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Originally Posted by pbradley
Foucault, should have assumed. However, I think you are defining politics differently than I am. It reads as though, as you take it, political is simply the influence of one's experience upon another, whereas I have been considering the decision-making discourse of groups of people. Where I disagree is the idea that any influence upon another person is political, but rather, I think that it's only a particular kind of influence. I think there are other means of influence that speak beyond political and transcend internalized systems of morality, and music is one. I do not consider empathy, sympathy, antipathy or anything else of sentimental influence to be political as to be political formulates these sentiments into rational arguments to be engaged with political discourse. Music should be concerned with beauty, existence, suffering, etc. in themselves as well as within contemporary life but in a way that precedes discursive articulation and analytical argumentation. Those things should be left to the listener to decide upon.
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The class I'm auditing is reading History of Sexuality...but I'm not about to go through that shit again for the 4th time in 3 years.
I actually agree with what you said - changing systems of discourse. I do think that when an individual expresses themselves they are contributing to the larger discourse. Using Foucault's ideology, discourse and power does not operate through a group of people sitting around and conspiring - rather, people come across things accidentally that support their ideologies and than proliferate them. That's how discourse/social justice tends to change. This can happen on individual smaller scales, and expressing one's self/transforming discourse through music can be a political act. I do think that creativity is political, but you are totally right, it's about
much more than just that. And yes, the at the end of the day the listeners are the ones to decide if the music has impact.
I think that people on this thread have been defining too much by the
result than that the means of action.