Tony Owen – An Anthem for These Times?

Talking the other day after dinner we wondered why there were no new musical anthems. Songs that would inspire us and make us feel there was a universal purpose to the collective oppression many of us feel right now. We wondered where the likes of Woody Guthrie’s “This Land is Your Land,” or Bob Dylan’s “Blowin’ in the Wind” were, and of course Joan Baez singing “We Shall Overcome.” Those songs found their place at countless civil rights rallies in the ‘60s. They caused crowds to hold hands, lock arms, and sing with one voice, with the distinct purpose of letting the political establishment know there was a force behind those words, a force looking for change.

Here in the present, there is a quiet on that front. No real anthem is being sung to bring us together. Young musicians struggle to survive, they put their best foot forward on platforms like Instagram, Spotify, Deezer, etc. We click and move on, all is background, so very much becomes so very little. If there is to be a musical anthem, one to tap into our collective consciousness and cause us to lock arms and sing our hearts out . . . now is the time.

Like so many people my age (in my seventies) we find it easy to put blame on the Internet for creating all these modern problems that we saw coming long ago. You most likely heard people say, “No one listens anymore, because people’s attention span is that of a gnat.” No, it’s not the Internet with all its clicking, or the cell phone in our hands. I put it down to a consumptive overload of too much information. The result: a collective malaise. A feeling of informed helplessness. I wonder if there is an antidote? Will someone stand up and shout, “Enough, let’s get together, and here’s a way forward, people.”

Printed in a UMVA newsletter dated September/October 1989, a manifesto titled “A Declaration of Cultural Human Rights” appeared. It looks at how we can move forward peacefully in this world by respecting the cultural rights of all people. It sees cultural human rights as the idea that we the people have a need to express ourselves as individuals, who are not governed by “cultural chauvinism”:

Cultural Chauvinism is a hallmark of the dominant culture. It supports and promotes expression that reflects the values and tastes of those who have dominated urban European-American life and culture. It limits or misrepresents the multicultural expression of other peoples, including those of the working classes and the poor, people of the Third World, people of color . . .

In other words, the dominant culture ignores and overshadows those who can offer ideas equally important if given the chance to participate in the creation of their own cultural identity.

“A Declaration of Cultural Human Rights” was penned sometime in the 1980s; one of its authors was Arlene Goldbard,* who defined culture simply as: “Subtract nature and everything left is culture.” Culture becomes many things to many people; it exists in the everyday right before our eyes; it is our responsibility to recognize it. Perhaps the fractured times we live in need the kind of ideas that this document lays out: those ideas are universal needs that make us human. Culture defines us all.

The current times we are living in suggest a world that has broken and a society that can’t trust itself to make rational decisions. A society that looks at each other, only to question their rights. There is a need to better understand each other through the cultures we represent. If we ignore this basic right we run the risk of losing so very much of ourselves. Yet, every now and then the dominant parties lead us to a reckoning of our own making, and we, as a global community of cultures, suffer the consequences. From “A Declaration of Cultural Human Rights”:

The suppression or destruction of cultural expression—like the violation of the natural, economic, social, or political rights of any community—upsets the delicate balance between people and place and can push a culture toward extinction.

We all know too well what that extinction can look like. “A Declaration of Cultural Human Rights” was considered a living document when first conceived; its authors openly admitted: “It’s a huge job, but we have to start somewhere. Criticism, commentary, and contributions are not only welcome, but necessary for its completion.” Perhaps we can find that path again and look at cultural democracy as a reasonable form of communication and understanding. What do we have to lose?

With the establishment of cultural democracy, we can truly contemplate the possibility of a world free of violence, contempt, and fear.

I can still hear those protest anthems from the ‘60s; they brought people together because they tapped into the basic needs of what people were missing in their lives. I’m hoping that some bright musical spark in this world will do the same thing again and write that anthem that defines us and the times we live in.

 

 

All the Best, From the West (of Ireland)

*Contributors to “A Declaration for Cultural Human Rights” included Lucy Lippard, Don Adams, and Arlene Goldbard. Also included was commentary by Bernie Jones, from an original draft by Mark Miller and Maryo Ewell.