The importance of being artist

Ricardo Levins Morales

The question is," said Alice, Whether you can make words mean so many different things."

"The question is, which is to be Master," said Humpty Dumpty, smugly explaining to Alice the power
of language: He or she who controls the meaning of words—and therefore people's understanding—
wields the power of control far more. Human consciousness is given shape by images, rhythms,
sounds, words: the tools of the artist. The significance of this fact is obscured to us artists by the
elitist myths—at once disparaging and exalting—that surround art. The potential power of art as a
force for change has long been known to censors and dictators. It is a potential that can be fulfilled
once we rediscover and proclaim the rightful and natural place of art and artists in the life of our
people.

The battle over meaning is everywhere reflected in billboards, radios, newspapers, workplace rules,
video stores, zoning ordinances, television, and spray-painted walls. These public spaces are the
arena in which society speaks to itself. They are shaped by and in turn help shape who we think we
are. Whoever controls these spaces has tremendous power over the meaning of language—and the
imagery of thought. The battle plans are hammered out in journals of the advertising industry, the
inner circles of political campaigns, and CIA headquarters. They are also shaped in union halls,
community theater meetings, and church social action committees.

This decade has seen the growth of networks of activists who explicitly look to culture and human
consciousness as the terrain upon which struggles for social change ultimately take place. Many of
those who accept that premise describe themselves as "cultural workers." Cultural workers
encompass teachers, organizers, artists, publishers, distributors of cultural goods, radio producers,
concert promoters, and many more. They are those whose work is intended to affect the ways in
which people understand themselves and their world.

... The nature of art as flowing from the emotional, symbolic, "right brain" side of experience makes
it inherently subversive. The more a society has to hide, the greater control it must exercise in order
to keep artists from doing what comes naturally: exposing its most private dreams to the light of the
sun.

We artists have no special answers unavailable to other people. What we have is work that's
intricately entangled in our people's dreams, hopes, and self-images. Like it or not we are part of
society's process of dreaming, thinking, and speaking to itself, reflecting on our past and finding new
ways forward. Our greatest challenge is to accept that what we do with our work and our lives is
exactly as important as we believe our people and their world to be.