So, we've watched the Middle East basically cascade into revolution, starting in Tunisia, and going on still in places like Lybia, Yemen, Bahrain, and so on. In nearly every case, there have been protesters out on the streets, and some sort of poetic expression is being used to motivate the crowd or capture the moment.
Now take a look at Wisconsin. I'll go ahead and come out to say that my sympathies are with labor on this one. I'm not a fan of union politics subverting the political system though organized strikes and intimidation, but hey, I'm even less of a fan of super-wealthy individuals subverting the political system by throwing money and hiding behind lawyers. Anyway, in this context that is neither here nor there, because what I'd like to focus on is the lack of poetry in the protests in Madison. So far, "Kill the Bill" is about as inspired as it's gotten. A few posters have pictures of Scott Walker dressed up as Hitler. Yes, they get the point across, but they're also terribly ham-handed and tired. The high water mark of cultural generation coming out of this has been a song dedicated to the WI unions by the Dropkick Murphys. (It's an alright tune, but so far, it's hanging out there all by itself.)
Once upon a time, nearly 100 years ago, there was a labor movement in the US called the Industrial Workers of the World, better known as the Wobblies. While unions like the AFL were comitted to forming trade unions, the Wobblies were looking for something bigger: general unions. They felt that workers should all stand together instead of forming modern versions of the old guild system. Anyhow, wobblies were not well liked by nearly everybody. They advocated open revolution, even it it was peaceful, and that made the government nervous. They advocated going on strike at every chance they could, and that made business nervous. They wanted all workers to be under a democratic, big-tent union, and that made union bosses nervous. So the thing that wobblies really excelled at was getting thrown in jail and lynched periodically.
And generating culture. Because here's the deal: It turns out that in order to put up with being beaten down, living in hobo jungles, getting tossed into jail for walking down the wrong side of the street, and going hungry more often than not, you have to come up with a way to take the edge off of it. When you get chucked in a cell with three other guys, and you can all sing bawdy union songs to annoy the piss out of the jailers, then it makes the day go by a whole lot faster than sitting on the cot waiting for meal time to roll around. Oppressed people get creative, because that creativity gives meaning to an otherwise bleak existence. I'm willing to bet that if we look at any poetry, music, or art that really moves us, it's because the poet, musician, or artist was in a bad spot and that wicked line of verse or mind-blowing spot of color was the way out.
So, when people say, "Poetry's dead in America," I'm going to say that it's not. It's just off the map in our media-saturated culture. There's a vested interest in keeping people uncreative, and buying the mass-marketed products of creativity so that they get a taste of the real thing without actually engaging in the act themselves. There are still people out there generating legitimate culture for culture's sake, and I'm going to find them.
For the next couple months, I'm going to try to find some part of the underground to shine a light on every day. It might be poetry, it might be art, it might be some sort of thinker. Let's see who's been doing work when no one's been looking.
