The Art of Politics
Part I - Literature, Music, and Comedy
By Brighid Mooney

Looking back over the course of history, it is easy to see how pronounced and ubiquitous the roles of both art and the artist have been in politics. Particularly in America, where we take both our politics and our artistic endeavors very seriously, art has long been more than just a mirror of our society. Pablo Picasso once said that "art is a lie that makes us realize the truth." Artists throughout time have realized this and used the "lie" of great films, music and novels to expose the truth to a public often blinded by apathy and media spin. From the earliest American revolutionaries, who used written pamphlets to reach the people, to Bob Dylan and Michael Moore, artists of all mediums have taken up the cause of politics and used their art to reach out to people in a way that stump speeches and campaign ads cannot. It is little wonder that people often object to this kind of politicking, saying that artists have a responsibility not to use a public stage to express polarizing views. These people, as well as many politicians, understand how much impact a well-written song or a moving film can have on the general voting public. Which makes the work artists do in regards to politics even more important in that through this work, artists become the socio-political conscience of our society, using, among other things, books, music, film and comedy to expose the wrongs of society, to advocate change, and to force people to look at issues that they may have previously overlooked or ignored.

The past century in particular has seen many people who might be considered artist revolutionaries; those whose often incendiary work encouraged the rest of the world not just to take note of certain issues, but to take action as well. In the 1950s, Lenny Bruce used profanity and subversive language to get the world to sit up and take notice of things like racism and bigotry in a way that revolutionized stand-up comedy and also put then taboo social issues right in the foreground. In the 1960s, Bob Dylan used folk music to reach untold numbers of people with protest songs like "The Times They Are a-Changing" and "Blowin’ In the Wind." And before both of those, George Orwell created a disturbingly realistic distopia in 1984, and by doing so he possibly prevented such a world from ever becoming a reality.

Of course, when discussing the role of art in politics, it is important to distinguish between art and propaganda. Propaganda is simply that which is used for promoting some cause or idea. Art is generally thought to have loftier ideals than this, expressing not just ideas and feelings, but also a creation of beauty or significance. Then again, art has frequently been used in the past as a form of propaganda. Hitler understood the value of art as used to influence the way people think and even appointed a head of propaganda, Joseph Goebbels. Using things like postcards, posters and cartoons, the Nazis were able to put forth the platform of their party in a way that easily reached mass amounts of people. The U.S. government has also been guilty of using artistic mediums to influence its citizens. In the 1930s, the film Reefer Madness attempted to attach a frightening connotation to the use of marijuana by saying its use incited murder, rape and "permanent insanity!" The film was wildly successful, though less as a tool of propaganda than as a source of great amusement to stoned moviegoers everywhere four decades later. Still, there is a big difference between political art that is government sanctioned, and art that is created simply as a means for the artist to express his or her ideas and feelings about social and political issues.

Many famous artists have created paintings that depict the pain and suffering of human existence, but when these works are in response to things like war or society's attitude toward what is then going on in the world, they can become powerful political statements. In the early 19th century, the master painter Francisco de Goya used his paintings to show, in vivid detail, the suffering that resulted from the political and social unrest in Spain during that time. The realism of the death and destruction in his paintings was something that had not really been seen before and expressed his own personal turmoil in the face of such suffering, a feeling no doubt shared by many of his countrymen during the time. Now, two centuries later, we can look at his paintings and perhaps have a more direct and emotional response to what was happening at that time than we might from just reading about it in a textbook.

Another famous painter who expressed his political views on canvas was Pablo Picasso. Picasso painted “Guernica” in response to events during the Spanish Civil War, where hundreds of innocent civilians were massacred in a small Spanish town. “Guernica” is so powerful an image against the ravages and inhumanity of war that when Colin Powell gave his speech at the UN last year announcing the impending U.S. invasion of Iraq, the symbolic painting was covered up. Perhaps the irony of announcing a war in front of what is widely considered the most significant anti-war painting ever created, where the devastating effects of the mass murder of innocent civilians are laid out quite graphically, was too much for the U.S. government to bear. But Picasso's intended message was clear, and over half a century later, it wasn't lost on this generation either.

Sometimes entire artistic movements flourish in response to political issues. Dadaism was an absurdist avant-garde movement that began after the First World War, and was a protest against both the barbaric nature of war and the stifling confines of the traditional standards of art. Dadaism sought to break all the rules, and artists created irrational, nihilistic pieces of art based mostly on nonsense. A more modern form of art, the comic strip, has also come to be a major form of political expression. Cartoons like Doonesbury often carry a political message and are sometimes threatening enough to the establishment that they are dropped from the newspapers that carry them, or are subversive enough to be moved from the comic section to the opinion page. The fact that Doonesbury has been left out of newspapers several times for its political content speaks to the power of something as simple as a cartoon to reach a multitude of people.

In 1948, George Orwell published his famous novel 1984, a frightening glimpse into a future all too possible at the time. Orwell's novel tells of a world where freedom of speech is nothing more than a distant memory, and freedom of thought is even less so, where totalitarian rule and constant surveillance are a way of life. It is thought that the prospect of the imaginary world of 1984 becoming a reality was enough to scare people into making sure that such a thing never took place. 1984 created a kind of awareness and phrases from the novel like "Big Brother" and "thought crime" have become commonplace reminders of a world not too far removed from reality. How much more likely are we to watch out for and prevent things like that from happening since we have seen not only the signs, but also the possible outcomes, of such a world? It is impossible to say what kind of preventative impact 1984 has had on the world, except to say that, as of yet, we are still free from the thought police and the watchful eye of Big Brother. More or less.

