Amidst the froth of so many meaningless "Hallmark holidays" comes one that really makes sense - happy labor day. Americans seem to have a very short attention span when it comes to historical and cultural memory, so it comes as no surprise that many have already forgotten the sweatshops filled with children which were a common site in this country not so very long ago.
I suppose we're not alone - it's probably true that any community which has enjoyed better-than-average success would forget so easily. But there are still those who remember, and in a round-about way it pertains to Sharkforum.
When we started this thing 10 months ago we had several things in mind, but pretty near the top of the list was the agreement that the one essential ingredient in any endeavor is good ol' fashioned hard work. This country is lousy with professional polemicists and pundits spouting platitudes about American Exceptionalism. But what, specifically are they talking about?
Is it the fact that we've got the largest virtual penis, represented so horrifyingly by our glimmering collection of ICBM's, Abrams tanks, Stealth bombers and HUM-V's? Could it be the cultural heft we sport in the way of all things Hollywood? Could it be the magnificent geological diversity we enjoy?
Sadly, I think the question doesn't ever get asked, let alone answered. It's easy to point to World War II as an example of American Exceptionalism, but can the same be said for the current war in Iraq? What about our conduct in Afghanistan? Just the other day the Chicago Tribune ran a story laying out the current state of affairs in the international heroin biz. Afghan poppies account for something like 92% of the world's opium supply, and one reason given is that the southern portion of the country is currently operating under the control of the Taliban.
So what does make this country so great? Can American Exceptionalism be found in the smoldering remains of the World Trade Center in the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 attacks? Is it readily found in the swamped and fetid streets of New Orleans shortly after the trainwreck-in-slow-motion which followed Hurricane Katrina? The short answer is "I dunno." We see astounding acts of heroism anywhere disaster strikes, and while it's true that Americans can demonstrate tremendous generosity worldwide in response to disaster, I hardly think we've got the market cornered.
While I'm hardly a historian, I do know a thing or two about the founding of this country. As far as I can figure, the really revolutionary aspect of the founding of America is that we're a nation generated by ideas. But that's wrong, because we're also a nation animated by ideas, and one idea in particular seems to have provided the dynamo which has accounted for so many of our accomplishments: each individual owns their labor.
While this may seem axiomatic to the 21st century mind, it was hardly always an accepted notion. In my short stint as a pre-law student at Michigan State's James Madison Residential College I had the good fortune to read John Locke's "Two Treatises of Government." To paraphrase in the most crude fashion allowable by law, Locke sets out the notion that in the days before government and law, when land and resources were abundant, "man" lived in a "state of nature." In this state of nature anything that an individual "mixes his labour with" is then something that individual can use at his or her discretion. In other words, the labor required to convert the potential value of that resource is the coin of the realm.
It seems to me, a somewhat-more-than-casual observer and much-less-than-academic source on the subject that this is the real animating idea behind America, and that this simple yet revolutionary concept is the font from which American Exceptionalism flows. While I readily admit that the concept of inalienable rights to "life [and] liberty" are essential, it just seems pretty obvious that it's the "pursuit of happiness" which really makes the difference.
I would submit that you can't have real liberty without an equity in the transaction of labor and compensation. The concept that an American can make it by dint of hard work and gumption is so central to the success of this country that I seriously believe that we can't survive without it. And yet there are those working day and night to pervert this concept, and in so doing they seek to return us to the day when the right of prosperity is passed down through the genetic rules of sovereignty and little else.
So what has all of this got to do with art in general, and Sharkforum in specific? Open almost any art magazine and you'll see a lot of didactic fashion-based object making. The tendency to establish artistic value by "virtue" of historical reference and "analysis" is nothing more or less that a return to the norms of patriarchal lineage as a criterion for value. Art about art can have no real value in the agonizing effort to express just how hard it can be to be alive.
I believe it was Aristotle who said "the unexamined life is not worth living," and I'm here to say that a didactic emphasis on art history as a primary thrust in any body work just can't accomplish the goal. I've got a friend in Texas who's a brilliant inventor, and he's made a fortune as a result of his gifts. We used to have a friendly argument about the relative roles of art and science in human history. My thesis is that science, for all it's value and wonder, will never compete with art for longevity, mystery and meaning.
The truth is that almost anything of any value requires hard work. If you're confused about that just ask anyone who's tried to make a marriage work. And art, perhaps the highest of high stakes philosophical games, is no different. Last week Wesley and I were talking about art, and we both came up with the same thing - it's hard to really do it right.
So here's the little bow that wraps it all up - Sharkforum, even though it's international, is about this American Exceptionalism in so many ways. We started this thing because we believed that our hard work was the answer to so many of our problems as individuals, as artists, as a community. And the results have already made themselves visible in the form of the friends we've made, the opportunies which have presented themselves to us, and the impact on our lives as artists.
