This
past Sunday, during the annual Golden Globes, Meryl Streep got up to accept a
lifetime achievement award, and used the occasion to deliver a (by Hollywood
standards) strong rebuke to President-elect Donald Trump, and the darker parts
of human nature his rise represents.
Donald
Trump, surprise surprise, was not a fan, and immediately tweeted out his anger
(throwing in a few more pathetically transparent lies for good measure), and
many of his supporters did not hesitate to proclaim Streep’s words as “the
reason Trump won.” That the reactionary
conservatives would respond in this manner should shock no one. But it was- well, if not surprising,
certainly disheartening- to see some progressives criticizing Streep as well,
saying something similar to what Meryl’s fellow Hollywooder Mark Wahlberg said
just over a month ago- that celebrities should just shut up about politics,
that a goofy awards ceremony for overblown Oscar bait isn’t the place for it,
that people just don’t want to hear it anymore, and that any effort on the part
of a celebrity figure to do otherwise merely reinforces the terrible liberal
bubble we coastal folks are apparently perpetually consigned to.
And
those reactions, right there, are precisely why Meryl Streep’s speech wasn’t
just important, but necessary.
Meryl
prefaced her remarks by listing just a few of the very wide backgrounds of
people sitting in that room. Yes, they
are certainly an elite and privileged group living in a particular area, but
they are drawn from all over the world, and the hodge-podge of perspectives
that form each of them is crucial to the creation of great art, which is, in
turn, essential for the well-being of the human soul.
Yes,
we all have our bubbles. Everyone lives
in a bubble, because everyone has limits, biases, flaws in their perception of
reality. But not all bubbles are created
equal. Some bubbles are bigger than others,
some more porous and open. The idea that
some bubbles, or fields, like the arts, should automatically be politics-free
zones is absurd, because that’s simply not the reality we live in. Politics is everywhere, and everything,
because it reflects all of the society that it comes from, warts and all. It was always everywhere.
This
is the part where I would be expected to write something like, “but before
Trump, it was harmless to pretend otherwise, and now that’s all changed,” or
something of that nature. But that would
be a lie. Because our collective
acceptance to simply ignore some things, and assume politics occupies some mystical
realm separated from the rest of daily life, was never harmless. It is passive acceptance of “things as they
are” that has always allowed the greatest evil, and the greatest discrimination,
to flourish, thrive, and grow. But while
that would have continued to be true whether or not Donald Trump had won the
Presidential election, his rise will certainly make it worse. The potential for harm-through-apathy,
already present throughout human history, is about to increase to particularly
acute levels, and the last thing we can afford in times like these is
silence.
Meryl
Streep’s words were crucial and important and needed not in spite of the fact
that she said them during a gilded awards ceremony dedicated to film and
television, but precisely because that’s where she said them. It was necessary in the same way that Beyonce’s
daring, powerful, and jaw-droppingly awesome Super Bowl halftime show,
replete with lyrics explicitly about female (especially black female) empowerment
and a dancing troupe marching onto the field in an ‘X’ formation wearing Black
Panther garb was necessary- not in spite of the fact that it was the friggin’
Super Bowl, but because IT WAS THE FRIGGIN’ SUPER BOWL, meaning a lot of
complacent people were guaranteed to be watching.
It
is at the moments when we most desire to sink into passive complacency, when we
are most relaxed, or most distracted by whether that forward tackle will get
his act together or whether Sarah Jessica Parker has the tackiest dress of the
night, that we most fervently need something to shake us from our reverie, to
shock us, wake us up, and remind us that, yes, there is still a great amount of
injustice in the world, and it must be fought, tooth, nail, and claw.
Meryl
spoke of the importance of the free press in holding power accountable, just
days before our President-elect literally shouted down a journalist from an
accredited news outlet, refusing to take a question because he just didn’t like
them. If that doesn’t demonstrate how
essential her speech was, I truly don’t know what to say to you.
It
was also a call to empathy, at a time when the harshest, meanest, and cruelest
instincts in human nature are being empowered and unleashed in ways we have
been unable, so far, to check, simply because we never thought we would have
to. Watch the confirmation hearings for
Jeff Sessions, and see how wholly unable he and Lindsay Graham are unable to
empathize with those who would label many of their actions and stances racist, to
get a feel for why something that should be so apparent must be stated and
reaffirmed time and again.
If
a single viewer that night was moved enough by Meryl’s words to act, to get up
and MOVE, to march, run for office, buy a newspaper subscription, and work in
some fashion to make the work a more empathetic place, then her taking the time
and vocal strength to say what she did was more than worth it. Politics and the arts have never, ever been
separate in our world, and they never will be.
Because
art can inspire and ignite many of our best angels, and can be a catalyst for
change unlike little else, now more than ever we need our art and our artists
to use their tools, talents, and positions, no matter how low or high, to raise
up the best of us and aid us in the battles to come. Now, more than ever, we cannot afford
silence, and cannot risk complacency.
-Noah Franc
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