Dear Ms. Communicate,
I'm a graduate student getting a Fine Arts degree at a Toronto university. We have a listserve devoted specifically for the students in my program to post ideas, questions, networking, and many other things. Recently, a fellow student forwarded to the list an email appeal from avaaz.com regarding supporting the protests of the attacks on Gaza. I'm completely sympathetic to the Palestinian cause, and I admire my fellow student's attempt to motivate us, but I'm having a lot of conflicting emotions about this. I think that artists should take a an active role in shaping the political landscape, but I guess I resent another student's attempt to influence my political stance. What should I do?
Dear Very Confused,
First, you and your fellow students need to clarify what the list is for, the specific purposes for it, and why students read it. If this is the first time you've seen a notice of this nature perhaps this is a one-time event that won't happen again. It could be more likely that others will begin posting more events and notices of non-academic, non-school, and non-program information, and I can understand your need to want to keep the list for "school stuff only". However, the artist, as you say, lives in the world that we all inhabit. Artists are key to our society and culture because they reflect our humanity (or lack thereof, in the context of the atrocities in Gaza). I don't see the line between the "artist" and "politics" as cleanly as you do. Maybe you can post a comment, sort of a meta-comment about the listserve, in the vein of "what is this listserve for?" and say that you're thinking about this because of a recent post that seemed to you to be not in the spirit of what the listserve is for. Then see what conversation is generated, what other students think. I suggest you not refer to the post that triggered this, only because the conversation could very well turn into a discussion of the content of the post, rather than the post itself, furthering the "derailment" of the listserve, if in fact, people agree with your assessment that it's a derailment. rabble's own babble has a forum for just those kinds of conversations, called "rabble reactions." Check it out to see some examples of these kinds of discussions. Ms. C.
