of abstract expressionist
painters in 1947, art critic Clement Greenberg pondered, "What
can fifty do against one hundred and forty million?" It wasn't
so much an entire population stacked against a band of radical painters
that Greenberg was contemplating. Rather, it was 140 million Americans
essentially ignoring a movement that would eventually change the face
of art.
The U.S. population has more than doubled in the fifty-plus years since
Jackson Pollock dripped his way onto the cover of Life magazine and
there are still plenty of movements being ignored by the majority. In
fact, lurking beneath the homogenized, one-size-fits-all surface of
today's
consumer culture, there's a broad range of indefatigable rabble-rousers
doing their thing.
For many (most?) Americans, the term "dissident" evokes images
of a brave soul standing up against a Soviet-style totalitarian regime.
But, contrary to our headlines and history books, a long, storied tradition
of American dissent exists-out of necessity. From Emma Goldman, Eugene
Debs, and Helen Keller right up to Abbie Hoffman, Huey P. Newton, and
Angela Davis been no shortage of rebels in the U.S. The same holds true
today.
Of course, charismatic leaders can never take the place of an informed
populace, brimming with solidarity and ever ready to engage in passionate
action based, for the most, on some sort of unifying theory. Still,
dedicated, articulate, and perceptive activists are essential...particularly
in such a heavily conditioned society.
Everywhere we are inundated with the American theology of individualism
within the capitalist/entrepreneur model. The "heroes" that
are packaged and sold to us are Wall Street speculators, professional
athletes, and digitally- or surgically-enhanced celebrities. The dreams
we are encouraged to fulfill seem to be limited to appearing on television,
purchasing consumer electronics, and playing the lottery. Civil society
is vanishing while fortitude is measured on Fear Factor, morality is
dropped along with cluster bombs from 15,000 feet, and solidarity has
been reduced to waiting together on line for hours to buy Play Station
3. Obviously, we need a radical new vision of courage.
As Alice Walker reminds us, activism is our rent for living on this
planet.
Mickey Z. can be found on the Web at
http://www.mickeyz.net.
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