THE COMPLETE FREEDOM OF TRUTH
Robert Golden
From the forthcoming book WHY?
Why does democracy need art
more than art needs democracy?
After all, art has thrived in many different political situations
and still does.
George Orwell, who wrote 1984 and many other works,
knew that the belief in democracy is more important to people
than its actual existence, which has always been lacking.
The belief encourages the hope that one day,
equality and justice will arrive
and with them will arrive a better life and a better world.
This ravine between the ideal and the actual
has always existed because the competitive
and corrupting influences of capitalism
has continually corrupted the politicians,
the bureaucrats and the media
-let me call them the establishment.
They need to be overseen by us
so that they actually represent us,
so that they work for us,
so they create the rules of an economy which serves us,
rather than one in which we serve them.
We exist in a place, like all places,
where the establishment
own and control what we know
by controlling the schools, the news and the popular culture.
The establishment creates a ‘common sense’,
which we claim as our own
and think to be true, but which serves them.
Common sense is a form of oppression
composed of pieces of nationalist thinking,
religious claptrap
and simplistic, Hallmark card like sentimentalism.
This is why we must continually ask questions,
be noisy, be curious
so that we can establish the complete freedom of truth….
And why ‘the complete freedom of truth?’
Because we cannot be free while living a lie,
a lie which continually surrounds us
with misinformation, poor information, incomplete information
and which encourages us to believe in and support the notions
embedded in popular culture.
This popular culture,
owned and controlled by the establishment is,
at its centre, stuck, rigid,
unaccepting of new ideas
because its owners do not want change.
They do not want change
because they do not want to let go of
their authority, privilege, power and wealth.
Creative people who decide to serve the establishment
(for wealth and fame)
must accept its rules, boundaries and assumptions…
in other words, they must serve the status quo…
and therefore they serve oppression.
Their work comes to represent the given, the acceptable, the known.
They create dead theatre, dead dance, dead literature, dead fine arts
and a frozen corporate and state representation
of the past and present.
They re-produce a frozen culture.
But those of us who have learned to say ‘no’,
who refuse to accept the status quo,
who do not want to accept the way the world is run,
who do not wish to be a part of the problem,
who will forsake wealth and fame for not being part of the oppression,
must, by our natures, be in opposition.
We must rise to the challenge of being outsiders,
while wishing to encourage transformation of society
and of the consciousness of individuals, including ourselves.
The artist who is in opposition to the established popular culture
has traditionally been alone.
But amongst friends, with support and encouragement,
we need to think:
how can we, together, as a community,
create “the complete freedom of truth”.
This is why, a society like ours,
a supposed Democracy,
which, to be healthy, thriving, fair and just,
needs art
more than art needs democracy.
Robert Golden
From the forthcoming book WHY?
Why does democracy need art
more than art needs democracy?
After all, art has thrived in many different political situations
and still does.
George Orwell, who wrote 1984 and many other works,
knew that the belief in democracy is more important to people
than its actual existence, which has always been lacking.
The belief encourages the hope that one day,
equality and justice will arrive
and with them will arrive a better life and a better world.
This ravine between the ideal and the actual
has always existed because the competitive
and corrupting influences of capitalism
has continually corrupted the politicians,
the bureaucrats and the media
-let me call them the establishment.
They need to be overseen by us
so that they actually represent us,
so that they work for us,
so they create the rules of an economy which serves us,
rather than one in which we serve them.
We exist in a place, like all places,
where the establishment
own and control what we know
by controlling the schools, the news and the popular culture.
The establishment creates a ‘common sense’,
which we claim as our own
and think to be true, but which serves them.
Common sense is a form of oppression
composed of pieces of nationalist thinking,
religious claptrap
and simplistic, Hallmark card like sentimentalism.
This is why we must continually ask questions,
be noisy, be curious
so that we can establish the complete freedom of truth….
And why ‘the complete freedom of truth?’
Because we cannot be free while living a lie,
a lie which continually surrounds us
with misinformation, poor information, incomplete information
and which encourages us to believe in and support the notions
embedded in popular culture.
This popular culture,
owned and controlled by the establishment is,
at its centre, stuck, rigid,
unaccepting of new ideas
because its owners do not want change.
They do not want change
because they do not want to let go of
their authority, privilege, power and wealth.
