The time of revolution is upon us.
We must address the failure of our government to recognize culture as civilization, and the arts as culture.
Free-market capitalism has forced the best minds of our generation to toil in economic servitude to the Entertainment Media Industrial Complex. The disgraceful cult of celebrity manufactures our consent for conspicuous consumption of idiotic media and the sweat-shop consumer garbage that sponsors it. We are hypnotized into rolling over and passively forfeiting our compliance, like beaten wives, while hideous political and corporate policies are quietly shoved up our can-cans.
The increasing polarization between the rich and poor, and the erosion of the middle class American Dream has seriously hobbled the ability to survive as a working artist. We live in a time when the freedoms that form the very foundation of American society are being shaken by a vile, klepto-facist agenda, hell-bent on imperial expansion and the global enslavement of the poor. Our precious first Amendment rights are even being threatened. Fuck that.
As artists, we must not support this vile covert class-warfare. It is our responsibility as the cultural conscience of our nation to must work toward consciousness raising rather than passively submit to being tools for the dumbing down and dehumanizing of society. We can't squander our gifts of inspiration. As artists, we are a community, and as a community of free thinkers, we still have the power to shake things up.
ARTISTES SANS HOLLYWOOD-X aims to be an underground railroad of mutual support for artists whose work won't be developed under the constraints of a media suffocated by Rupert Murdoch, Sumner Redstone, the Thomson Corporation, and other mega-media conglomerate, all of whom serve an imperial agenda to manage our cultural perceptions and keep us ignorant, tired and weak.
We propose an America in which there are no creative constraints on our arts community stemming from corporate prudishness, rigid morality, political correctness or fear of litigation.
We propose that by supporting each other's work as a group, we can raise consciousness of the group as a whole, for there is strength in numbers, as well as strength in brand recognition.
We do not accept this gradual erosion of free speech and free expression.
We do not accept the current wave of fascist legislation in which the executive authority has granted itself unprecedented powers to police, harass and censor its critics.
We can not allow our lives to be informed exclusively by the greed of jackbooted yellow-running dog lackeys of the crypto-fascist corporate agenda. We can't condemn our talents to only exist at the mercy of their tasteless, contaminated values.
We don't need to march backward into despair, stupidity and isolation.
We have theaters, we have galleries, we have the internet, and we know how to use them.
Historically, these tools of revolution have enormous power, so long as those who are wielding these weapons use them in the name of a unified effort.
We hold the basic humanitarian values of ASH-X to be inalienable and obvious. We support the arts. We do not withhold support for artwork on the basis of sex, sexual orientation, or sexually explicit content. We are color blind in our regard for artistic expressions culturally different than ours. We hold no God to be superior to any other God. We don't support torture or slavery or the mechanisms and institutions that promote torture and slavery.
But most of all, if you are a member of ASH-X, you believe there is absolutely no authority in this land or any other high enough to judge, repress or censor the creative content of our art. Art requires absolute freedom of expression. New ideas can't be freely generated unless this freedom in and of itself has support. The "stumble on" process is imperative to scientific and technological discoveries - we wouldn't have an internet if the defense scientists at DARPA weren't granted the freedom to experiment. But this open, non-specific goal-oriented process is just crucial to the arts as it is to technologies, if not more so.
We are American artists and we should never have to bow down, shuffle, constrict our creativity, or conform to survive.
But if that's how we feel, we obviously can't wait for Disney to support us.
America needs to catch up with the third world when it comes to liberal funding for the arts. In addition to being an underground promotional engine for its members, ASH-X ultimately aims to influence policy towards new tax brackets for working artists, and the construction of new avenues for arts funding. There is absolutely no excuse for corporations to thrive obscenely in America and beyond while our operas, theaters and libraries are struggling to survive. There is absolutely no excuse for a lack of funding for art and music in our public schools. It is a crime tantamount to child abuse to deny poor children access to beauty, culture, and the inspiration of a civilized society. Art provides the tools for better dreaming. Better dreaming lets generations live inspired by ideas as opposed to living enslaved by hopelessness and fear. Our government should be afraid of the creative arts, because creativity is powerful enough to make stadiums bounce. If you can bounce a stadium, you have the power to change hearts, minds and government policies.
We can no longer sit around and do nothing while artistic liberties are slowly but deliberately strangled by the corporate crypto-fascists enslaving this country. ASH-X aims to be an umbrella under which we unify our dissent, whether it is explicit or implicit in our work.
I hope we can begin by supporting each other. I believe we can start by organizing a benefit performances. By unifying our efforts, volunteering our talents, and working in mutual trust, we can galvanize an organizational body and a board of directors. From there, we can figure out if we should be an NGO or not in order to accrue funds to put to use supporting art wherever we deem it faces critical opposition, censorship and repression. If we put our voices together, we can begin to be recognized as a movement that demands recognition and support for the arts in America. Just as organic farming is beneficial at every level of the socio-economic food chain, the arts, too, are invaluable to a thriving community. Without a thriving arts culture we are nothing but hive insects and corporate drones. ASH-X categorically rejects a society that would deprive the arts of unconditional support.
I say let's put on a show like Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney. Let's see where it goes from there.
