It is TRUE...I am planning to be co-moderator/Devils Advocate at the brilliant B.j. Dinis opening Qweerballah in his new series for Sunday nights, recorded and simulcast on the worldwide web...this will be a weekly happening devoted to exploring - through performance and lectures and talking back - the more taboo, the more controversial political and social subjects that burn in consciousness in our time, underlying and overshadowing our otherwise pleasantly prolific communications regarding happier matters. The subject of the first night is Political Correctness, which - laying aside for a second the pejorative origins of the term - for me is the attempt, in the living activist culture in pursuit of a more free and just society that is one great pillar of our New York artist community today, to actively manage The Politics Of The Image and The Politics Of The Word, so that the Odious Ideas and Damaging Stereotypes that the society we have seems to plant in peoples brains are ideally never uttered or inscribed, and if aired are called out and taken to task actively - almost immediately, always emphatically, in an attempt to expunge them, at least, with their cognitive virus-like ability to seem to sanction dehumanizing maltreatment of others, from our world which is already so horrifying on the level of The Politics Of Space, The Politics Of Prosperity, The Politics Of Health...The Politics Of Power. I am 33 years old, so Ive had a front-row seat for this whole Linguistic Turn, and for the painful cultural history in which attempts by some to enforce Political Correctness in defense of favored linguistic and symbolic space have of course led to backlashes in which others have wielded Political INcorrectness like a cudgel to beat back any incursion on THEIR favored spaces, and even attempted to colonize anew, or do something aggressive so similar in its effects that it FEELS like attempted re-colonizing, which of course provokes even MORE of an attempt to Politically Correct the discourse, which intensifies the next backlash of course, leading first to a lot of din and strife and then to a lot of avoidance, neglect, and generalized distortion of the complicated subjects that have most incited the partisans of symbolic politics to fight. So tomorrow, in an attempt to open a way to truth and reconciliation about history, and to do nothing less than one small part of my part to stop the march to World War III, to make the road to peace by walking, I hope to model a way to defend the interests of the downtrodden in a conversation OTHER than by forbidding certain references and representations. Basically what I have in mind is showing how if correction is needed, one can attempt TO Politically Correct - as a verb - to ones hearts (and ones communitys) content, while avoiding the temptation to style oneself Politically Correct as some state of being the grace of which can be fallen from or banked upon. Speak Your Truth and Trust Your Karma is the name of the game for those wanting to Chant Down Babylon, I promise. Go at untruths like a cat killing mice, appearing to play with them while thoroughly ensuring their demise. Catch you on the web or IRL tomorrow night at 8 pm at the infamous La Grotta gallery, 1535 Decatur Street, Apt. 2LL, Ridgewood, New York, 11385. https://facebook/events/1482413671978588/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular
Posted on: Sun, 16 Mar 2014 03:34:42 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015