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An Empire Falls. Again. Any ideas? Anyone?
How can poetics & the multi-media arts educate, inform, even warn communities about demagogues and the concentration of dictatorial power?
The above question is asked in a call for entries for articles, poetry, art and illustration in Chant de la Sirène. (Deadline for entries: May 1, 2025)
My short, knee-jerk answer: Holy Hell we tried. We Democrats tried our damndest to educate, inform and warn all last summer and autumn using every form of media and enormous stadiums. Millions of us gave our time, money and energy to fight fear tactics based on lies. We lost. Pretty much all that’s left is the Serenity Prayer and boycotts.
Another question Chant de la Sirène asks in the call for submissions…
Do audiences for art and literature change under fascism and tyranny?
Short answer: No.
Longer answer: Fascism has already set the channel locks and is cranking them down fast and hard. No need to supply links. Unthinkable atrocities have been pounding us every hour for the past month. The far right successfully grabbed control because they played a long game so successfully that the ‘audience’ had already been converted into incurious, unquestioning followers easily manipulated by… what? A fear that a more compassionate system of rule could harm them?
Curiosity and appreciation has effectively been thwarted in potential audiences of art and literature for a long time.
The transition from freedom to a dictatorship happens slowly… generationally, and with relentless intent of those who crave control. The highly effective US campaign began in earnest during the Regan regime. The unholy trinity between unfettered corporate rule, the State and the Church employed the same playbook that has always worked.
I know this because my education in the 60s & 70s required George Orwell, Kurt Vonnegut, John Steinbeck and Francisco Goya as being worthy of study by enlightened, uncensored educators — many of whom experienced WWII.
Their long game plan was simple, effective and the effects obvious to anyone who noticed history repeating itself. Strangle…
