A Cultural Rope-a-Dope?

In the pages of the New York Times the longtime person-on-TV-exaggerating-his-Southern-accent James Carville proposed a political rope-a-dope for Democrats in this era. In a nutshell he suggested the Democrats lay low and let the Republicans show their ass. He pointed out that the Republicans struggle when they are actually running something and the ideas they are forwarding are not the ones they were elected on. In fact the ones they are pushing are not even popular with their base. I am not going to spend a long time on Carville’s ideas primarily because I don’t know how I feel about them. Right now the Democrats don’t control a branch of government at the national level. At the national level we are flailing for a strategy and the idea that the Republicans could be their own undoing seems quite possible to me. Services are being gutted. Businesses are being ruined. National Republican policy will be wildly cruel to many Republican constituents. The idea of a rope-a-dope is at least worth entertaining at this moment in my opinion.
I move the frame of Carville’s piece in my mind to the cultural landscape. The mediums on which the grand majority of artists, broadcasters and writers build their audience are primarily awful. Why exactly do I want to create a great Instagram video? Instagram sucks. Even when I see a great Instagram video I think. . .it sucks it’s on this site. It sucks that me falling in love all over again with Chris Dave’s drumming makes Mark Zuckerberg money deflates me. It is where my eyeballs go, it might be where your eyeballs go. It’s a level of attention capture that is draining the possibility of making an impact without being on the sites.
I’m lucky. I’m on the radio. I can share beautiful music, vital news and positive energy on a medium that I think is quite good. It’s a medium that in my section doesn’t rely on keeping the audience listening at any cost. It involves keeping the audience listening and also feeling good enough about the overall service that they will part with some of their money to keep it going strong or stronger. Very different. It works for me. But, as I want to share more of my writing, my playing, my thoughts I butt up against the fact that the places to share have their own shitty reward system.
Is there a point in a cultural rope-a-dope? Stepping away from the mediums that are severely anti-artist? Creating a garden of output that thrives in places where the terms are better? That thrives in places where the outcomes can be deeper? I think there is. But it feels hopeless cause I don’t know how much real flight is happening from these services. Do I believe there will be a moment where a considerable portion of the population can’t be talked to, sold to, marketed to on Social Media sites? I do believe that. But I believe a lot of shit. I believe a lot of unlikely shit. I think ultimately people in their fastest thinking want to see somebody get drilled in the nuts by a tire, or they want to see a beautiful woman who is quasi naked. And if there is a machine in your pocket that brings you those things it will only be in the rare moments where most people pursue something else. I think it will take some level of big brother type controls, some stigmatizing that will help. Some fancy thinkers are guessing that at some point phones will be treated like cigarettes culturally. I think that’s possible. But I think a lot unlikely shit is possible.
The difference between the Carville play and the cultural rope-a-dope I’m considering is that there is some pride in a cultural rope-a-dope. I don’t believe there can be any pride from letting Democratic positions and institutions be denigrated and demolished. We don’t elect people to Congress to go take the punches. We elect them to solve problems and seek solutions. I believe it is possible for politicians to this. But I believe a lot of unlikely shit. But in this regard I do believe that artists, broadcasters and writers can wage the good fight. I believe they can wage the war on higher ground. They can care about where their art shows up. They can care about in what environment and under what conditions their art is discovered. Can you do this while trying to reach the maximum amount of people? I don’t think so. But I believe the allure of reaching the maximum amount of people is becoming less alluring. I’ve got a beautiful little garden over here on my newsletter, on my website, with my releases. I think if you found my work you might’ve found it in a feel good way. You might not have found it on your third scroll through Instagram. Maybe you found it from a friend, or from the radio, or from a local publication. I think there is a value in presenting yourself under terms that work specifically for you and your message. I don’t know that that transfers one to one to the political landscape, but there’s some value in this idea in a cultural setting.

Button down Monday, hello ladies.