Are you doing enough?

I know that’s a hell of question to put to people right now. When every day delivers an event that would have once defined a whole year, when you ask your friend if they heard the terrible news and they have to get you to clarify which particular story you mean as there are a such litany to pick from.

State senators are shot and half the nation barely blinks, whole countries form a crime from the utterance of sentences, medical conditions are used as cause for discrimination in a scapegoat for votes, all whilst genocide plays out on multiple sides of the world…

Add all this to the myriad of individual challenges we face, and most would say they are in fact “doing enough” just by holding on and holding it together.

Now I don’t disagree with that. I don’t disagree with anyone’s need to rest, to escape, I appreciate the artists and art forms that allow us to do so (my steam library will tell you that). But, and it is a big one, the reality of what we are facing will leave no room for that if it comes to pass. There will be no escape left if we don’t act now. Fascists aren’t going to let art live free if they come to power.

Now as it currently stands this is a war of information and by proxy, and as artists you are uniquely positioned to produce the most effective weapons in that war. I know you want to use your art as mediation, I know you want to give people refuge within your frames and portals to peace within your paintings, you want to tell jokes, or reminisce through nostalgia. But right now we are overstocked on those goods, everyone is wrapped up in bolt holes built of memes and memory. We do not need any more of them.

We need 50 calibre concepts, we need knowledge to drop like napalm that refuses to be extinguished as it clings to the body of lies. We need sniper like short films, and machine gun like reposition reminders of the wrack and ruin that will come to pass if this terrible Lich is allowed to posses the corpse of once great nation.

A global flotilla of pixels set forth recently admiraled by @_pixellare

reminding us even the smallest bit of screen space matters. Thousands are being raised through the unapologetic work of those taking part in @ArtForHumanityx

artists giving what little they have today and risking ostracising tomorrow, all for others.

I’m not saying you have to give all you are and all you make to this, but you do have to give more of yourself than you are comfortable with, because fighting facism isn’t comfortable. It wasn’t comfortable on cable street, nor in the halls were Moseley spoke and protesters were beaten. It wasn’t comfortable for the lone man who stormed the stage in Madison Square garden when fascists gathered there and preached. Fighting is never comfortable. We should remember though that we are blessed that our fight happens behind a screen, that our injuries are carpal tunnel and bloodshot eyes, that we can mute the channel and pixelate the bloody cries when we need rest.

We are privileged to be in the position where we can still fight this, to have history on our side and all the canvases in the world at our fingertips.

We can do this, we will do this, but not if we hide in comfort and delusion. I know it’s a lot to deal with, but if you can just make one piece of work that helps hold back the tide, provide one torch of truth in amongst the darkening lies, that will be of such greater impact than another god damn Pokémon meme, and there’s good chance you’ll feel a damn site prouder of it to in the decades to come.