Individual Medium post #2
I think in my experience, it is difficult for outsiders to relate to another group’s political struggle, because although they can understand it rationally, there is not a whole lot of emotional resonance if it’s not an experience you have actively lived. Or many times we tend to think of political struggles as purely movements of liberation and the ideologies behind them rather than the actual human beings and causalities that are often left behind to pick up the pieces. A very prominent example I can think of is the artwork of German artist Käthe Kollwitz (shown below) who hauntingly illustrated the horrors of World War 1, especially after losing her youngest son in the war.
Of course in school we are educated in the military might and politics behind the war, as well as the awful tragedies that occurred as a result. But I think examining art allows us access into a more empathetic space where we look directly at the horrifying face of human struggle. For me, it is quite hard to turn back to the world of pure intellectualism after reading or examining much of the poetry or art that emerges from any conflict: be it the “Napalm” girl from the Vietnam war to listening to “Ue o Muite Arukō" which was written as Rokusuke Ei walked home from a Japanese student protest.
In other words, because much of the art that emerges from political strife is so visceral in nature, in drags its audiences in through our abilities to empathize, regardless of ethnicity or time period. The desire to pursue happiness. To live free from fear. To escape poverty. They are all innate human desires that artists can use as anchors to draw outsiders into their particular struggles. Thus, you can still support and recognize a movement without having directly experienced what they are fighting against. Spaces discussing particular political conflicts that are traditionally limited to only the parties involved, expand their communities and find new allies through art and other cultural products. As a result, this adds more voices to the movements demanding change or equality and paves the way for a more inclusive world. The world cannot change through scholarship or analysis alone; it needs warm human bodies to prop up movements of change.