Sharkforum is not meant to be a panacea, anymore than the Declaration of Independence was. Rather, it's a medium which helps to activate and contextualize the labor which we're convinced can only lead to great things.
Now get working.
Sadly, I think the question doesn't ever get asked, let alone answered. It's easy to point to World War II as an example of American Exceptionalism, but can the same be said for the current war in Iraq? What about our conduct in Afghanistan? Just the other day the Chicago Tribune ran a story laying out the current state of affairs in the international heroin biz. Afghan poppies account for something like 92% of the world's opium supply, and one reason given is that the southern portion of the country is currently operating under the control of the Taliban.
So what does make this country so great? Can American Exceptionalism be found in the smoldering remains of the World Trade Center in the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 attacks? Is it readily found in the swamped and fetid streets of New Orleans shortly after the trainwreck-in-slow-motion which followed Hurricane Katrina? The short answer is "I dunno." We see astounding acts of heroism anywhere disaster strikes, and while it's true that Americans can demonstrate tremendous generosity worldwide in response to disaster, I hardly think we've got the market cornered.
While I'm hardly a historian, I do know a thing or two about the founding of this country. As far as I can figure, the really revolutionary aspect of the founding of America is that we're a nation generated by ideas. But that's wrong, because we're also a nation animated by ideas, and one idea in particular seems to have provided the dynamo which has accounted for so many of our accomplishments: each individual owns their labor.
While this may seem axiomatic to the 21st century mind, it was hardly always an accepted notion. In my short stint as a pre-law student at Michigan State's James Madison Residential College I had the good fortune to read John Locke's "Two Treatises of Government." To paraphrase in the most crude fashion allowable by law, Locke sets out the notion that in the days before government and law, when land and resources were abundant, "man" lived in a "state of nature." In this state of nature anything that an individual "mixes his labour with" is then something that individual can use at his or her discretion. In other words, the labor required to convert the potential value of that resource is the coin of the realm.
It seems to me, a somewhat-more-than-casual observer and much-less-than-academic source on the subject that this is the real animating idea behind America, and that this simple yet revolutionary concept is the font from which American Exceptionalism flows. While I readily admit that the concept of inalienable rights to "life [and] liberty" are essential, it just seems pretty obvious that it's the "pursuit of happiness" which really makes the difference.
I would submit that you can't have real liberty without an equity in the transaction of labor and compensation. The concept that an American can make it by dint of hard work and gumption is so central to the success of this country that I seriously believe that we can't survive without it. And yet there are those working day and night to pervert this concept, and in so doing they seek to return us to the day when the right of prosperity is passed down through the genetic rules of sovereignty and little else.
So what has all of this got to do with art in general, and Sharkforum in specific? Open almost any art magazine and you'll see a lot of didactic fashion-based object making. The tendency to establish artistic value by "virtue" of historical reference and "analysis" is nothing more or less that a return to the norms of patriarchal lineage as a criterion for value. Art about art can have no real value in the agonizing effort to express just how hard it can be to be alive.
I believe it was Aristotle who said "the unexamined life is not worth living," and I'm here to say that a didactic emphasis on art history as a primary thrust in any body work just can't accomplish the goal. I've got a friend in Texas who's a brilliant inventor, and he's made a fortune as a result of his gifts. We used to have a friendly argument about the relative roles of art and science in human history. My thesis is that science, for all it's value and wonder, will never compete with art for longevity, mystery and meaning.
The truth is that almost anything of any value requires hard work. If you're confused about that just ask anyone who's tried to make a marriage work. And art, perhaps the highest of high stakes philosophical games, is no different. Last week Wesley and I were talking about art, and we both came up with the same thing - it's hard to really do it right.
So here's the little bow that wraps it all up - Sharkforum, even though it's international, is about this American Exceptionalism in so many ways. We started this thing because we believed that our hard work was the answer to so many of our problems as individuals, as artists, as a community. And the results have already made themselves visible in the form of the friends we've made, the opportunies which have presented themselves to us, and the impact on our lives as artists.
Sharkforum is not meant to be a panacea, anymore than the Declaration of Independence was. Rather, it's a medium which helps to activate and contextualize the labor which we're convinced can only lead to great things.
Now get working.
I just read this wonderfully inciteful blog and I have to say as a scholar whose graduate work was done in the Program in American Culture at the University of Michigan, I think that this blogger has gotten it just right.
The most important idea, to me, is the thought that you can't have liberty, as in "life and liberty" without an "equity in the transaction of labor and compensation."
In a transactional society, the lack of adequate funds with which to "live," aborts completely one's ability to pursue the recognizable semblance of anything one could call "happiness."
The disperity in wages in this country is morally offensive to me. The fact that many of the citizens of this country cannot make a "living wage" is simply unacceptable and it is dangerous. It sets up a social situation that in this day and age, when the whole world is an open book so to speak, the have nots can tune in, to mix my metaphors, to find alternative and "unpleasant" ways to interrupt the currently inequitable status quo.