[spectre] TRACING UNDERCURRENTS: Sonic Routes Between

[Josephine Bosma]

Some thoughts...

The limits set to 'bad politics', for when to boycot and when not, are 
very difficult to maintain. The politics of the old South Africa and 
present day Israel may be the worst example for some, but are the 
politics of other countries really that much better that they do not 
deserve the same judgement? I think that is -very- difficult to say in 
the end.

In addition you should not forget that you are not just judging over the 
regime, but also over the individuals that live under these regimes, 
like in this case the artists there and their circumstances and 
motivations. If you really want to maintain the argument that a cultural 
boycot is a good thing maybe it would be good to look at earlier cases 
of artists working under dubious regimes or for dubious regimes, which 
are two different things! Even today, after 60 years, people argue about 
whether some artists in nazi Germany supported the regime or whether 
they merely tried to survive. I would not like to be the judge there. It 
is too easy to say a good artist would have fled the country, like many 
did. Would boycotting these artists have made the regime fall down? I 
doubt it.

Sometimes it is very obvious that an artist is supporting bad politics 
or in service of a bad regime. This is a lot easier to judge. Maybe the 
idea of a cultural boycot is more appropriate for individual cases 
rather then for entire countries or peoples. Even in that case one has 
to be careful. It is easier to start a mob riot or witch hunt then to 
calm it down.


With respect,


J
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