Philosophy

Cultural Workers

Last night, I attended the final performance of "An Empire Disguised as a Nation: A Call to Conscience," a two actor play written and performed by Dean J. Seal and Steve Anderson. The play tells the story of the United States as an empire, as ruling those who don't want to be ruled, from the 1840s to the recent venture in Iraq. The play is pretty much straight history lesson, enlivened with quotes, songs, pictures, maps, and the interplay between Seal's character, a progressive college professor, and Anderson's character, his cynical and pragmatic army "keeper," assigned to hold the lecture within the bounds of good taste and patriotism. It is a funny play that teaches a lot of history and that makes the simple and important point that history is interesting when it expresses a point of view and a direction for the future.

I mention this play because I want to pay tribute to the folks who do this kind of work: the actors, producers, volunteers, writers, stage crews who keep the small theatre scene alive throughout the country. They invest incredible amounts of time and talent and money to bring non-standard messages to people, showing up personally to talk about what's important to them. Their work keeps popular culture alive. In particular, plays like this keep the progressive movement in America alive, and the voice of that movement is one Americans need, to maintain modesty and perspective.

As army recruiters put pressure on fragile and clueless kids to enlist in unimaginable adventures, elementary fairness dictates that kids and their parents get to hear the story according to which America is usually wrong, has been pretty consistently wrong whenever it used military force against smaller and weaker countries. Before signing their lives away, kids need a chance to seriously consider the possibility that the enterprise will harm them and harm the world. Plays like "An Empire Disguised as a Nation" give them access to that perspective.