We don’t have to cede the culture war

Update from my previous post about how I wanted to see some guerilla action protesting the Trump Administration’s attempts at forcing their interpretations of history and culture in the federal cultural and historical sites. I wanted someone to put up QR codes in the National Parks that linked to more well-rounded interpretive signs. Well, someone’s doing something similar using Post-Its: Sticky Notes at the National Portrait Gallery. Kudos to them, keep it going!

And on a related note, on to today’s post:

David Rothkopf, a foreign and domestic policy expert and commentator AND a former theater director, wrote this week on his Substack about how culture wars are not idle or frivolous, but where actual influence over downstream impact like policy and political decisions begin. Apologies for the long excerpts, but I think they’re worth reading; my thoughts continue below.

“Throughout history, those in power have used the tools by which belief systems are manipulated—religion, the arts, intellectual discourse—to promote ideas that can help them maintain or grow their wealth and power. Often, these concepts were actually antithetical to the real interests of those among whom they were promoted and yet, with the right amount of “political and organizational reserves” behind them, they took hold…

This is not, of course, abstract. It has existed throughout time. And it exists today. Representatives of the far right, concerned that too many ideas that could threaten their interests were being promoted via America’s cultural infrastructure, have systematically sought to buy and alter our biggest newspapers, broadcast outlets, social media platforms. They are using their power on the boards of non-profits to change missions and to police content. The Trump Administration is doing likewise on their behalf with its campaign against “wokeness,” DEI, critical race theory, and other ideas that have won public support over the past half century or more..

This is neither peripheral nor accidental…There is nothing soft about the power of culture. It is in fact, far more potent than armies…Elites seek cultural hegemony because they know that ideas and the arts and intellectual discourse are what form the bonds within nations, ensure the stability and endurance of key institutions and persuade people that their identities are actually linked to ideas that benefit those in power…

…the powerful seek cultural hegemony because they recognize something that the rest of us really need to get our heads around. When our institutions have failed or lined up on behalf of the oligarchs (and their army of useful racist-misogynists) there is only one avenue left to us that can both restore democracy and advance the ideas that can be their undoing.

That avenue is culture broadly defined—encompassing academia, the arts, the media, the engines of debate and discourse that can reshape how we see ourselves, what we believe, what we prioritize…

…the last mechanism by which the views of the majority can overtake and ultimately overthrow the proponents of a society run to serve the few, the billionaires and millionaires among us, is culture.

Not only do we all still determine what ideas become popular, spread virally, get embraced, galvanize us to action, but as our others sources of influence are carved away—like our voting rights—the cultural collaboration of the people of this country, the meeting of our minds, the melding of our hearts, becomes the most potent tool left to our disposal.

The Founders understood this. It is why they enshrined free speech and freedom of expression and freedom of assembly in the First Amendment to the Constitution. They saw first hand how the power of a grass roots cultural movement could change history. One in five Americans got a copy of Thomas Paine’s “Common Sense.” The rest were surely exposed to it in town meetings and around dinner tables. Despite our focus on the great and not-so-great men who signed the Declaration of Independence or wrote the Constitution, the American revolution was sparked and enabled from the ground up…

…the “culture war” of the right was not some shallow folly that many in the center and on the left may have laughed off. Culture wars are what determine the future of nations. Our culture war is what will determine the future of our nation.  

“We all still determine what ideas become popular, spread virally, get embraced, galvanize us to action“: this is what I wrote about in my two recent posts: on my blog Row X on ArtsJournal, From Village Voice to TikTok: Rethinking How Audiences Discover Art and on this site AI can only replace boring art. In both pieces I argue that “we the people” need to show up for and pay for the kind of art and culture that we want. We need to use social media and its algorithms to get our own messages out. And if you are one of those people making art, and you want it to have an impact, you need to take your own responsibility to get it out into the world and get it seen – don’t depend on gatekeepers or distributors.

The far right is clever. They understand communications and persuasion and how to tap into culture. There’s no reason that the people who want a different world can’t be just as clever AND more ethical. It will take some combination of coordinated collective action and nudging culture in the direction we want using how culture works naturally, as organic energy that builds up like bees or ants working together without explicitly planning their actions.

So if you want culture that’s inclusive, bold, and imaginative—not narrow, fearful, and regressive—you have to make choices that build it:

• Artists: Keep showing up where people already are, with work that invites curiosity and conversation. Make it fun and engaging and educational, not lectures or hyperbole – at least not all the time.
• Audiences: Share the work that expresses your valued. Bring friends and family. Keep learning. Seek out perspectives that challenge you. Share them. Make your feed a window, not just a mirror.

The stakes are bigger than the next season announcement or trending dance. We’re deciding—every day—whether culture will be a tool for connection and equity, or a weapon for division and control. The tools are in our hands. The choice is ours.