Other novels, such as Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451, and Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale, have also shown us futures that the authors fear or seek to prevent. Novels like these give us an oblique view of the world we are living in now and the world that we might come to find ourselves in someday. They are both frightening and warning novels, futures that we may be heading for if we aren't careful. They are also the author’s way of telling us: don't let this happen. Another famous author to have somewhat overt political leanings and intentions is Kurt Vonnegut, whose novel Slaughterhouse Five is thought to be one of the greatest anti-war novels ever written. Vonnegut used his experiences as a POW in WWII as a basis to tell the story of Billy Pilgrim, who witnesses firsthand the devastating effects of war. Vonnegut is also the author of Cat's Cradle, a novel which takes place in a world nearly destroyed by mankind, about humanity's seemingly relentless drive toward destroying itself and everything around it.

One of the most accessible forms of political expression is music. Music has been a vehicle for political thought all the way back to the folk songs of Woody Guthrie, but it was one of Guthrie's devout followers who made folk music into a popular form of protest during a time when America needed it most. Bob Dylan became famous in the 1960s for his anti-war songs, but in addition to advocating peace, his music also spoke out for America's disenfranchised. Songs like "Blowin' In the Wind" spoke about the turning tide of American politics, but Dylan also spoke out against racial and economic injustice in songs like "The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll." Along with other folk singers like Joan Baez and Phil Ochs, Dylan vocalized the anger and dissatisfaction of American youth with the state of world. With lyrics taking on society, government and authority, he painted darkly critical pictures of the world, where "disillusioned words like bullets bark, as human gods aim for their mark, made everything from toy guns that spark, to flesh-colored Christs that glow in the dark."¹

Punk became popular in the late 1970s, and unlike its musical predecessor it was not really concerned with peace or love at all, though in the beginning it still had strong political overtones. But punk was about more than music. Attitude played a huge role as well. In fact, many punk bands notoriously only knew three chords anyway, and made up for the rest in ill-placed safety pins and spiky, egg-drenched hair. The message was the important part though, and largely dealt with the dissatisfaction of youth and a rebellion against government and authority. Punk rebelled against the establishment like the protest songs of the previous decade, but unlike the songs of the 1960s, punk was more about violence and anger than peace and love. And though it became more commercial with its increasing popularity, at least in the beginning, bands like the Clash, the Sex Pistols and Stiff Little Fingers, in songs from "God Save the Queen" to "White Man in Hammersmith Palais," had something very specific to say about the countries they lived in.

Hip Hop has also sometimes been known to rap political. Probably the best example of this is Public Enemy, whose songs like "911 Is a Joke" and "Fight the Power" spoke about racial inequality, police brutality and other social problems not previously addressed in rap music. Public Enemy promoted unity and change with smart, insightful lyrics, and in "Fight the Power" sang "It's a start, a work of art, to revolutionize make a change nothin's strange, people, people we are the same."² Rather than glorifying or promoting violence, Public Enemy gave a strong voice to black Americans, urging the country to take a closer look at what was really going on in urban America, rather than continuing to ignore it.

Another domain often used for exposing social issues is comedy, and stand-up comedians have long been challenging the dominant paradigm and bringing politics into the mix. Lenny Bruce, Richard Pryor and Bill Hicks were all masters of the trade and used the stage to bring forth a whole host of contentious issues such as racism, religion and war. Using profanity, irony and sarcasm, these comics pushed the envelope for what comedy was capable of, not just making people laugh, but also making them think. In a song tribute, Bob Dylan said of Lenny Bruce, "Maybe he had some problems, maybe some things that he couldn't work out, but he sure was funny and he sure told the truth and he knew what he was talkin' about."³ Like Lenny Bruce, Bill Hicks frequently took on the most contentious social and political issues of his time, as he railed about topics like the war on drugs, Waco, and abortion. "If you're so pro-life, don't lock arms and block medical clinics," he said, "lock arms and block cemeteries. Let's see how committed you fucking are to this premise."

Paving the way for comics like Hicks was Richard Pryor, whose incendiary rage and unequivocal bitterness was an influential and controversial voice for the Black Power movement. Pryor raged against the white establishment while telling candid stories, with previously unseen humor and honesty, about the black experience. In films like Richard Pryor: Live in Concert and Live on the Sunset Strip, he took on the issues of racism in groundbreaking style. Before any of them, Mort Sahl was able to shine a light on stand-up comedy in a way that forever changed the way comedy was perceived, from slapstick gags to comedy as a form of art. With political satire and ruthless social commentary, Sahl attacked politicians of all stripes, from Eisenhower to Nixon to JFK. Unfortunately for Sahl, it seemed that America was not quite ready for all of his brutal political bashings, especially concerning someone as beloved as Kennedy, and his career hit a long rough patch around this time. But in spite of a fair amount of political backlash, Mort Sahl was a hugely influential comedian during the postwar era, and much of his work helped to make the careers of future comics like Lenny Bruce, Bill Hicks and George Carlin possible.

The history of the role of art in politics and of politics in art is so grand and wide-ranging that entire books could be, and most likely already have been, written about the relationship between the two within each separate category. But as I don’t have the time or the energy to undertake such a huge endeavor (and especially not for free!), this diverse relationship has been boiled down and divided into two parts. So be sure to check out next month's issue for Part Two where we will take a penetrating, soul-searching look at politics in film, TV and theater.

1. Bob Dylan. “It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding).” Bringing It All Back Home. Columbia, 1965.
2. Public Enemy. “Fight The Power.” Fear Of A Black Planet. Def Jam, 1990.
3. Bob Dylan. “Lenny Bruce.” Shot Of Love. Columbia, 1981.

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