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Ian: Fugazi, Trump and Social media

PostPosted: Fri Dec 09, 2016 9:40 am
by xxxMidgexxx
http://www.culturecreature.com/ian-mackaye-interview-trump-social-media-fugazi/


Pretty good (not great) interview while Ian is washing his dishes, but he loses me at the 'even the frivolous love song is political' statement.

Re: Ian: Fugazi, Trump and Social media

PostPosted: Fri Dec 09, 2016 3:16 pm
by JGJR
xxxMidgexxx wrote:http://www.culturecreature.com/ian-mackaye-interview-trump-social-media-fugazi/


Pretty good (not great) interview while Ian is washing his dishes, but he loses me at the 'even the frivolous love song is political' statement.


I loved his take on the election and its aftermath, though.

Re: Ian: Fugazi, Trump and Social media

PostPosted: Fri Dec 09, 2016 5:01 pm
by earthdog70
My aunt told me that Ian dropped into a music class she was taking in DC recently and gave a lecture. I will have to get the details :idea:

Re: Ian: Fugazi, Trump and Social media

PostPosted: Fri Dec 09, 2016 6:34 pm
by jason powell
xxxMidgexxx wrote:he loses me at the 'even the frivolous love song is political' statement.

I think he is right.

"Politics" was coined by Aristotle as a word to describe how people living in a community (or "polis") behave with each other.

Over time, communities have blown up into cities where there are so many people that anonymity is a general feature of the community. No one knows their neighbors, besides in a very general abstract way. The way people deal with problems as a community, as a city, state, or nation are now also abstract and general.

The problem is that people are individuals, but when people tend to think politically, they only deal in these kinds of abstractions.

To me, and this is something I've interpreted all my life as something that Ian was talking about (although I may be totally off base here- regardless it is how I see things anyway), is a return to seizing ones own responsibility as ones own political agent where ever you are in whatever you do. Some movements in the past have even made the claim that "the personal is political", but I think that it goes further than they may mean. Like Ian sang, your emotions are even political. The way you treat others, the things you say and do, the things you communicate affect the world in a very direct way. Instead of feeling that abstract political systems are important, think "can't change the world but you can change yourself", and as one agent in the community you generate the most effect by your own actions and example, which can work to affect the people you know and the places you live in.

Art in particular has great return in this sense of what "politics" means, because all art involves an audience, which means it has greater potential to affect the mood and attitudes of those around you.

Re: Ian: Fugazi, Trump and Social media

PostPosted: Fri Dec 09, 2016 10:40 pm
by xxxMidgexxx
Well, if you use the word 'political' in THAT broad a sense....

It seems too "reaching" for me.

Re: Ian: Fugazi, Trump and Social media

PostPosted: Fri Dec 09, 2016 10:55 pm
by drew
I made it 20 minutes in.....Ian is preoccupied/disinterested, he sounds like he lost a bet to have to do this interview

Re: Ian: Fugazi, Trump and Social media

PostPosted: Sat Dec 10, 2016 12:44 am
by xxxMidgexxx
drew wrote:Ian is preoccupied/disinterested,



Did you not hear him washing dishes in the background?

Re: Ian: Fugazi, Trump and Social media

PostPosted: Sat Dec 10, 2016 1:12 pm
by drew
xxxMidgexxx wrote:
drew wrote:Ian is preoccupied/disinterested,



Did you not hear him washing dishes in the background?






Yes. And it showed how little he cared about talking to that guy

Re: Ian: Fugazi, Trump and Social media

PostPosted: Sun Dec 11, 2016 6:02 pm
by jason powell
xxxMidgexxx wrote:Well, if you use the word 'political' in THAT broad a sense....

It seems too "reaching" for me.

I can appreciate that, but, I think the modern meaning of politics is too abstract and alienating. Theres the tendency to write off whole groups of individuals as problems and not seeing them as people.

Re: Ian: Fugazi, Trump and Social media

PostPosted: Tue Dec 13, 2016 9:58 am
by JGJR
jason powell wrote:
xxxMidgexxx wrote:he loses me at the 'even the frivolous love song is political' statement.

I think he is right.

"Politics" was coined by Aristotle as a word to describe how people living in a community (or "polis") behave with each other.

Over time, communities have blown up into cities where there are so many people that anonymity is a general feature of the community. No one knows their neighbors, besides in a very general abstract way. The way people deal with problems as a community, as a city, state, or nation are now also abstract and general.

The problem is that people are individuals, but when people tend to think politically, they only deal in these kinds of abstractions.

To me, and this is something I've interpreted all my life as something that Ian was talking about (although I may be totally off base here- regardless it is how I see things anyway), is a return to seizing ones own responsibility as ones own political agent where ever you are in whatever you do. Some movements in the past have even made the claim that "the personal is political", but I think that it goes further than they may mean. Like Ian sang, your emotions are even political. The way you treat others, the things you say and do, the things you communicate affect the world in a very direct way. Instead of feeling that abstract political systems are important, think "can't change the world but you can change yourself", and as one agent in the community you generate the most effect by your own actions and example, which can work to affect the people you know and the places you live in.

Art in particular has great return in this sense of what "politics" means, because all art involves an audience, which means it has greater potential to affect the mood and attitudes of those around you.


Or, as he said in 1985, "your emotions are nothing but politics, so take control."

:D