Grass Valley Report

The Christian right and the Republican party are acting with the authority of a pope in the middle ages. Along with Ariel Sharon (remember Ariel is the name of an archangel) they are redrawing the lines of demarcation of the world. The only problem here is that the Christian Right has about the same knowledge of geography as a medeival pope. Please remember that Portuguese explorers had navigated 3/5's of the known world and the writings of their discoveries in Asia were banished by the Church as heresies. Some very important information about Western History was just removed (deleted) by archival zealots of that time.

I would call this a graphic example of one of the problems encountered when governance sees a merging of church and state. Divinity is no assurance of competency.

I am reading the New York Times coverage of the Green Convention and I sense a familiarity with the dicing of previous platforms by would be 'sage' journalists, familiar with the court rhetoric of the bicameral system we call Democracy. The Green Party's issues are being met by the vested interests of mainstream media and the same resistance to change forms the reactions of the fine art community to digital art. We (us digital artists-[click the art of Thomas Vorce]) like to say it is the same kind of resistance that painters had for photography. Digital art is undeniably stunning, intellectually challenging and the medium’s qualitative breakthroughs propound geometrically. The critics who place a value on art wish that gyclee would just, go away. This breakthrough of ingenuity and enterprise like many of the Green's party's platforms is not going to be bonafied (it's interesting, Microsoft Word's spell check does not include this word) by words in Vogue. The Greens are not going to be embraced like EST because it takes too much integrity, sacrifice and dedication to get the message in one session. Yesterday’s liberals are today’s conservatives and you have an audience that likes to play craps with loaded dice. Gambler’s odds say there is no instant replay for good intentions. We like to think history will reveal success and point out errors but we know that no one pays any attention or we wouldn't keep making the same mistakes. And power knows that it is very easy to pay public relations firms to invent biases that will make profit and benevolence synonymous . It’s like shooting peas in an ashcan; most Americans don't even know what went on in recent history let alone the distant past. Perhaps Michael Moore's film Fahrenheit 911 will help to change all that.

As I collect my understandings I see this merging of digital fine art, the Internet and political honesty as the most promising occurrence I have ever witnessed. Protest in the sixties against life's inequities stopped the moment the Viet Nam war was over. In a very short period of time the old conventions of greed and single mindedness returned with a vengeance. Call it prosperity but one has to ask “What's the prize?” A lot of people grew to adulthood with no acquired tastes but claimed to be seeking the "better life." Yes there was a passion for money and often a thing was deemed valuable by how much it cost. Successful types frequently acquired art that they despised so they could drop the artist’s name and knock their prestige up a notch. Art is about discovery and digital art is too democratic for beaux arte exclusivity. After all it’s not millions any more. When you can become a billionaire you have to demonstrate baronial wealth. In this world art has become associated with convention imitation and cosmetic charity not passion or the joy of one’s good fortune in the discovery of authenticity.

Our ideal politic is about honest commitment to the Bill of Rights and the Constitution. When the method to achieve these principles becomes polluted, it's time for a reevaluation of the state of our affairs. I’m heartened to see that the Greens are rising to the occasion by providing a place for courage and conviction to withstand the strip malling of America, the cabal of special interests and the collapse of good will in public service.

Hats off to the objectivity the Greens are bringing to this madness. May we come to that place where we see each other’s energies as necessary and contingent for the well being of us all and merge this unnecessary “gap” between truth and beauty that placed us, unwittingly, in this horrid mess that threatens to undermine everything we have historically stood for.

Each day the real news gets more and more depressing. All the hopes and aspirations of an enlightened populace (that we call a democracy) folds into deep governmental complicities of intolerable crimes against humanity. All this deceit has been accomplished under the marquee of “freedom.”

Anyone with the sensitivity to object is classified as a liberal, communist, loser, wimp. And besides that they are “unpatriotic.” Ecology is equated with the golf course: advice and consent is the secret handshake, and defamation of character takes the place of true discourse. It's all in the deal, it's all in the points. What else can you expect from an educational system driven by the lottery?

The power to destroy the world is now vested in the hands of an Elmer Gantry presidency and the oval office might as well be a tent show rivival. For those who marginalize freedom of insight there is always "rapture" which is embraced with the same fervor as retirees who sought out paradise in Florida sixty years ago. Meanwhile, "George the Lesser" is meant to be lionized with the death of his mentor who massacred hundreds of thousands of innocent people so Coca Cola could triumph over what was left of national sovereignty. (Have any of you noticed that Coke and Pepsi are allowed to vend their products in high schools without faculty objections?) Television evangelists are consultants for those who seek revenge on literacy with the wisdom of fundamentalism and xenophobia. How can we have any foreign policy when our leaders and our people don’t even know where the countries are that are being vanquished in the name of liberty?

I was raised to believe that Hitler was evil and America was good for stopping him. Now America pays public relation companies to justify Hitleresque activities by investing storm troopers with names like “freedom fighters.” It’s enough to make anyone with a sophomoric education gag at the license taking place. But our leaders don’t seem to care and they continue to use heavy weight dialogue from sports, like finding weapons of mass destruction in Iraq is a “slam dunk.”

When England had the Common Wealth the Foreign Service was a dignified calling. Now with consultants looking to fatten their fees, you can kiss statesmanship goodbye. After all we can always carpet bomb our way to the bargaining table and that’s a lot more effective and faster then diplomacy.