In Which Kainenchen Is Naive About Political Realities.

This morning, as I have the day off to pack for DragonCon, I've been watching Under African Skies, a documentary about the making of the Graceland Album. And the most interesting thing to me is that, at the time the rhythms were recorded, the ANC protested it, because the UN had declared a cultural boycott of South Africa. And it made sense, from a degree, to have this boycott: South Africa was still under apartheid, and political wisdom was that the country ought to be shunned, so that no one in the world could be seen to support Apartheid, in any sense- economically, militarily, or culturally.

Thing is, this is the complete and utter wrong way to go about dealing with a nation which is abusing its citizens: to lock them away from the rest of the world, in the cesspit of their abuse. It's like saying that a person being beaten by their spouse should be shunned along with said spouse, and the two of them should be locked away until the spouse stops the violence. Isolation, I think, is the exact opposite of what you should want for an oppressed country- especially when they have such amazingness to offer, musically, artistically, and yes.

I was 6 years old when Graceland: The African Concert aired. My parents taped it, and I still have that tape to this day. What the people protesting the Graceland Album and the Concert didn't see, and couldn't see, was that little kids of all races, in all kinds of places would see this, and know "Bring Back Nelson Mandela," and about Apartheid at all, and about this music and the people who make it, rather than this music being locked away behind a curtain of evil. Music, and art, and literature help people relate to others. It's one thing to know, "yeah, they have no rights, and no citizenship, and no anything else- that's sad," and another to know, "OMG, these people who make these things that I love, are being treated this way."

When Ladysmith Black Mambazo came to New York to record with Paul Simon, they wanted to go to Central Park, and asked where they could get a permit. They had no idea that you didn't need a permit to go places. And it's frigging valuable, to learn something like that, that the way things are where you are, a culture of fear and terror aren't the way it is everywhere, or the way it has to be. It doesn't change anything right at that moment, but it never goes away, knowing that kind of thing.

Paul Simon was accused of cultural appropriation: of exploiting these South African musicians for his own profit. He argued, in return, that it was a collaboration. He and the artists he worked with created a hybrid, something that hadn't existed before, and showed they could work together and make an amazing, explosive album. And in the long run, I think I agree with him. He did the right thing, and so did the artists who worked with him. It's all well and good for people of color to make art for other people of color, but it's not... satisfying, not to me anyway, to be a colored person doing colored things in a colored corner. Maybe it's being mixed race, I want to share art from all of my various backgrounds with people from each of those. And I am not really jazzed hearing fear and hesitancy from my white friends and loved ones, because they're so afraid of messing something up, they don't want to engage with anything outside of their familiar.

And maybe that's their own problem, but I've always found that it's better, and more satisfying, to just roll with it, assume good intent, and be okay.

In the meantime, Miriam Makeba's voice still nearly makes me cry, after all these years. Nkosi Sikileli Africa... just yeah.

Speak Up, Speak Often.

Who knows if I'll stick to this, but I think it's time to dust the cobwebs off this place, square up, and start talking again.

Why? Because there's a few awesome people talking about anything: religion, politics, feminism, thinking, action, etc- and a whole hell of a lot of bullshit.

So, I think I am doing no one any favors by staying silent. In fact, staying silent is the worst thing I could do. Well, next worst. I'll get to that in a second. Like right now, actually.

There's gonna be some new rules for this blog. Specifically, I am making a pledge, right now, to avoid vitriol, fulmination, and other forms of outright nastiness. This is not going to be easy for me. But the only way to have the kind of conversation I want to have is to avoid the pitfalls of the kind I don't. And adding to the bullshit kind of discourse is, indeed, worse than silence, though not much.

Second, I am going to stop hiding this thing, and will post publicly when I update. You, the reader, can feel free to ignore it, and not be a Reader. I don't anticipate needing to have rules about moderation and the like, we'll build that bridge as we come to it.

Third, I don't want you to think that I won't get angry. I will, and I'll let you know when I am. Because one of the important things about discourse is that Having Anger is Okay. It's what you do with it before, during, and after that's important.

Fourth, some rules about the discourse here. For those inclined to reply to comments with, "Entitled to Opinions" and "Hate anyone who disagrees with you" a lot, if I hear anything at all. To these points:

-On the subject of Opinion, please be sure to verify if a statement is, in fact, Opinion or Judgement. Everyone has opinions, but you have to earn the right to make a Judgement. That's why there's a whole profession (hint: called Judges), that do that shit. I will make judgements from time to time. So will you. We should remember that no, we're not entitled to them, and expressing them _might_, in fact, be wrong.

-This is not gonna be a forum for, "well, it's just my opinion." If you want to discuss things here, it'd best be because you're okay with having opinions, or other positions, questioned, argued with, poked at, and scrutinized. What I care about isn't what you think or believe, but why. And if you don't have at least _an_ answer for why, and if you're not prepared to discuss it, then this is probably not the place for you.

Anyway. That's the gist. Like I said, we'll see what happens.

Occupy Occupy Occupy.

Here's a roundup of Occupy Links I might want at some point later:

The Revolution, live.

On the subject of The Books.

The Feed, updating.

You don't really have to ask whether or not I am in support of this whole thing, do you? When I have kids, I want them to know that this happened, and that I was for it. I'll probably be ashamed, on some levels, that I wasn't there, in zucotti park, with everyone else.

Trinity Church's article.

Now I go to do some thinking.

Occupied America Welcomes You.

These links are stolen from this post, and well... watch them. I think they're Good.



And



And Some Curious and Oh yeah, Apathy's always been a problem! Scenarios and Some predictable scoffing at the freaking out by the Super-Rich over being called on their bullshit.

And now, I tell you why I don't mind that the #OccupyWallStreet (et al) movement doesn't seem to have a coherent message. You see, neither has the Left, for any real amount of time now. Even through the Obama campaign, the message was pretty much, "Something's Gotta happen now/Something's Gotta Give," with no indication of what that Something ought to be. Because we all had different ideas, and part of the character of the left is at least trying to respect the differences in those ideas, at least as far as what we ought to focus on.

The problem with that, while it is ideologically correct, is that it makes it damn hard to have anything to sink your teeth into, and get excited about.

Enter #OccupyWallStreet, the Left-in-Microcosm: confused, unfocused, desperate, eager, willing to be loud, and ultimately wanting it to be over so we can go home and get back to doing things we'll enjoy. The point isn't to be the message. It's to hold up the problem so that the responses will generate something we can stand behind, and shout to the rooftops. It's a roundabout way to get at the generation of a message, but has anything else worked? And if this doesn't work, it's just one more try, and at least a wonderfully visible one.

For my part, I'll continue to send pizza and bagels to the protesters, and hope it continues-- at least, until it's no longer needed.