dennis rodman: On Artists, Terrorists, Athletes, and Greatness:

A couple posts back I referenced Don Dellillo’s Mao II. That book was well ahead of its time, which is somewhat ironic since one of it’s major themes is that writers are irrelevant now that their social roles have been usurped by photojournalists and television news (blogs didn’t exist when the book was first published). The instantaneous, emotional responses that TV news footage can produce trump the kind of delayed idea-absorption involved in the written word.

But with minds like Delillo’s, maybe writers still have a chance.

Mao II has a lot of deep themes; and while its certainly not for me to define them for you, another major idea presented is that the terrorist has assumed the role of modern social commentator and agitator once held by the artist. Delillo’s argument seems to be that society has become somewhat suspect of the artists commitment to their cause. That the days of a Van Gogh, who’d cut-off an ear in the throws of passion; or a Lenny Bruce who’d go to jail for free-speech has given way to Jefferson Starship’s We Built This City and Steven Tyler’s present stint on American Idol. Meet the new boss. Same as the...

Conversely, the terrorist is no sell-out. When you’re prepared to die for your beliefs people can question your cause and methods, but not your commitment. That’s undeniable and a certain...acknowledgment has to be made, if not grudging respect. A respect that used to be reserved for the great artists and social progressives.

But artists have lost a lot--if not most, of their cultural influence. Musicians have pretty-much fleshed-out all the melodies offered by the 12 tone scale, and the ability to download 3,000 songs into a palm-sized Ipod reduces music to a mere .99 cent product. When Mick Jagger accepts knighthood from the Queen of England and Snoop Dogg shills for T-Mobile, I think its fair to say that rock as rebellion is now a dead institution best suited for museums.

The same can be said for movies. Hollywood’s produced so many horror flicks, date movies, and sequels that any 16 year old knows the formula. Like the ancient Greeks who churned out the same mythological figures over and over again under different names and guises, we now get Pirates of the Caribbean 4; a half-dozen Batman’s; three Spiderman movies (with another in the works); a bunch of X-Men. Silly stuff for an escapist nation that just wants to go back to September 10, 2001 and pretend we’re still # 1.

And when was the last conceptual advancement in the visual arts or painting? When Andy Warhol turns a can of Campbell’s Soup into high art, there’s nowhere else to go artistically. We’ve obviously gone full-circle.

Perhaps a bigger problem for art (and politics) in this country is that secular America’s splintered into so many niches or sub-groups. Back in the day we used to get 5 channels on the television set and could only dream of more.

But now that there’s internet, cable, and satellite DISH, America’s on a hundred different pages. Or channels. Did you see Monday Night Football last night? Or Roots? Or All in the Family? Of course you did--30 years ago! What else was on?

But nowadays you ask the same question at the water cooler and you’re likely to hear Naw, I was watching History Channel. Or Animal Planet. Or I was on internet last night. The days where an artist or writer could produce that big, blockbuster work that really captured the realities of modern life are over. African-Americans have their own TV channels and radio stations (13% of US population). Hispanic’s have their own media channels (16% of US population). Women have their own cable channels. You want to write about life in America? Who’s life? Who’s reality? You can’t produce that one big work anymore. Just ask Jonathan Franzen.

The ancient Romans knew how to resolve this problem of cultural fragmentation. Sports. Athletics transcends ethnicity or gender. Once you know the rules of a given game you can appreciate anyone who plays it well. There’s no language barrier. No confusion in regards to motives. Just win. You may hate kikes or ni**ers or spicks; but if your hometown team signed Sandy Koufax or Jackie Robinson or Roberto Clemente your mind-set might change. You know what? We might win the pennant with this guy!

Yeah, I guess he’s alright.

More and more society’s been leaning on the athletes to provide cultural cohesion; but now they face the same problems as the artists. Not only is there an overload of product (Monday Night Football has given way to Sunday Night Football; and now Thursday Night football); but the advent of free-agency and the multi-million dollar contract has fostered the perception that modern athletes are just in it for the money. Fans have no choice but to question the commitment of the athletes to their teams (Brett Favre) and hometowns (e.g. Lebron James).

I suppose you could throw-in baseball’s steroid scandal and the allegations of performance enhancing drugs in...well, pretty-much all professional sports as things that could prevent the average fan from becoming emotionally invested.

You could; but if you did, that’s where you and I would go our separate ways. In fact, for me, the use of steroids and performance enhancers is not only a non-starter in the disappointment department; but to a certain extent it elicits the same grudging respect I have to give the a-hole who kills himself in a suicide attack. Not to say I condone terrorism. But in this 9 to 5; sit-in-front-of-a-computer; cubicle-space; sell-out world, I have no choice but to respect the athlete who lays their life and health on the line to achieve a personal goal. They may be tainted. Even a little corrupt. But at least it was in the pursuit of greatness.