limelightmagazine.com.au: Bob Dylan’s words from 1963 could have been written today. The answer is figuratively blowing in the wind, as dozens of people are dying each week due to a pandemic that is spread through the air.
Like many artists, Bob Dylan spoke out about injustices throughout his career. What can we, as artists, do to bring attention to the suffering of those who cannot protect themselves from COVID? Are we missing-in-action? Have we abandoned a society that has failed to support us, when artists have been suffering themselves?
5 comments:
To be honest I have a feeling that there is sort of a renaissance coming after this pandemic, because we don’t know if there will ever truly be an after. Like after all this, can we really truly go back to normal, or is the only option that we have moving forward. And while I don’t know what this will look like I know that Broadway in the winter pretty much adopted this model where it was like they try to return everything back to normal, but framed it as moving forward. But I think there’s a key difference between moving forward and going back to normal. Which I think is the reason why Broadway is struggling so much, because we can’t just do things the way we’ve always done after such a monumental shift in culture, climate, and history. So I think the key to saving Broadway and I guess the entertainment industry as a whole, is figuring out how we can do something new and something different by taking advantage of how new and different everything is during this time.
I’m gonna be honest, this article is very patronizing and self-important to me. The quote “absence of leadership at all levels of government, who promotes inaction as the new COVID normal”. This is such a weird thing to complain about with respect to governments’ response to COVID. Saying it’s bad to take care of oneself when the government is doing little to nothing to help vulnerable populations is very individualist and odd in the face of a very collective problem. I think that art is great for inspiring emotions and calling people to action for a cause, but the way this author postures it implies that artists would be doing a great, tangible social change that no other person can. This individualistic idea of “saving the world’ with your art is not only stupid but also implies that humans have complete control over the spread of a surprise virus that ended up shutting the world down. I’m amazed that this author said many things in regard to marginalized groups affected by COVID and never acknowledged the class and race aspect of COVID spread. This just felt like a hollow attempt at making one seem cooler than they are.
I do believe that art can be a significant source of hope and inspiration for people going through difficult times. This article focuses specifically on Australian citizens, who had very restrictive COVID protocol and now apparently are in a much more relaxed posture while people are still concerned about the pandemic & testing positive. I’m coming from an American perspective and as someone who spent the pandemic in a very lax area regarding COVID restrictions, I do understand that apathy that forms when you feel powerless against a large population of people who seem unconcerned that they may get you and your loved ones sick. While art does have the ability to make us feel more connected as people, that can be difficult to do when large groups of people can’t gather. I do think television and film will be very important for making people feel interconnected and inspired to overcome apathy.
I love the phrase “COVID apathy”. I think we can all most definitely resonate with (at least to some extent). The first wave of COVID-19, as exhausting as it is to continue talking about it, let us all be fatigued, uninspired, and quite frankly, drained. The post-COVID dilemma has become not how do I find motivation? But rather where did the motivation come from in the first place? How was it that I was able to do this and much more just two years ago? The responsibility to reinvigorate us must then fall on someone. Said someone, from the perspective of Michael Sollis (author of the article) should be the artist. Drawing parallels to Bob Dylan’s 1963 hit Blowin’ in the Wind. In times of desperation, it is the artist who must provide leadership– shining on and inspiring others to continue. A task seemingly innocent, placing an unfair burden upon artists, especially when artists themselves suffer from the same apathy.
I think even though this article is made for an australian audience it applies and reaches an american audience as well. I think americans have spent most of their pandemic with very relaxed restrictions and relatively little covid protocol especially since the the american public gets antsy when asked to change their lifestyle. I think the responsibility to promote public health and well being should be on anyone with a position of power and influence something that Bob Dylan had at that time. I am not sure all artists should hold the responsibility of promoting such an idea though as many use art as an escape and release but also artists are not the most influential people within our society right now. I believe the government can do more to promote better public health and artists should do their part to maintain within guidelines but the burden should not be put onto artists.
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