Defending Your Right to Creativity: You matter to Uncle Sam, and What to Do About That…

A comment from a small press publisher alerted me to a new, nationwide problem, faced by creatives of every kind in the US since Donald Trump got elected—that all artists, musicians, publishers, and other creatives who receive money from any federal sources—have to comply with new, draconian rules issued by the administration if they want to keep receiving federal funds. The publisher shared the terms: promote the administration’s idea of “Americanism,” no DEI emphasis in their work, comply with all executive orders, directives, and directions issued by the office of the president or his appointees, acceptance—if thought necessary—of a fed monitor of works produced by recipient(s) of fed money to ensure compliance with fed dicta, and, of course, not to publicly divulge the new direction or whether the target creative is affected by it. In short, if creatives want to get tax money, toe the fed line on demand, do nothing the fed may not approve of—or else—take direct oversight when the fed thinks it’s necessary, and shut up about it.

This is the kind of stuff the Soviet Union and Eastern Bloc nations, North Korea, Iran, and other states not known for freedom and democracy engage in. And it ought to cause anyone calling themselves American to recoil with disgust and outrage. Maybe some of us are disgusted and outraged, but after spending a good long while calling on and calling up most every local arts, cultural, and literary organization I could think of here and elsewhere, it became clear that every single one of the people employed in such organizations were quietly settling into the new groove demanded by the administration, and that not one single one of them were willing to publicly say or acknowledge their new stance on what Donald Trump has in store for them, or for audiences, either. The fed piper now calls the tune, or maybe what not to play or how not to play it.

Those who answered my questions did so only after making plain they were not to be quoted and their organizations were not to be named. But all are nonprofits and take significant funding from various state sources, some fed, and need that money to keep the lights on and bills paid. I don’t blame these people or organizations for clamming up to keep their jobs. But this odious threat, this culture of lockstep conformity to a vague, shifty new norm of what’s acceptable, with uniformed and perhaps armed interference to follow, is intended as a blow to every last soul with a breath of creativity in his or her body, and it illustrates just how important every last soul with creativity lurking in the loins really is, too.

Just like in the old Soviet Union, artists, musicians, and other creatives that were monitored and targeted by the state showed that those states were afraid of them—afraid of anyone who offered a dissenting view, a different perspective, a bit of humor at the states’ expense and a divergent line from the regimented, nationalist dogma. Artists, musicians, and other creatives are always the apostates, heretics, and blasphemers just by being who and what they are, and are more often than not judged for what they do after the fact by others seeking fame and fortune through exposing counter-revolutionary tendencies. Truth tellers often have it rough, and the Slav saying, “Tell the truth and run,” hints at how creative folk polish skills to make do when authoritarians come to town.

So, what to do about all that? Americans like to say they’re independent and the future will show the growth and longevity of those Creatives who stay away from taking government largess and keeping their own voices intact. That, of course, is a harder road to follow but no doubt a more honest one. Beyond that, musicians of every kind might find fame, if not necessarily fortune, in creating music that echoes the struggle of the times. The ’60s were defined by struggles everywhere in the US and much of the rest of the world, and music of most every kind shaped, reflected, channeled, and expanded those struggles and gave later generations perhaps the purest forms of that era’s distilled memory. That’s cultural power, the kind that repressive nations have to waste time, money, and vast energy to suppress and deflect. And that’s confirmation that Uncle Sam, now in a growing authoritarian mood, will only add to the fame and, more important, respect of those who fail to toe his new line.

This country needs more rebellious music, now. Music to counter the kidnapping and permanent deportation without due process; music to push back at the fates of millions of women who will be purged—permanently—from voter rolls; from the loss of rights, freedom of expression, and to live honestly as one sees fit. We need the ballads, corridos, blues, and tunes to record and memorialize the stories of the culture and we need the kinds of music that once made people like Woody Guthrie, Joan Baez, and Sibelius to name too few, both as hero and marked people. Music has power to terrify dictators, and music makers can play with fire to their and their nation’s ultimate benefit. I hope more of them do that. Good luck.