Totalitarianism and Art
The light of dawn and the birdsong was different in Aulus les Bains.
A year ago, I wrote, “I fear sea-level rise and its impact on all coastal communities.
A far larger new worry is the worldwide resurrection of fascism, with its implications for global justice. The seduction of fairy-tale narratives of simple solutions is profound, powerful, and tenacious. Jane Austen’s world may not be so far from Margaret Atwood’s in The Handmaid’s Tale. Fascism and totalitarianism are the siblings of extractive patriarchies. I would defend the personal narrative I have recounted here as a reflection of ecofeminist resistance in many people’s lives to the abuse of power. Addictions, some forms of religion, and strongman politics have always offered tantalizing fairy tales of safety to the unhappy and defeated. Now is no different. I understand all too well.” p. 277-8 Divining Chaos
Today I fear many more catastrophes caused by extractive patriarchies. Today heat blasts the UK and burns Spain and uberalles seems to be the strongmen, like Putin, wreaking death on far more than Ukraine.
There is a long history of art resisting tyranny, often by simply witnessing horror, from Goya to Kathe Kollwitz and on into the present as I and my colleagues record and resist the grief of ecocide marching unimpeded across the planet. The historian Heather Cox Richardson has said that a reason to preach to the choir (now), is to hearten us. I sing to the choir. I write to it. I make studio art for it and I bear witness. Ecocide, genocide, femicide, they are all faces of our current reality. River Cubes recently wrote on my FB page, “Nec Spe nec Metu!” Neither hope nor fear
I have just come back from the Pyrennees, where I did a workshop on my trigger point theory at CAMP. In another world, embraced and humbled by the towering majesty of the mountains, in the tiny village of Aulus les Bains, I disconnected for a week from the hot turmoil of American politics. In my book, I had tried to craft a vision of another world, a world where art might be more than a candlelight in a storm. But in the thick of it, sometimes I fear it’s possible that candlelight is all there is and our task is just to guard the flame.
As the world burns, I consider the latest outrage with the loss of constitutional rights for women, a bellwether of all our futures, clearly recognized by recent demonstrations. Based on statistics, conflated despite my poor mathematics, from WHO, the CDC and the Guttmacher Institute, of the 6.3 estimated annual births in this country, 45% are unwanted. In developing countries (presumably comparable to deep south black communities in our country) 220 deaths from unsafe abortions will occur p. 100, 000 pregnancies. That means these new laws could be liable for about 21,000 maternal deaths p. year. Why then can’t Kavanaugh, Susan Collins, Clarence Thomas, Mitch McConnell, trump, etc be vulnerable to both a class action suit and charges of negligent homicide, hate crimes and manslaughter?
“45% of pregnancies are unwanted,” Guttmacher Institute
“The estimated number of pregnancies (in 2009 was) … 6,369,000 (2013)” CDC
“…45% of all induced abortions are unsafe. Of all unsafe abortions, one third were performed under the least safe conditions, i.e., by untrained persons using dangerous and invasive methods.
Developing countries bear the burden of 97% of all unsafe abortions ,,, Each year, 4.7–13.2% of maternal deaths can be attributed to unsafe abortion (3). In developed regions, it is estimated that 30 women die for every 100 000 unsafe abortions. In developing regions, that number rises to 220 deaths per 100 000 unsafe abortions (2). Estimates from 2012 indicate that in developing countries alone, 7 million women per year were treated in hospital facilities for complications of unsafe abortion (4).” WHO
A week before I left for France, I had my personal wakeup call of just how stressful this time has felt. I took a bad fall down the stairs of my home, all the way from the second to the first floor. Nothing broken, no blood but as stressful an experience as the stress I’m sure contributed to the slip that send me tumbling down and nothing to the stress a young pregnant woman who needs n abortion might feel, or a homeowner who sees his house burn to cinders.
As I packed to leave after my fall, I listened to a podcast by Heather Cox Richardson. She said, 'now is the time to step up despite what we feel and take back our democracy from bad people (the corrupt RNC).' She compared this time to 1854 here and the advance of the Nazis when Bonhoeffer warned they were coming for us all.
Despite River Cubes’ reminder, I fear for the USA, for the Earth, for my own personal survival. Is it apocalyptic to write that in another time, another place I might have a longer life ahead than I expect for myself here and now as once stealth, now jubilant fascism once crept now leaps forward? I think of everyone who has withdrawn into apathy and escapism. I have never been able to manage that retreat and hope I never do. I think Heather is right. All it takes to lose everything is to do nothing. Those of us willing to face reality now are on the front lines of the last World War. There is no hope that we might avoid causalities but as Zelensky and many others before him have modeled, we can preserve our moral integrity as we resist the evil abroad in our lands.
"If I sit next to a madman as he drives a car into a group of innocent bystanders, I can't, as a Christian, simply wait for the catastrophe, then comfort the wounded and bury the dead. I must try to wrestle the steering wheel out of the hands of the driver." -Dietrich Bonhoeffer
I brought back art from France that I created there. I minted my first album of audio NFTs. The mountains gave me courage, as did my students and colleagues. It’s not over yet, with or without hope.