Art is Political
We all have a responsibility.
That’s never been more clear as the world rapidly turns upside down and inside out. To be passive in the times we’re in, when the harm being caused is self-evident, broadcast daily, unavoidable, is surely to live a life disconnected from reality.
When we lose sight of responsibility – to each other, to the places we live, to nature – when we protect ourselves and corporate interest over humanity, a world takes shape that’s very much like the one we have now. A world where self-interest comes first; where cruelty, extraction, violence and genocide become normalised. When we choose time and again to avert our gaze in the face of unmeasurable harm, we surely become complicit.
Neutrality is Political
Martin Luther King spoke of “the white moderate, who is more devoted to ‘order’ than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice” during the Civil Right era.
I’ve thought about this a lot this week in light of the Ed Sheeran scandal. About Sheeran’s choice to shirk responsibility and throw his friend Macklemore under the bus in the name of making ‘everybody welcome’ at his shows. About his choice to protect himself and the billionaire class instead of stand with those who urgently need solidarity and support. It brought back the age-old question: should art and artists get involved in politics? Do artists and creators have a responsibility to use their platforms to speak out about injustice, to do good? I believe that they do. At this moment in history, more than ever.
To be passive while bad actors drive the world towards oblivion, control creativity, destroy nature, commit genocide, is surely to be on the side of the oppressor. To use love, unity, justice in your “art” while sitting on the fence is nothing more than a grotesque marketing slogan. Without truly acting on that message, you refuse to take responsibility for making it a reality.
In a destabalised world like ours, where art, creativity, engaging in the imagination, threatens the order of business as usual, can it be anything less than political? As Ursula K. le Guin famously said:
“The exercise of imagination is dangerous to those who profit from the way things are because it has the power to show that the way things are is not permanent, not universal, not necessary."
In a recent Hard Art session during our arc on this very thing, ‘art and politics’, our host Brian Eno gave his perspective. In essence he said that art doesn’t need to be outwardly political, because the very act of creating art is in itself a political act. It cannot exist outside of politics, because making art for the pure act of self-expression, is the antithesis of the world we are currently in – one that simply wants to contain and package art to sustain a profit margin.
Ed Sheeran’s handling of the past week – since Macklemore was kicked off of his world tour by the owner of the venue for saying “Free Palestine” during his set – has told us a lot about how the corporate entertainment lobby works, how it attempts to compress creativity into something to be packaged and sold, and use systematised outrage to control artists.
Sheeran’s response has been to instantly cave under pressure and make a safe space for billionaires who deny and support genocide. Inviting Macklemore on his Loop tour, knowing very well that Macklemore would perform his song Hind’s Hall, a song explicitly about standing up for Palestine, he quickly capitulated to pressure the minute venue owner, long time friend of Benjamin Netenyahu and donor to the Israeli military, Robert Kraft, began making threats.
Much like the industry itself, Sheeran began by deflecting blame and claiming innocence, before casting himself as the victim. His tears at Saturday’s show, the first back on his now-solo tour, where he centred himself and the terrible time he’d been having show us where he truly stands. He played his part for the PR machine, deflecting focus away from the actual victims (his friend, Macklemore, who he chose not to support, and the Palestinian people being genocided), distracting fans with his own story of hardship (“This has been the worst week of my life!”). It screamed DARVO – the Deny, Attack, Reverse Victim and Offender strategy of psychopaths and abusers. It is literally what Donald Trump does on live television every single day.
And if Tommy Robinson comes out to support you, you can no longer claim to be in the “right”:
To resist is to be human
On the other hand, the response from the arts and culture world has been brilliant to see. With all support acts on Sheeran’s tour (and his backing band) immediately resigning in solidarity with Macklemore, and the huge outcry from artists everywhere, this is an episode Sheeran will surely never recover from.
From Charlotte Church writing her own song about Sheeran and saying live on stage in Cardiff:
"Whilst he has made millions and has an enormous following, he has an enormous platform to do real good in the world. He chose consumerism and capitalism over doing the right thing."
