Artvoice: Buffalo's #1 Newsweekly
Home Blogs Web Features Calendar Listings Artvoice TV Real Estate Classifieds Contact
Previous story: First Annual Just Buffalo Member Poetry Reading and Contest
Next story: No More Taxes

Dubya in Prison Stripes

That famous scene in 1984 when O’Brien holds up four fingers and tells Winston Smith, whose back is bent according to his “submission,” to believe that there are five fingers. Why? Because the state says there are, that’s why! So it is in a totalitarian state. Reality and truth are predetermined by those who control the present, because they control the past. A reprint of Harold Pinter’s 2005 Nobel lecture entitled “Art, Truth and Politics” exposes totalitarian foreign policy from the Cold War through the American invasion and occupation of Iraq. He unleashes the power of art to apprehend the “exploration of reality,” because, as he says, “There are no hard distinctions between what is real and what is unreal, nor between what is true and what is false.”

Abu Ghraib, weapons of mass destruction, Saddam Hussein and al Qaeda linked, Hussein and 9/11 linked, mushroom clouds in 45 minutes—all lies of the past whose owners have not yet been held accountable. And now Gaza. Artvoice is needed now more than ever to continue to expose the abuse of language and the political reality of those who seek their own power not truth. Art seeks both reality and truth, and in a totalitarian state, artists must either be submissive or get their backs broken. In Buffalo it’s Artvoice that gives readers political objectivity and criticism of the Bush administration that is not at al disrespectful, as SH says (Artvoice, “Letter to AV,” December 24-January 7 [link]). He is a criminal, belongs in the big house not the White House, and not to read Artvoice because of “lack of taste and manners” is a submission that insults the human spirit. Shame on you, S.H.

Ray Peterson
Buffalo



Artvoice reserves the right to edit letters for content and length. Shorter letters have a better chance at being published in their entirety. Please include your name, hometown, and contact number. E-mail letters to: editorial@artvoice.com or write to: Artvoice Letters, 810 Main Street, Buffalo, NY 14202



blog comments powered by Disqus