I’ve been working on some Klezmer remix tracks for the past few months. Although a couple of weeks ago I had a real urge to finish one and release it. After seeing people somehow emboldened to take to the streets under Nazi flags, I felt it was important to remember just how much of a failure they were. The culture that they aimed to annihilate is alive and well whereas the culture they tried to spread is reviled.
If anything they inoculated society against their hateful ideas, all of Europe has anti-discrimination laws, there are pride parades in every major city and eugenics is a dead ideology. That is no reason to be complacent though, recent events have shown that people feel enough anger to turn back. We need to fight this but find ways to do this without adding even more anger. Once two groups of people start fighting, one side will always cast the other as an aggressor and then build a narrative that absolves themselves of any blame for the trouble. Even shouting people down let’s them cast you as ideologically intolerant no matter how right (factually or ethically) you are. It would be naive to say that there is never a place for aggression, just that there is rarely a reason to be the initiator.
There are ways of fighting back with love whether it is meeting people face to face, turning rallies into antifascist fundraisers or publicly celebrating our diverse culture in force. Working with local communities can also increase cohesiveness so that no one can be singled out for hatred. There are loads of groups and organisations which help with this and we all have the power to make a difference if we get involved.
Bit of a darker post than usual but we live in times with tremendous potential for darkness, so as a nice counterpoint to that, enjoy the pure joy of the dance scenes from Fiddler on the roof remixed 🙂
Peace, Love, Unity, Respect (More than ever) – D
Dataphiles' Music Madness 