Art is wild and unruly. It defies political proclamation, it does not respect authority, and it refuses subjugation. Once released into the world, it cannot be contained or legislated away.
Republished with permission from John Pavlovitz
This week, Bruce Springsteen took the stage in Manchester, England to begin his European tour, standing alone, silhouetted in white spotlights.
And as he has done thousands of times over the past half-century and change, he delivered the sermon of a denim-clad prophet of moral clarity:
The mighty E Street Band is here tonight to call upon the righteous power of art, of music, of rock ’n’ roll in dangerous times. In my home, the America I love, the America I’ve written about, that has been a beacon of hope and liberty for 250 years, is currently in the hands of a corrupt, incompetent, and treasonous administration.
Springsteen then implored the crowd to “raise your voices against authoritarianism and let freedom ring!” before introducing his song Land of Hope and Dreams.
The story the global media has run with since that moment has been Trump’s asinine, rambling, desperate social media response, one that fully illustrates how onion-skin his ego is and how incapable of self-control he is. That Trump’s nonsensical and threatening diatribe perfectly validates Springsteen’s warning is indeed important to remind the world of.
And yes, it’s also worth mentioning the wholesale meltdown of millions of alleged MAGA fans of The Boss, whose shouts of boycotts and bans underscores their complete cultic fervor to Trump—while loudly declaring they haven’t paid attention to anything Bruce Springsteen has said, done, or sung for the past 60 years.
But the real story here is the reminder that in times like these, it will not be the politicians or the priests that save us, it will be the poets and the painters.
There’s a reason Trump and his Administration are trying to financially cripple PBS and NPR, why they have infiltrated the Kennedy Center For the Performing Arts, why they’ve declared war on our libraries and museums, why they’re slashing funding for art, music, and theatre programs to young people:
Fascists are terrified of artists.
Creativity has always been one of the most powerful weapons against authoritarianism, against injustice, against dehumanization. Art is wild and unruly. It defies political proclamation, it does not respect authority, and it refuses subjugation.
Once released into the world, it cannot be contained or legislated away.
From the sustaining songs of Black people kidnapped and forced to build the scaffolding of this nation hundreds of years ago, to the clarion calls for justice in the ‘60s folk movement, to the Black Arts Movement, to the Chicano Mural Movement, to the LGBTQ+ Arts movements in the face of the AIDS crisis, to the Hip Hop movements, to Black Lives Matter, to this present Resistance movement—the hands and voices and bodies of artists have confronted injustice, awakened the souls of humanity, and fortified the fighters.
Right now, as much as we need to push back against legislation and rally against corruption work in the political arena, we need to create. We need the plays and the songs and the murals and prophetic words that help us imagine a place better than this one. We need beauty and melody and drama and dissonance.
Critical thinking is itself a creative act that we cannot endure such days without.
Famously etched into the guitar of folk songwriter Woody Guthrie, one of Springsteen’s earliest heroes, were the words THIS MACHINE KILLS FASCISTS, and seeing him speak truth to power is a reminder how true those words are.
The song that Springsteen launched into in Manchester, called Land of Hope and Dreams, paints a word picture of the journey to a place where equity and justice, and liberty are reached, where our destinies are tethered together:
This train carries saints and sinners
This train carries losers and winners
This train carries whores and gamblers
This train carries lost souls
I said, this train, dreams will not be thwarted
This train, faith will be rewarded
This train, hear the steel wheels singin’
This train, bells of freedom ringin’
May we stay connected to our muses, to our humanity, and one another.
May we in America arrive at that glorious place one day, and may the artists lead the way.
Learn about art and social change:
John Pavlovitz is a writer, pastor, and activist from Wake Forest, North Carolina. A 25-year veteran in the trenches of local church ministry, John is committed to equality, diversity, and justice—both inside and outside faith communities. When not actively working for a more compassionate planet, John enjoys spending time with his family, exercising, cooking, and having time in nature. He is the author of A Bigger Table, Hope and Other Superpowers, Low, and Stuff That Needs to Be Said.
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