…to Billy Bragg accusing Sheeran of failing to stand his ground:
"He threw Macklemore under the bus, and that’s what I think is wrong here... He could have said… If Macklemore is removed from the gig, then I will say free Palestine."
….to Garbage stating it perfectly in their statement, there’s been no shortage of Sheeran anger:
"We are witnessing one of the biggest artists in the world being cancelled because they tried to ‘both sides’ Israel’s genocide against the Palestinian people.
“This is a clear and undeniable sign that the global consciousness has shifted. The normalisation of an apartheid state, and the attempts to sanitise or justify its actions, will no longer be tolerated.
“Ed, there is only one victim here: the Palestinian people."
I wrote about culture stepping-up to the moment when the right wing print media here went after Misan Harriman earlier this year for similarly using his platform to speak out. As we hit yet another tipping point, these acts of boycott and divestment show just how effective they can be when many choose to stand together in solidarity.
No response, in my view, has been as powerful as that of Irish artists. From Beoga, Aaron Rowe and BIIRD leaving the tour to stand with Macklemore, to Kneecap, Fontaines DC, CMAT and many others, they have been unequivocal on where the country stands on Palestinian freedom.
The Irish are teaching us something important about responsibility. They know they can not exist separately from their own history of oppression, that their freedom depends on the freedom of others. In that sense, they keep the folk tradition of speaking out on politics alive, a tradition now lost in much of the music industry. Through the celebration of their own folk culture — singing songs of resistance old and new, the revival of traditional Irish music and the language — they understand that the struggle for freedom is deeply ingrained in Irish identity.
That to resist through art is to be human.
The Irish haven’t forgotten about the artist's role as truth-teller – innately political. Where economic artists like Ed Sheeran fail us again and again, Irish artists and all artists who use their platforms to change the world for the better, have taken moral leadership at a time when we urgently need it. We need artists willing to show they will risk their careers for what’s right, because they do have the power to break the industry’s hold on freedom of expression, to shift public perspective towards genuine resistance. We need it on Palestine and climate and inequality and war and capitalism. We need everyone to be ready to stand on business, and for all of us to stand alongside them when they do.
Art as Product
Billionaire venue owners like Robert Kraft don’t want art: unconstrained and unpolished, dragged from the depths of human expression. They want ‘product’. The financialisation of the music industry has been built off of artists like Ed Sheeran and Taylor Swift, the defanged and homogeneous artists who promise to keep their mouths shut as long as the riches also flow their way. In this world, as we strip the soul out of self-expression, of course building an AI overlord to control and replace us, would be the most logical move.
That is the difference, in my opinion, between Ed Sheeran and artists like Macklemore, Kneecap, Sinead. One is a part of the machinery towing the line for his billionaire overlords, his music fitting perfectly in the category of hyper-capitalist, mass-producted ‘content’ to be consumed. The others refuse to be contained, recognising their position as artists is innately political, and that they have a responsibility to it. They inspire us because they show that fighting for a world of care and freedom is more important than bowing to a world controlled by billionaires.
So yes, art is political. To remake the world, to head towards what here at Absurd Intelligence we’re calling World 2, means understanding that we all have a responsibility to get us there. When we live our lives in service to that responsibility we fight back against the AI-ification and artificial nature of industry, and remind ourselves of what it means to be fully human, connected and a part of the rest of the world, driven by purpose over profit.
And now, for the hell of it, here’s Sinead showing us how it’s done:
Elsewhere in Absurdity...
The Absurd crew were all in Wrexham over the weekend for a Ffair Wrecsam with our friends at Climate Cymru and TCC (Together Creating Communities).
Charlie went to Praxis N16 in Stokey to see their excellent new show Exit Strategies.
John has been listening to the legendary Rick Rubin talk to the amazing Angus Fletcher about the power and purpose of story.
David ran a 50km ultramarathon (Putney to Runnymede, along the Thames path). Despite severe cramp from 20km, he finished in 6h30m (far later than hoped), and raised about £3,200 for youth mental health services, in memory of his late wife.
