Art and Action

I've been listening to Linkin Park's new cd incessantly since I got it. Yes, I'm a huge Linkin Park fan; yes, you can point and laugh if you REALLY must.

They have several songs about recent events, from a particularly poignant one about Hurricane Katrina (all you've ever wanted / was someone to truly look up to you / and six feet underwater / i do) to several which seem to talk about responsibility, war, and people who send other people to die (i had hope / i believed / but i'm beginning to think that i've been decieved / you will pay for what you've done).

My favorite is still the radio played one, which is unusual for me, with a close second angry-depression song (i bleed it out / digging deeper just to throw it away). I like all of the songs, though, which is fairly standard for me and Linkin Park. The different lyricists speak to me, and their songs often become quite meaningful to me as time passes (while i've cleaned this slate / with the hands / of uncertainty).

I know nothing about the band members personally outside of their music. I tend to not approach musicians out of that context (this is true for me and most artists); art is a crystallization of a single moment and point of view that can't be matched by any individual human (nor should it). So I don't know if these songs are met by any private work, either to help survivors of the Katrina disaster or in protest of the military altercation (Congress never declared war, my friends; only they can) in Iraq that is meeting ever greater protest or in continued work to support the people in Afganistan who we have left in dire straights because we suck (we meaning the USA, which includes me because I am a member of the USA).

So in this contexts of ignorance - is art a political/social action?

Is a song enough?

In the context of Belle's recent post about creaitng new myths, is music a method?

Are words, reminders, notes sufficient?

If not, what then?

Friend's Conference on Religion and Psychology, Annville, 2007

I put it on LJ for various, very good reasons. Feel free to comment here, though.

It was a good conference.