personal + political [was: web-site update]

So thorough and well-put, Francis. WHich reminds me, today while hunting
for something else I came across this resolution on the CAA site (College
Art Assoc.) expressing their official stance on the current situation re:
politics, scholarship and art–I felt heartened to see it there, and
perhaps that's it's purpose….which is really really important. Small
gestures. I would say that the discussion and general sensibility on
Rhizome functions for me in the same way, be it explicit or not.

CAA Advocacy
Resolution on Art and Intellectual Freedom in Times of War
http://www.collegeart.org/caa/advocacy/04Resolutionintimesofwar.html

best,
-J

On Mon, 18 Oct 2004, Francis Hwang wrote:

> FYI: This is from an ur-thread that many people were spammed with over the
> last few days, and I'm a little reluctant to dignify the spam with a
> response, but then Rob just posted a response to the list itself so I suppose
> maybe it's more topical now.
>
> On Oct 16, 2004, at 4:16 AM, Rob Myers wrote:
>
>> On 16 Oct 2004, at 05:44, eric dymond wrote:
>>
>>> Do you declare your hatred for war on the splash page?
>>
>> Rhizome is a non-profit organisation. It cannot do politics under American
>> law.
>
> I think it's more complex than that: I believe that we're allowed to have
> political stances but that advocating for specific candidates would change
> our tax-exempt status, or something like that. Regardless, I think it's
> mostly moot. We're not a political non-profit. We're an arts non-profit. Our
> mission doesn't have much to do with politics, and although us Rhizome
> employees have fairly strong feelings about how fucked up the current
> administration is, I think it's safe to say that we don't feel that as an
> organization we're exceptionally well-positioned to do something about that.
>
> I mean, what the hell would an anti-war statement on the splash page of
> Rhizome accomplish? Who's going to have their opinion swayed by that? We're
> not cnn.com. Unless the art world has been overrun by neoconservatives and
> nobody's bothered to tell me, an antiwar statement on the front page of an
> online arts organization is redundant and more than a little onanistic.
>
> ( As a side note, we have been trying to find ways to assist the defense of
> Steve Kurtz, since that's more directly relevant to our community. We don't
> have much money, production resources, or physical space, so it's tough, but
> we have been publicizing this week's benefit [
> http://www.caedefensefund.org/biofeedback.html ], and gave them a mailing
> list, and I've been piping in with little tips as to how to make the
> publicity more web-friendly. Which helps just a tiny bit, maybe. )
>
> I do think people should be politically active, and I think the Rhizome list
> can be a good place to talk about that. But I also think that people have to
> find the sort of participation that works for them, and that when leftists
> try to guilt other leftists into doing more for their great righteous cause,
> it makes me wonder how we can ever hope to reach the undecided middle if we
> can't even talk to each other without being assholes.
>
> Also, whatever you end up doing, you're going to miss some stuff, so
> sanctimoniousness is sort of a dumb trap to fall into. I mean, I've marched
> and written letters and donated and will probably be doing volunteer
> tech-support for MoveOn.org this week. But I haven't done a damn thing in the
> last few years to advance abortion rights, or legalize gay marriage, or help
> repair the political damage done over the Cold War to the continent of
> Africa, or even help all those homeless people who are begging for change on
> the subway. So I'm certainly not going to criticize anybody else for not
> being involved: The world is complicated and full of problems, and it's hard
> to know where to start.
>
> But, yeah, everybody should get involved, and the election would be a good
> thing to be involved with. If you live in the U.S. you could just go to
> MoveOn.org or Google for "letter writing campaign" or "phone bank" or
> whatever else, depends on what sounds less intimidating to you. If you don't
> live in the U.S. you might want to check out this article at the Guardian
> which talks about how non-Americans can try to influence the election:
>
> http://www.guardian.co.uk/uselections2004/story/0,13918,1326033,00.html
>
> Call me a fuzzy one-worlder, but I'd appreciate help from outside our
> borders.
>
> And if you like a little anxiety first thing in the morning, you can check
> out http://electoral-vote.com/, where state-by-state polls are summarized
> daily to see who's ahead in the Electoral College. Ever since the debate
> started, Kerry and Bush have been neck-and-neck, so it's not for the faint of
> heart.
>
> Still, I'm cautiously optimistic that Kerry will win, but only if the people
> on the left learn to fight with the same vigor and discipline that the right
> fights with. I'm even cautiously optimistic that once Kerry _does_ win, we
> won't repeat the mistake of the Clinton-era years where we were too busy
> getting facial piercings and founding dot-coms to keep pushing to the left,
> and maybe the left will form a coherent policy of what to do next in Iraq
> instead of just saying "Dude, Bush fucked up," and maybe Iraq will not turn
> out to the next Vietnam. And maybe I won't have to worry about my cousin
> Alberto, who I love more than almost anything on this Earth, being eligible
> for the draft in 8 years. Like MLK said: "The arc of history is long, but it
> bends toward justice."
>
> Yours in victory,
>
> Francis Hwang
> Director of Technology
> Rhizome.org
> phone: 212-219-1288x202
> AIM: francisrhizome
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