Here is an excerpt of a piece by George Saunders (also on Substack)... which relates to issues raised in Gabriel's probing essay.
(I should point out, I am posting this WITHOUT MR. SAUNDERS'S KNOWLEDGE OR PERMISSION)
(excerpt re: the moral conundrum of the 2024 election)
So, as you may know, we recently had an election here in the good old United States, and it certainly didn’t go the way I wanted to or expected it to.
I want to say a little bit about this....
I am, above all else, an artist. As an artist, I am trying to be interested in what has just happened. I am trying to maintain two ideas at once: 1) Most people who voted for Trump are nice people. (I know this because many close friends and family members voted for him and, well, more than half of voters did), and 2) Our democracy really may be in peril. Trump has repeatedly said things to indicate this and people who worked closely with him the first time have said this.
So, what I’m trying to figure out is: how do the people who voted for Trump, some of whom I love, not see what I see in him? And, also, importantly: what am I not seeing, about the way the world looks to them? I'm not saying that the way they see it is right – I feel very strongly otherwise - but I am saying, or accepting that, yes, it really does look that way to them.
If I don’t understand it, that’s on me (as a thinker, as a writer). (If trees suddenly started walking around, I’d want to understand that, once the shock died down. Because, you know…it’s interesting. And that’s my job, to be curious about things that happen.)
Somehow, strangely, this is going to be easier for me because the election was free and fair and because the Trump side won decisively.
I’m not sure why this is true, but it is.
For those of you who voted for Trump, I’d just say, in the most loving way: Friends, you’re on the hook.
It's your movement now.
It's on us too, of course, on those of us who were and are against what he stands for – but you have a special role in whatever happens next. No excuses: he made it very clear what he intended, and you gave him a mandate to do it.
So, when and if the rounding up of undocumented immigrants begins, and it’s brutal, that’s on you. When and if he comes for those “enemies from within,” that’s on you. When and if people on the periphery (gay people, trans people) suffer, when the economy tanks, because tariffs are a terrible idea, when we jettison even our currently ineffective attempts to reverse climate change, when women’s reproductive healthcare continues to degrade…well, I’m sorry to say so, but you voted for all of that.
Gabe’s essays are always beautiful and provocative - same as his musical compositions. But this one, about how artists should respond to our fucked-up times, really rang true for me today.
Once again, Gabriel, an insightful (and incite-ful) essay. In my 40+ years of enabling artists and building cultural communities here and abroad (e.g, the National Performance Network), I have come back repeatedly to the spectrum that we all in inhabit between a culture of expectation and a culture of curiosity. Artists are no less prone to these paired and competing forces, and the choices we inevitably face in both ideology and action/activism. Thanks for spurring my thinking once again.
BTW, am I a paid subscriber? I think I am, but if not, I’m ready to join.
I LOVED "February House" when it played New Haven, as well as our interview at the diner near Long Wharf. I hope it gets revived though the cast was especially splendid for that run
Thank you for this important and thought-provoking post, Gabriel. I always find your words help bring me back to why I create, when thoughts of irrelevance and insignificance can so easily take hold. ‘Resignation is not an option’ is a mantra for these times.
Once I realized - earlier today, in fact! - that my upcoming visit to Chicago happens to coincide with the run on February House, I snagged a ticket to the closing performance. -And since it is taking place on Northwestern's campus, I'll also have the opportunity to catch up with some former students.
Love this, having so many of these discussions at the moment - I saw a ballet last night which made me absolutely weep with how much beauty is possible. But with that beauty is pain, sacrifice... and it was set to Shostakovich 11 so. Ya.
In many conversations that I have with people in everyday life, cost/money comes up. This is another place that love really shines: it's free. To be humble and curious, to love broadly and deeply, to commit to non-violence and respect ... no charge.
I had the privilege of studying with Peter Pears after having performed many of the songs written for him by his partner, Benjamin Britten. The Sonnets of John Donne were written after their visit to the concentration camps just after the close of the war. Their profound witness, though not explicit, sustain me still in times like these as they did in the past.
Here is an excerpt of a piece by George Saunders (also on Substack)... which relates to issues raised in Gabriel's probing essay.
