in the early 1900's there was an "anti-art" movement called dada art that had the aim of exposing the senseless nature of the bourgeois attitudes of the time and the intellectual culture that had led to world war 1. in this movement, practitioners would make works of art that were as absurd and senseless as possible.
some of the enduring classics we have from this time are the following:
and my personal favorite, "this is not a pipe"
i suggest that its a good time for a dada politics movement. what sense is left in a system where uninformed people mindlessly vote for whichever pretty-faced candidate fit the most key words (change, hope, middle class families, etc) into their pre-packaged and processed prime-time interview? how 'bout when politicians dodge any actual issues when they're running and get people totally psyched about really bad ideas that sound fun (gas tax holiday anyone?) or when so many votes are divided neatly across party lines becuase nobody even reads bills, they just know if its a blue one or a red one. mr universe / action movie star for governor? great idea - that's a face we recognize.
in order to expose the absurdity of our current system, i propose the beginning of a dada politics movement. i suggest we campaign to get any of the following people in national office:
mike tyson
jack bauer
princess zelda
mr. t
one of the muppets
ike spencer
this guy
conan o'brien
hillary clinton... oh wait...
dwight shrute
miss teen south carolina
or this kid
maybe then we can realize that the people who look and sound real nice might not always be the best for our country, and that real issues are more important than the stupid political games everybody plays.
austinrory hackett
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ReplyDeleteI just think naming anything "Dada –––––" is a great idea. In fact, I am going to begin a dada elementary school.
ReplyDeleteSeriously though, I agree completely with the spirit of your post Austin. Certainly, some are more responsible than others, but we all make political decisions or assume political positions that are seen as peripheral to those who disagree with us. Locating the "real issues" is not a mathematical procedure. (I will address this problem in another post.) Nevertheless, you are definitely right about practical discussion being prevented or, at least, suffering at the expense of petty politics.