Usually in this space, I deliver some theater news and tongue-in-cheek theater gossip and generally have a good time. That won't do this week. I've been thinking very little about theater and a great deal about Tuesday, Sept. 11. Like everyone else, I have been shell-shocked and angry, sad and confused. And something else: I've been overwhelmed by the insignificance and unimportance of what I do as a theater critic and arts reporter.
Hell, theatre and the arts themselves seem so very unimportant, so superficial, and far too frivolous for the immediate time. Even the most profound works of art...Mozart's "Requiem," Sophocles' "Oedipus Rex," Picasso's "Guernica," Coltrane's "A Love Supreme," Shakespeare's "King Lear"...seem hopelessly trivial compared to the geo-political cataclysms unleashed through the profound hatreds which our smaller, faster and more crowded planet encourages to fester.
But then, I realized that I've never yet heard of a terrorist-poet, or a dictator-philosopher, or a merciful fanatic. And I knew that the arts DO make a difference.
There have been men and women of artistic ability who have been born or elevated to power...Marcus Aurelius, Frederick the Great, Vaclav Havel come to mind...but I know of none such among those who seize power for its own sake, or who willfully inflict terror upon others, or who impose thought police upon a community or a country. Such usurpers occupy a dark nether world of the mind and soul that apologists may call free will, but which most of us call evil.
Far too often terrorists justify themselves in the name of a spiritual force. In so doing, they distort the world's great theologies. Such distortions are equal-opportunity perversions. There is little difference between what the Ku Klux Klan and the not-very-reverend Fred Phelps have done in the name of Christ Jesus, and what Osama Bin-Laden has done in the name of Allah. In the Hindu pantheon, the God of Destruction is balanced by life-affirming gods such as Ganesha and Vishnu. But men and women motivated by hatred neither inhabit, nor aspire to, a balanced pantheon. Their intent is to tear apart, to rend, to sully, to slash and burn, to inflict horror. Terrorists may have a cause, but rarely a positive agenda in the form of plans for an improved society, or an appeal to the highest ideals of humanity. Their "corporate culture" is negative, introspective and narrow; a culture of cruelty and control. And it's a culture without art, for art embraces true spirituality.
The arts are one of the defining factors of civilization. The arts DO appeal to the highest ideals of humanity. The arts are the antidote for the world's spiritual poisons, and irrigation for our cultural deserts. They work slowly and painstakingly to be sure, one-on-one or in small groups; for the business of teaching, of inspiring, of opening minds is extremely labor-intensive. But the arts endure, which is why civilizations are remembered for the culture they leave behind, not for wars won, damage inflicted, or for political and military leaders.
The study of languages, music, architecture, the plastic arts, dance, film, theater, design make it much harder to be blinded by prejudice and hatred, for almost by definition, the arts are liberal, inclusive and pluralistic. They are the diametric opposite of the culturally narrow, religiously misguided and/or politically totalitarian forces of terror and repression. In the Free World we celebrate our diversity through the arts. We are a polyglot society and we pride ourselves on our polyglottedness. Terrorist organizations are homogenous and secretive, closed cells or societies. In Afghanistan, the Taliban government has destroyed the nation's artistic and cultural treasurers, despite world outcry. In the Balkans, a decade of tribal warfare and ethnic cleansing has destroyed scores of the most inspiring works of art and most important architectural monuments in the region. Wherever you find terror and repression, you will find the arts under fire.
When you think about it, beyond physical deterrence, we have only the mind with which to stop terror and persuade the terrorist. Terror begins, after all, with a rejection of universal social values that most of us hold dear. Those things which establish and extend such values...the arts among them...are weapons against terrorism. That is why tyrannical leaders and conservative forces ALWAYS have tried to control or suppress the arts, including forces in our own nation in the immediate past.
Without the arts, a society or a cell may teach the brightest of its students only the technology of terrorism. Without the arts, children may be educated much more quickly and easily to accept hatreds, prejudice and virulent stereotype as customary attitude. Without the arts, the cynical leaders of terror...who never put their own lives at risk and only rarely show their faces...can warp the passions and devotion of young men and women into suicidal sacrifices in the name of false gods and personal glory.
Terror fears freedom of thought and expression. Terror fears the exultation of the spirit. Terror fears the fresh winds of creativity and originality. Terror fears the pleasures of laughter and catharsis. Terror fears the strength of a people who will not be terrorized, and no community knows that better than the post-Stonewall generation of proud GLBT men and women.
I love the things that terror fears. I love the bravery of the arts and the courage of the artists, through all ages and civilizations. That is why the arts are important, and why my work is, too, in its own small way. Perhaps I will change my mind when I am inspired by the poetry of a terrorist, or the philosophy of a dictator, or the mercy of a fanatic.