(I should point out, I am posting this WITHOUT MR. SAUNDERS'S KNOWLEDGE OR PERMISSION)
(excerpt re: the moral conundrum of the 2024 election)
So, as you may know, we recently had an election here in the good old United States, and it certainly didn’t go the way I wanted to or expected it to.
I want to say a little bit about this....
I am, above all else, an artist. As an artist, I am trying to be interested in what has just happened. I am trying to maintain two ideas at once: 1) Most people who voted for Trump are nice people. (I know this because many close friends and family members voted for him and, well, more than half of voters did), and 2) Our democracy really may be in peril. Trump has repeatedly said things to indicate this and people who worked closely with him the first time have said this.
So, what I’m trying to figure out is: how do the people who voted for Trump, some of whom I love, not see what I see in him? And, also, importantly: what am I not seeing, about the way the world looks to them? I'm not saying that the way they see it is right – I feel very strongly otherwise - but I am saying, or accepting that, yes, it really does look that way to them.
If I don’t understand it, that’s on me (as a thinker, as a writer). (If trees suddenly started walking around, I’d want to understand that, once the shock died down. Because, you know…it’s interesting. And that’s my job, to be curious about things that happen.)
Somehow, strangely, this is going to be easier for me because the election was free and fair and because the Trump side won decisively.
I’m not sure why this is true, but it is.
For those of you who voted for Trump, I’d just say, in the most loving way: Friends, you’re on the hook.
It's your movement now.
It's on us too, of course, on those of us who were and are against what he stands for – but you have a special role in whatever happens next. No excuses: he made it very clear what he intended, and you gave him a mandate to do it.
So, when and if the rounding up of undocumented immigrants begins, and it’s brutal, that’s on you. When and if he comes for those “enemies from within,” that’s on you. When and if people on the periphery (gay people, trans people) suffer, when the economy tanks, because tariffs are a terrible idea, when we jettison even our currently ineffective attempts to reverse climate change, when women’s reproductive healthcare continues to degrade…well, I’m sorry to say so, but you voted for all of that.
You did.
Gabe’s essays are always beautiful and provocative - same as his musical compositions. But this one, about how artists should respond to our fucked-up times, really rang true for me today.
Once again, Gabriel, an insightful (and incite-ful) essay. In my 40+ years of enabling artists and building cultural communities here and abroad (e.g, the National Performance Network), I have come back repeatedly to the spectrum that we all in inhabit between a culture of expectation and a culture of curiosity. Artists are no less prone to these paired and competing forces, and the choices we inevitably face in both ideology and action/activism. Thanks for spurring my thinking once again.
BTW, am I a paid subscriber? I think I am, but if not, I’m ready to join.
Thank you, David! And yes, you are a paid subscriber, for which I am immensely grateful!!
I LOVED "February House" when it played New Haven, as well as our interview at the diner near Long Wharf. I hope it gets revived though the cast was especially splendid for that run
What a wonderful piece, in the true spirit of the essay.
Thank you for this important and thought-provoking post, Gabriel. I always find your words help bring me back to why I create, when thoughts of irrelevance and insignificance can so easily take hold. ‘Resignation is not an option’ is a mantra for these times.
Once I realized - earlier today, in fact! - that my upcoming visit to Chicago happens to coincide with the run on February House, I snagged a ticket to the closing performance. -And since it is taking place on Northwestern's campus, I'll also have the opportunity to catch up with some former students.
Love this, having so many of these discussions at the moment - I saw a ballet last night which made me absolutely weep with how much beauty is possible. But with that beauty is pain, sacrifice... and it was set to Shostakovich 11 so. Ya.
In many conversations that I have with people in everyday life, cost/money comes up. This is another place that love really shines: it's free. To be humble and curious, to love broadly and deeply, to commit to non-violence and respect ... no charge.
I had the privilege of studying with Peter Pears after having performed many of the songs written for him by his partner, Benjamin Britten. The Sonnets of John Donne were written after their visit to the concentration camps just after the close of the war. Their profound witness, though not explicit, sustain me still in times like these as they did in the past.
Thank you for this essay. I always find some solace in your words.