The Politics of Heatwaves

Hello friends,

We’re having a heatwave in Portland, OR, after a relatively dry spring. Folks have been organizing, scrambling to get supplies to our unhoused neighbors, and the city opened up some cooling centers for those who need them. It is not enough.Just as Portland is ill equipped to deal with snow, the city is also ill equipped to deal with extreme heat. And of course, the fact that there are so many unhoused people out in the elements is a despicable. There are a lot of billionaires out here on the west coast of the United States, and far too many people falling through the gaping holes in the social safety net. It’s all politics, isn’t it? We make choices as a society about who and what matters. And climate change? Well, that’s who benefits from the polis, too.That’s what this month’s essay is about. I’ve actually been working on this Patreon-funded essay on and off since January. It’s long, and yet, not nearly long enough. In the essay, I start off talking about my time on the Pacific Stock Options Exchange. Then I move onto art, and the ways in which commerce, politics, and art intertwine.

Here’s an excerpt:

In his talk “Hip Hop, or Shakespeare?” the brilliant Akala reminds us that Shakespeare wrote for the working people, and spoke as the working people spoke. Who owns Shakespeare now? Well, he’s considered posh, isn’t he?

Again: who has access?

Rai music—which has its roots in working class folk music—flourished despite attempts to ban it. Songs about going to parties, dancing, and having a good time were considered dangerous. Political. A threat to the powers that be.

Poor, working people should be miserable, it seems.

Every bus stop ad. Every song. Every building in every neighborhood—and pay close attention, which urban neighborhoods have trees? Every video game. Every app. Every book.

It’s all political. You just may have not noticed it before.

Art and politics that uphold the status quo we’re used to? We like to say they are “just the world we live in” or “just the way things are.”

But it has been designed, hasn’t it?

We need to ask more often, of everything we encounter that is human made: who designed it? And who benefits?

And who pays the highest price?

Read the rest here.

How about you? How do art, commerce, and politics intersect in your life?

I welcome your thoughts.

blessings - Thorn