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?
I hear ya. That’s why I can love my right-leaning guy, cuz for him it’s all about the money, not the hate.
that’s a great picture!!! ha!
I gave up trying to save the world and just decided that doing my best to be a happy, decent enough person, that’s hard work as it is.
there’s an absolute connection between drawing flatulent wood-eating insects and rescuing the world.
Of course I’ve never been much of a free market guy, it has always seemed far too cruel for my tastes. I just can’t accept that children die because their parents have failed in the economic game. So the hate on the right doesn’t surprise me, capitalism has always been, at best, amoral.
Nice picture. I like it.
If hate bothers you, I’m sorry to say that it exists on both sides of the aisle. I suppose we just have to find a group that doesn’t hate what we love.
Dang, this isn’t the first time I’ve laid eyes on the farting termite…I guess I’ve been to your website or something before. I know I’m only 21, and typically that means whatever I have to say doesn’t have enough experience behind it, but I feel pretty similarly about politics. I mean, most kiddies tend to become more liberal in college what with all the idealistic concepts like what the world COULD be like floating around (though it probably couldn’t happen), but I’d never consider myself a liberal or conservative. It seems I’m too conservative for my friends and too liberal for my parents, so I kinda like that grey area. I guess that’s what happens when a Mexican grows up in a military family…
-matt
hahah… i didn’t know termites smoked cheroots. c.o.2 pooting little sunsaguns
ayup… moderate (or even left leaning) fiscal conservatives find themselves between a rock and a hard place these days. there’s something organic about free market that’s hard to resist as far as its success goes, compared to the centrally managed models track records (centrally corrupted… no incentive to succeed…)
But there has to be checks and balances. untrammeled capitalism gets ugly.
You listed some pretty good reasons for staying on the Left. Hope you will. Not sure Liberal is anti-free-market, but then I’m one of those wishy-washy Liberals too so I probably don’t even understand what free-market means. But I swear since I’ve been a xangan I’ve been learning a lot more than I think I would have otherwise. I don’t know if farting termites will help the world insanity fit that’s going on but hey, it’s worth a try!
You listed some pretty good reasons for staying on the Left. Hope you will. Not sure Liberal is anti-free-market, but then I’m one of those wishy-washy Liberals too so I probably don’t even understand what free-market means. But I swear since I’ve been a xangan I’ve been learning a lot more than I think I would have otherwise. I don’t know if farting termites will help the world insanity fit that’s going on but hey, it’s worth a try!
Not only save the world, save all us politically impaired people AND every last farting termite there is!
god bless fart, i mean, art.
~lisa