Arts and American Fascism.

tyunglebower ♦ November 21, 2024 ♦ Leave a comment

The recent United States presidential election has not only permitted a Fascist to assume power once again over the nation and its resources. It has proven that just under half of the citizens of this nation are in diametric opposition to democracy and wide-ranging human freedoms.

There are in short, tens of millions of evil people on this continent. If not the majority, certainly the majority of those who bother to participate in voting, which is just as lethal to our society.

It is a horrifying turn of events, that only fools and people paid to think otherwise could not have seen coming, numbers notwithstanding.

Since the moment this nightmare future for decent people was confirmed for us, I have advocated against joining organized, vocal resistance movements to oppose the inevitable American tyranny. Not out of a sense of capitulation, but out of a sense of safety, and a recognition that those who are both honorable and motivated to act are outnumbered to the point of ineffectiveness. Such movements have failed to stop our national march into hell before, and they will again. Nothing about the reactions I have seen over the last two weeks indicates it will be different this time.

I believe being part of these movements only puts a target on one’s back, while failing to accomplish a single noble goal. I’d love to be wrong but I do not think that I am.

That being said, I don’t advocate surrender.

We must now more than ever embrace diversity, as well as the arts and humanities. We must write and read and perform and sing twice as much as ever we did. And we must do so with twice as many different types of people than before.

Hoard books. Print out studies. Hide magazines. Lock away movies and documentaries. Bring art into whatever fortifications you have. Keep all of the above safe in whatever way you can.

Go underground for shows and concerts if it comes to that. Do not stop either the creative act, or engaging and consuming the creative act of others.

Science, as noble as it is, has lost its grip on the overall control of this fallen society. The arts and humanities may not have the instant impact of engineers and environmentalists, but they are the only thing with a chance of saving our collective souls, or at this point, the souls of our children who may live to see a post-Fascist America. Maybe.

I will continue to write what I wish, and read what I want, if and until I am physically prevented from doing so, even if I am not marching, giving speeches, or canvassing. I strongly advise you do the same.