Creative people who decide to serve the establishment
(for wealth and fame)
must accept its rules, boundaries and assumptions…
in other words, they must serve the status quo…
and therefore they serve oppression.
Their work comes to represent the given, the acceptable, the known.
They create dead theatre, dead dance, dead literature, dead fine arts
and a frozen corporate and state representation
of the past and present.
They re-produce a frozen culture.
But those of us who have learned to say ‘no’,
who refuse to accept the status quo,
who do not want to accept the way the world is run,
who do not wish to be a part of the problem,
who will forsake wealth and fame for not being part of the oppression,
must, by our natures, be in opposition.
We must rise to the challenge of being outsiders,
while wishing to encourage transformation of society
and of the consciousness of individuals, including ourselves.
The artist who is in opposition to the established popular culture
has traditionally been alone.
But amongst friends, with support and encouragement,
we need to think:
how can we, together, as a community,
create “the complete freedom of truth”.
This is why, a society like ours,
a supposed Democracy,
which, to be healthy, thriving, fair and just,
needs art
more than art needs democracy.
THE POLITICAL SYSTEM VERSUS THE ECONOMIC SYSTEM
Robert Golden
From the forthcoming book WHY?
Before any discussion of the nature of democracy
we must carefully separate it from the nature and effects of capitalism.
Democracy implies a coming together of people, collaboration, tolerance, community sharing and having common community values.
Democracy, without hindrance from an economic system,
implies affection for communality, attachment to a place,
the enduring preservation of familial and common values.
It implies staying and evolving, providing stability for an enduring democracy.
Capitalism, as practiced, actively pursues competition,
the strongest and richest rising to the top,
destroying competitors and as practiced,
taking as much as possible from other corporations, the state and the people
into their own possession for the accrual of wealth and power.
Wendell Berry, the American philosopher and writer said,
“Power deals ‘efficiently’ with quantities that affection cannot recognize.”
Capitalism as practiced implies greed and avarice.
In growth and decline it fosters the destruction of traditions, values, jobs, skills,
neighbourhoods and ultimately of people’s homes.
This fosters the fracturing of families and communities,
migration and constant movement
as people flee the damage or seek better opportunities.
Capitalism has caused the dismemberment of country life
and the creation of crowded often alienated urban centres.
This is explained as ‘the price of progress’ or ‘creative destruction’.
In the countryside, farmers lived with an obligation to the land;
in cities,
alienated people throw rubbish on streets over which they feel no ownership.
In the countryside, previous to industrial farming
there is by necessity, memory and fidelity to the wellbeing of the land;
in the city there is forgetfulness and a desire to escape the ‘old neighbourhood’.
These aims are explicitly contradictory to the implied social aims of democracy.
Robert Golden
From the forthcoming book WHY?
Before any discussion of the nature of democracy
we must carefully separate it from the nature and effects of capitalism.
Democracy implies a coming together of people, collaboration, tolerance, community sharing and having common community values.
Democracy, without hindrance from an economic system,
implies affection for communality, attachment to a place,
the enduring preservation of familial and common values.
It implies staying and evolving, providing stability for an enduring democracy.
Capitalism, as practiced, actively pursues competition,
the strongest and richest rising to the top,
destroying competitors and as practiced,
taking as much as possible from other corporations, the state and the people
into their own possession for the accrual of wealth and power.
Wendell Berry, the American philosopher and writer said,
“Power deals ‘efficiently’ with quantities that affection cannot recognize.”
Capitalism as practiced implies greed and avarice.
In growth and decline it fosters the destruction of traditions, values, jobs, skills,
neighbourhoods and ultimately of people’s homes.
This fosters the fracturing of families and communities,
migration and constant movement
as people flee the damage or seek better opportunities.
Capitalism has caused the dismemberment of country life
and the creation of crowded often alienated urban centres.
This is explained as ‘the price of progress’ or ‘creative destruction’.
In the countryside, farmers lived with an obligation to the land;
in cities,
alienated people throw rubbish on streets over which they feel no ownership.
In the countryside, previous to industrial farming
there is by necessity, memory and fidelity to the wellbeing of the land;
in the city there is forgetfulness and a desire to escape the ‘old neighbourhood’.
These aims are explicitly contradictory to the implied social aims of democracy.