My friend Charlie, a college classmate who I hadn’t seen for years has a thoughtful blog in which he writes philosophically about politics and culture today. He’s a lefty like me, but the main drift of the blog is reaching across the divide and trying to understand and bring together our country that seems like it’s never been more polarized.
The latest entry talks more about what the left can do to re-energize. He talks about tapping into the energy of the extremes, the “crazy” fringes, to stir up the passion for the hard fight ahead.
I’ve been artistically floundering lately (or maybe for 50 years) and his blog got me thinking that maybe what I need to juice me up is to go political with my art. I have some strong left wing feelings but I’ve been hesitant to voice them, mostly because I’m not politically saavy and I get my ass kicked when I try to argue a point. I’ll take a stand on aeshetics or basketball strategy, but I’m just not that well grounded on politics. Plus I’m lazy. Yup, I’m one of those wishy washy liberals.
Plus I have had a pretty pronounced lean to the right over the years. I’ve always been kind of a free-market guy, even though I went to the same college as Thorstein Veblen and where Paul Wellstone taught. I actually might have crossed over to the right if it weren’t for the fact that they seem to have this unholy alliance with homophobes, biggots, anti-intellectuals, and the holier than thou Christian Right. Not to mention the corporate robber barons.
So if I can draw farting termites, I should be able to save the world. Right?
