The Creative Army

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Permalink Reply by Latasha Willis on May 16, 2008 at 10:11pm

The culture we have now kicked in after WWII, I believe. Get a house, get a car, work five days a week, etc. In other words, a nice pretty box to confine ourselves in. The hard part about getting out of box is when others who are still in it tell you that something is wrong with you for escaping.

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Permalink Reply by Tom Head on May 18, 2008 at 9:24am

Jared Diamond wrote a wonderful book called Guns, Germs, and Steel in which he connected the power of empire with access to easy agriculture--livestock that can be domesticated, grains that can be stored, and a climate that can support both... His argument was that in most subsistence economies, there was no room for full-time or even half-time iron smelters, much less inventors, scientists, and artists. But as a society develops the ability to feed itself more, as subsistence needs are more comprehensively met, a society can afford to have these specialists.

So I would argue that to a great extent the folks who don't have viable options in life are our society's version of farmers, and with their backbreaking, underpaid, life-draining work they create enough of a surplus to allow the rest of us to do what we love. In a lot of ways our art is a collective project--in every book I write is (indirectly) the labor of 40 million poor, of 12 million undocumented immigrants, of 50 million slaves of generations past, of a human history that includes 33 billion unacknowledged women, of a world in which the majority of people live with some level of food insecurity. It isn't me. It's a collaboration, and the people who really do the bulk of the work in my art are the folks who keep the societal gears that produced and sustain me running, sometimes under horrifically exploitative conditions, not the one lucky guy who sits on their backs and writes all these books...

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Permalink Reply by daniel johnson on May 18, 2008 at 12:52pm

Guns, Germs, and Steel was an excellent book indeed.

We are definitely always working within a collaboration - each thought and action a manifestation of all which came before.

i think there is a danger in allowing suffering as being integral to the operation. Suffering is extraneous.

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Permalink Reply by Tom Head on May 18, 2008 at 6:40pm

Suffering isn't integral to the operation, nor is it desirable, nor are we sublimating it, but I wouldn't say it's extraneous either. I wish it were. Unfortunately, everybody who has options in life is where they are today because other people are suffering, and that's reflected in what we do, including art. It's not that we chose to make people suffer, but it's going to be there in the background anyway because we live in a world that runs on violence and exploitation. I think that's what underlies the fear that drives people into boring careers. Not that many people get to do what they wanted to do when they grow up, but everybody has to pay the bills.

The good part of this equation is that some folks who materially benefit from injustice are coming together to fight that injustice in their own ways--I know you've done some great activism work, for example, and I think writers and artists, in general, tend to be especially good at that... I just don't think that most people have the option of doing what we're doing. I wish they did.

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Permalink Reply by daniel johnson on May 19, 2008 at 8:31pm

"i just don't think that most people have the option of doing what we're doing. i wish they did."

What is it exactly that we are doing? Just as i would argue suffering is extraneous, so to is the daily activity that fills my time.

i don't want to belittle the works i create or events that i host - but they are little more than a transmutation of my daily experience into something tangible we can touch and be a part of.

i don't think i do what i do because i particularly enjoy it. My actions and conversation are simple consequences of who i am. i'm just becoming.

The last line of my original post sinks its finger into this point - people are looking up from their work and realizing that they've been playing.

i've worked at oil refineries, helped manage monies for strippers, been intimately involved in the drug trade, cleaned grease traps, worked nights at gas stations, and generally been involved in a wide-variety of scenes which most people find seedy and assume that those involved are hurting.

Well - i will not dispute that some of the people involved are subjecting themselves to and being subjected to destructive forces. What i will assert is that the general bent of their spirit is to enjoy.

i guess my point gets lost in the need for everyone to be very clear that we absolutely CAN NOT discount the suffering of others - especially those powerless to stop the forces against them.

However - we can maintain that suffering is a reaction of the mind - a reaction which can be subverted with a mind trained to the proper perspective. This is not a perspective which ignores suffering, but rather a perspective tempered with compassion for those who would perpetrate upon us.

For the record, this compassion does not excuse or nullify the perpetrators actions nor does it dull sound judgement in arbitering appropriate consequence.

The point is that along with meeting physical needs/protection and seeking greater balance in resources and power - we must examine our perceptions of reality and seek to be in control of our reactions. We must seek to help others be in control of their reactions so they might react more purposely when given the chance to do so.

i personally cannot subscribe to the idea that violence and exploitation run the world around us. It seems to me that violence and exploitation must constantly seek to fortify their positions lest they be overthrown by the more decentralized concept of love.

Love makes the world go round Tom. Baser forms of love (those driven by uncontrollable consumption) fuel exploitation while threats on these addictions to consumables engender violence.

i'm of the opinion that the "creative army" is inside most everyone. That we are already a standing force slowly rising to the fore. There is something in everyone who realizes we are more than the sum of our experience. That despite hunger we still can laugh. That despite continuous warfare at our doorstep there is time for a song.

i believe that when we talk about that which defines us as a species - it is not the bombs which are important.

To not get too far off point - i think the only thing standing between the average American and "doing what we're doing" is an understanding that you really can be in control of your own life. That you really can dictate the circumstances. There may be an outcome which you cannot avoid - but the narrative you tell on your way to even death is yours to tell.

Of course - i'm speaking "loftily" on a metanarrative which i don't think can be grasped by everyone. There are alot of hangups which prevent belief in such things. Fears of marginalizing or discounting the ills of society and the very real experiences of our most fragile members. However, for me, this approach to life has helped me to create more healing than i have ever thought possible. It is my past experiences of helping others to rise from the ashes which makes me so adamant. Of course, i think it is all of our perspectives together which create the healing which is taking place currently on our planet. i only share my beliefs for points of thought and not to convince anyone to alter their tactics.

But - in closing- the truth about me is that what i do, say and think (dance and play) are just as extraneous as my suffering (when i'm fortunate enough to have some). What is the fulcrum of my experience is that my main focus is on experiencing, in as unadluterated a fashion as possible, the stimuli my brain is shuffling through be it immediate interaction or invoked rememberances. It just so happens that through me doing this that i am an artist, musician, writer, activist, neighbor, friend, lover, father, cook, commentator, etc.

i hold the same mission today as a "successful" member of my community as i did a decade ago squatting in the back room of a shack in South Jackson. Pay attention and react as a genuine spirit. Through this i shall invoke the healing power of connection.

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Permalink Reply by daniel johnson on June 1, 2008 at 11:09am

i agree of course~

however, is it avoidable to have thoughts and ideas about the circumstances we find ourselves in?

my personal philosophy is to act with confidence on what you believe to be true while remaining completely open to the idea that you are totally wrong.

one of the main reasons i try to make a conscious effort to share my beliefs is so that it will give others the opportunity to point out holes in my thought process.

of course, i should state that learning in such a way must be coupled with silent reflection and an open awareness to the world around me.

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