PAC505

Why Obama Street Art Matters

May 13, 2008

The best minds of our generation are pathologically irreverent—constitutionally incapable of subordinating themselves (in the larger sense) to another human being. They know that there is a little bit of scoundrel in everyone. They are smarter and more skeptical than the hippies, but more spoiled and even more vain. As a political movement, they have been useless because, as adept as they are at knocking things down, they do not build.

Even more than it already has, Obama’s campaign (assuming he makes it to the general election) is going to rely on an unprecedented turnout of young voters which, in turn, is likely to depend on an unprecedented turnout of young activists. Such activism requires a certain level of reverence. As a new medium of activism, street art is creative and subversive enough to allow its artists to maintain their own identity and integrity while at the same time revering a public figure. That creativity and subversiveness is passed on to the viewer, who feels justified and validated by the street art.

This is all just a very long way of saying that street art is cool—and Obama street art represents the first time that a presidential candidate has been knighted by an underground/cool community. That could, and maybe must, go a long way in the general election.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTYBdibFKj4

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Posted in obama, politics

5 Responses to “Why Obama Street Art Matters”

1. paul said:
   

   May 13th, 2008 at 6:48 pm

   I’m fairly certain that I resent that

2. Cobra said:
   

   May 13th, 2008 at 10:20 pm

   Are you hesitant because you are not sure if yours is one of the best minds of our generation?

3. paul said:
   

   May 14th, 2008 at 10:49 am

   I’m hesitant to agree that knocking things down is not as useful as building…nor do I agree that us self-righteous vain assholes do not build. It took the boomer generation a lifetime to destroy a system that was built by their parents…rebuilding what they have destroyed will take some time, but we’re on it.

4. Cobra said:
   

   May 14th, 2008 at 11:35 am

   Really? How are we on it? What have we built? In fact, I don’t think we have even knocked anything of substance down. As the deterioration of our country and world has snowballed, we have done little more than sit on our collective asses and snicker at Bush’s malapropisms. We vote, maybe put a bumper sticker on our ride, send links to each other. Its almost incestuous. We don’t expose ourselves in the way that we would have to in order to actually change things. It appears that the very forces that we ridicule have conditioned us to do nothing more than ridicule them. We are not going to destroy the system–much less build a new one–by having a conversation (as well-informed and clever as it may be) with ourselves.

5. paul said:
   

   May 15th, 2008 at 10:42 am

   for starters we’ve begun to build a dominant progressive voting bloc fueled by our sitting around on our collective asses and bitching. the conversations are the starting point - they are developing a sense of community across traditional community lines and promoting a sense of civic duty and responsibility. our conversations are also much less incestuous than you imply as the vast majority of our type that I speak with have an uncanny ability to speak with and understand others in instances where the political geriatrics simply look to their party chairperson for how to view something.

   we are destroying a complacency and building a lively democracy, something that has been missing in this nation for a long time - and while it may not look like bombs going off in the pentagon, it is still an incredibly powerful force…and I believe that we are beginning to see just how powerful it can and will be.

   although some have determined it may be better to build an arsenal - I’m giving it a cycle or two before I get that far.

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