[From Back in the Day] All Art is Political
By Tani Freiwald
The following essay was originally written and performed for BUGHOUSE! in Las Vegas on October 28, 2019. The topic of debate was “Is All Art Political.” Tani went up against Scott Hertinstein. Tani was determined the winner by our judge.
You know the challenge in an all or nothing statement is that it only takes one exception and your whole argument can dissolve faster than a cardboard suit in the rain. I know there's the old “exception to the rule" clause but that just seems facile and lazy to me. So tonight I intend to prove categorically and without exception, that all art is political, because, as it turns out, everything is political: every relationship, every interpersonal interaction, every aspect of our daily lives and here’s how we know that.
Many, many, many, many years in the past. I’m talking two-and-a-half to three million years ago, an unexpected mutation appeared. Wait a minute, is that an oxymoron? Is there such a thing as an “expected” mutation? Some might argue that electing Trump to the Presidency was an expected mutation given the growing malaise, injustices, and tribalization of our country over the last thirty years, but we’ll save that for a later debate.
Anyway, about three million years ago, our ancestors, the apes, gave rise to a new species, Homo or man. As early man began spreading out into the world, different environments necessitated different forms of adaptation and a whole slew of different hominids began to populate the planet. There was Homo rudolfensis, Homo erectus, Homo neanderthalensis, Homo floresiensis, Homo denisova, Homo habilis, Homo sapiens. Homo, homo, homo, homo, I guess, in the end, we’re all gay.
But what’s really important about this evolution is that in the beginning, we were a pretty unremarkable species compared to the rest of the animal kingdom. We were smack dab in the middle of the food chain. We ate creatures less powerful than us and were eaten by creatures more powerful than us. Still the multi-Hominid world worked pretty well until, eventually all but one Homo had disappeared, (betcha Mike Pence would like the sound of that). Maybe eaten, maybe unable to adapt to hostile environments, and in some cases wiped out by other Hominids: remember Homo neanderthalis? Now, just a memory and the occasional bone fragment.
Yup, turns out bonobo bros preceded Bernie Bros by a few million years.
During this time, Hominids lived in small, predominantly family groups that operated just like those of our nearest ape relatives, the chimpanzees and bonobos do today. Their social structures are hierarchical with a single dominant leader. The alpha ape maintains, or tries to maintain social harmony. Interestingly we tend to think that when an Alpha is challenged two individuals engage in physical combat with loud, aggressive behavior resulting in the vanquished either retreating to a lower status within the troop, banished from the group altogether or in the worse case scenario, fatally injured.
Well, we would be wrong. The truth is when two individuals contest the alpha position, they usually do so by forming extensive coalitions of both male and female supporters. (Yup, turns out bonobo bros preceded Bernie Bros by a few million years.) Ties between supporters are based on intimate, daily contact like touching and hugging (hello Joe Biden) kissing, grooming, and mutual favors. Sound familiar? Alphas become leaders not so much because of physical prowess as their ability to lead a large and strong coalition. In other words, a process by which power is achieved, maintained and used to determine who gets to make the rules that will effect every aspect of everybody else's lives. Also known as Politics.
But there's one limitation to this otherwise successful system of group dynamics. It is totally reliant on trust. A trust that can only be established in groups where all the members know each other intimately. So as groups get larger the social order destabilizes, ruptures and a new group is formed. When you think about it, it makes sense. After all, just fifty individuals generate 1,225 one-on-one relationships and countless interactions in other combinations.
So, if group dynamics and power relationships ie politics seems only effective in small groups, how did Homo sapiens manage to rise from inconsequential, middle of the food chain fodder to the conquers (and ultimately) destroyers of the planet? I’m glad you asked, ‘cause here’s where the art part comes in…
About 150,000 years ago there occurred another unexpected mutation that today we call the Cognitive Revolution, and it would be followed in rapid succession (well, rapid in evolutionary terms) by the Agricultural Revolution about 70,000 years ago and the Scientific Revolution a skant 500 years ago.
It is Art that was integral to history's two great cultural manifestations, religion and commerce.
One of the consequences of this cognitive leap was the development of language. Almost all animals communicate with vocalizations and calls but man is the only animal with a means of sharing information through a limited number of sounds and signs that can produce an almost unlimited amount of meanings and ideas. Nowhere is this unique human feature more evident than during my favorite part of infant development when syntax precedes words. You’ve really missed out if you’ve never had a deep philosophical conversation with a ten-month-old over the question of Trump's quid pro quo with Ukraine. And no, listening to republicans doesn’t count, even if it does sound remarkably like baby talk.
But where, might you ask, is Art in all this. Well, if the concept of Politics precedes everything, guess what, Art, informs everything that politics and language created because 70,000 years ago, Homo sapiens developed an ability no other animal possesses, the ability to imagine that what which can not be seen. In other words, Imagination. If there is a dividing line between art and imagination, I’m hard pressed to find it.
It is Art that was integral to history's two great cultural manifestations, religion and commerce. Neither of which would have been conceivable without trust. But now, trust was no longer dependent on intimate daily activities of small groups. Relationships with strangers thousands of miles away could be developed based on common beliefs in the myths of religion and commerce. Even today’s national identities and political affiliations are all based on shared trust generated by the mutual acceptance of ideas, not picking parasites off your cousin’s head. And those intangible human constructs could not have been created, nurtured, and spread across the globe without pictures, storytelling and music. In short Art.
We could never have come to dominate earth without art. But there would have been no art if the chimps and bonobos hadn't invented politics.