14. HOW TO BE A PERSON: Apropos of Everything
March 2nd, 2024
Gabrielle Zevin wrote in her novel Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow.
“The alternative to appropriation is a world in which artists only reference their own cultures … Where white European people only make art about white European people, with only white European references in it. A world where everyone is blind and deaf to any culture or experience not their own.”
The slogan Nothing about us, without us was first used in 1505 as a political motto that helped form and establish constitutional legislation in the Kingdom of Poland. It was also used in pre-WWII when the Munich Agreement was signed between Nazi Germany, Great Britain, France and Italy effectively giving good chunk of Czechoslovakia called the Sudetenland to Hitler. Guess who wasn’t there? Czechoslovakia. Thanks a lot Neville Chamberlain.
In the 1990s the term was popularized by South African and then American disability activists. In 2004 the UN used the phrase as the theme for the International Day of Persons with Disabilities. Which is every year on December 3rd.
A beautiful map showing Nazi settlements in Czechia. Ahhh, settlements. Rarely a sign of geo-political good.
For a long time I was an at-par actor with some comedy chops. Coupled with my look meant I got all the commercials. It was a wonderful life. Until it ended. Now the thing that helped me get work (the colour of my skin) is no longer in demand as it once was.
How to respond to my little struggle? In front of friends, my family and most of all my children my response might more readily take on a philosophical approach than if I were alone.
“What other people think of me is none of my business.”
“I’ll just have to become so good they can’t not hire me.”
“It was a good run. Now it is time to work harder.”
The flame of my anger diminishes under the cooling influence of witnesses.
But what of my white, male children? They never had a good run. Maybe they won’t be actors and so it won’t matter so much?
I was used to a life and now I must get used to another. But if I make stuff with too many white people I might be accused of a thing. And if I make stuff without white people I will be accused of another. And if I make stuff about my people versus other people or vice versa I am still walking in a minefield.
Malcolm Gladwell said on Talk Easy:
You can’t just have stories about Black people written by Black people. You can’t just have stories about white people written by white people. You can’t limit the human imagination. Sometimes the most interesting perspectives on one group come from someone who is not of that group. Their perspective does not have to be congruent with the thing they are describing.
He also said Hollywood got themselves into this mess by having all the stories told by white guys for the last 100 years or so. (I do find it interesting that the majority of those “white guys” were Jewish but that’s another newsletter I think.)
So what is helpful? Joining the brigades of the angry that have weaponized the word woke? Woke, from what I can tell isn’t a bad thing if it just means you’re awake to the struggle of others. I want everyone to have a fair shake. If that is wokeness then that is I.
If I did embrace my angry-guy potential I certainly would not be alone. But the quality of the witness (aka the choir) would not necessarily foster growth or learning in me. Preaching to the choir no longer satisfies.
I would rather be on my bike and afraid for my life than in my car and be angry. So for the most part I stay out of my car. This is my self-imposed binary. I saw a dad with a stroller the other day in a crosswalk try to punch a car that was passing too closely to his mewling charge. I used to be that dad (I used my foot though).
Art is there to push boundaries. Which boundaries? My boundaries? Yours? I don’t know.
What I do know is that art will happen no matter what. And if you join in the making of it eventually, with practice, you’ll worry less about the moving targets of public opinion.
The great art comes from when you’re open and relaxed. You don’t want to clutch your stick too tightly. Or be worried about hurting someone else’s feelings. There are a lot of feelings out there.
One day, many years from now, after much hand-wringing and blood shed, the living will look back and shake their heads at us. We always do.
We chip away, we stay fluid, we write nothing in wet cement. If I err on the side of love and listening, add a dash of my powerful charm/humour offensive, my intentions will be clear.
Remember that scene in This Is 40 where Debbie and Pete are fighting? And Debbie, exasperated, says “Cancel my 40th birthday party I’m not in the mood.” And Pete says “No way, I’ve already booked the caterers and I’m not calling everyone back when in two days you change your mind.” We are Debbie. We’re riding a pendulum. It’s hard not to overcorrect. It’s hard to find the bullseye.
Journalist Saathnam Sanghera author of Empireland (a great read) talks about how the British Empire is still important today even though it’s dead. Even though the ersatz American Empire is in its death throws and taking all the oxygen. What England colonized between the 17th and the 20th centuries informs how we speak, the food we eat, where some of our money comes from, what’s in our museums, our immigration rules and historical, religious and governmental policies.
We can’t not be affected by other cultures. The aim is to do it while giving credit instead of just stealing everything.
Change is the one thing you can count on. And that’s hard. But that is also where the art is. Lucky for us we are in a golden age of adversity. Make art first. Ask questions later. And for god’s sake don’t end up a Czechoslovakia.
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Thanks so much.
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The song used in this podcast is called Sure and it was made by Braak which is electronic and cinematic music made by Øyvind Strand Endal from Norway.
Music from Uppbeat (free for Creators!):
https://uppbeat.io/t/braak/sure
License code: AVTXANAUYZXHSHB0