Transforming Worry into Art: A Call to Action

Here’s the present situation.

The barricades are in place. No more social media. News down to a quick scan of the headlines. 

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Barricades Protect Your Peace But Don’t Keep You Safe

It’s easy to put up barricades, but barricades need to be maintained. They need to be repaired after every fresh assault.

The voices are loud from the other side, and I can still hear the drone and whine of manipulation, but I don’t feel its hot breath of lies and cruelty right up in my face anymore.  

But I resent the need to barricade at all.

I feel slightly safer on my side of this barricade, but it’s an illusion. I’m not safe. Nobody is.

Everybody is worried.

I shouldn’t say everybody. Everybody who hates Trump is worried, and that’s 75 million people. (75 million voted for Harris. 77 million voted for Trump. In percentages, that’s 49.8% for Trump vs. 48.3% for Harris—hardly a mandate.)

But worry is such a worthless emotion. Worry is worshipping the problem. Worry is projecting into the future and imagining worst-case scenarios. People who worry think they’re right to worry, and you should worry, too. They think if you’re not worried, you’re not paying attention.

But worrying doesn’t solve anything. Worrying is just mental fidget-spinning. It’s perseverating. It’s getting stuck in thought loops. And it can be hard to stop once you start. Worry warts are addicted. They stand on the sidelines, wringing their hands and peeing their pants. They stupidly and fatalistically think there’s nothing they can do.

But they’re wrong. They can become artists.

Stop Worrying and Do Something.

I’m not a firebrand. I’m not a person who will stand on a corner with a sign and yell at passing cars. But I am also not someone who will roll over.

I will not comply. 

I will find ways to resist that are more subtle, more subversive, and hopefully more effective. 

Practice Non-Compliance Through Art. 

I have always felt weird about calling myself an artist. I call myself “just a blogger.” 

But not anymore.

Now I am calling myself an artist. My medium is language—specifically, the written word. Words have power, and if ever there was a time to deploy this power, it’s now.

Lots of people are artists who don’t own their art. That has to stop. The artists can save us if they start making their art.

As a language artist, I won’t write screeds, manifestos, or screamy letters to the editor; don’t be ridiculous. 

I will continue to write these bloggy, newslettery-type posts. I will continue to be funny, sarcastic, and ironic. My style won’t change, but my intention will.

The Art Needs to Change.

Things are going to take a turn for all artists. They have to. This is the moment in our history when all art has to and will change and become a vehicle of resistance. 

The music needs to change. When the music changes, the culture changes. The fashion needs to change. When the fashion changes, the culture changes. The language needs to change. When the language changes, the culture changes. When the art hanging on the walls of galleries changes, the culture changes.

The culture needs to change from one of social greed, cruelty, and climate neglect to one of social generosity, compassion, and climate action.

We need a language of resistance and non-compliance. We need best sellers about characters who quietly refuse to comply with the oligarchy’s plans and become cultural heroes.

I intend to be silently subversive. I’m more like an arsonist than a firebrand. I’ll find a way to resist without screaming in the streets. I will find a way to subtly signal my non-compliance and resistance.

Go Underground.

We’re on defense, but defense wins games. We need all hands on deck: musicians, fashionistas, writers, painters, cinematographers, and choreographers. 

Let’s start taking this seriously. I personally know painters, collage artists, meditation teachers, writing circle leaders, yoga teachers, actors, and playwrights.

Let’s decide that we are now part of an underground art movement that is subtly, slyly, subversively undermining the oligarchy and the patriarchy.

Oligarchy – Rule of the few

Patriarchy – Men hold power. Women are excluded.

Democracy – Rule by the whole population. Rule by the people.

We can make quiet inroads, we can join with allies. We can take over through art. 

Your Life Can Be Your Art

Art changes minds and hearts. It can save us as individuals and act as an act of political resistance and non-compliance. 

If you don’t see yourself as an artist, start with your life. Make your life a work of art. If you have a life, you have a canvas. So, go. Make your art. We need you.