Clive Caines Cultural Contributor
Drawing Parallels between Russia’s jailing of three members of punk band Pussy Riot and the UK Catholic Church citing the sanctity of marriage in order to refute same sex partnerships isn’t difficult.
As usual the underlying message from church and state is that they believe they are the arbiters of humanist values and that this frees them from having to pay attention to the needs of people they are supposed to serve.
When the major institutions behave in this way it is easy to understand why many have lost faith in their ability to improve our lives, this however begs the question can we do it for ourselves?
In my first article I set out my general theme of drawing on the principles of the Griot and using those principles to look at the messages that shape our lives and our thinking.
If some of the Griot role is to remind those in power of their social responsibilities then I can see no reason why we can’t become our own personal Griots.
The current British government is fond of trotting out its political mantra of ‘The big society’, which in essence asks the electorate to take up the slack in public services caused by government cut backs.
The government’s brand of self-determination has echoes of JFK’s inaugural speech in which he demanded that the people of American “ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country.”
Pussy Riot behind bars. Photo courtesy blog.amnestyusa.org
I have a feeling that David Cameron was being far more pragmatic than Kennedy given the parlous state of the public purse. Having a high level of selflessness is going to be important for anyone in the UK who has a strong sense of community.
However selflessness is one thing but being prepared to work for nothing is not, if we are honest, what most members of a modern society are all about. What’s more regardless of what they say there are too many people who want to be told what to think and what to do.
Maybe there is a lack of faith in our ability to change our world by changing ourselves or maybe there is a collective fear of failure. Either way it appears to be easier to vote politicians into power, saddle them with all of our hopes and dreams and then blame them when things go wrong.
When Barack Obama was voted into power many people saw this as the moment when their lives would change radically. For many Barack’s message of “Yes you can” was taken as he would make all things possible rather than you can make it possible if you believe in yourself; little wonder that his approval rating at points have fallen well below 50% which suggests that he is unlikely to be re-elected.
Pussy Riot’s Yekaterina Samutsevich is on record as saying that her two-year prison sentence holds no fear for her. Samutsevich’s defiant stance shows the strength of her political convictions (no pun intended) and is no more than I would ask of musicians who garner attention with an anti establishment polemic.
What I’d be interested to see is whether her fellow Russian agrees that they will have to look within in order to change their circumstances. When it comes to religion however I am constantly surprised that the church has difficulty in acknowledging humanity in all its forms and therefore finds itself locked into conservative positions.
The circle that some church goers will have to square is how do they maintain a spirituality if the church cannot support who they truly are.
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