This YouTube video version of a poem is a good example of use of the medium and of the hope for democracy in the USA (apparently based on the premise that it ain't there yet):
EDIT 2017-01-02 1637hrs: Just thought I'd better clarify, before someone criticises me for posting a politically biased comment or patiently explains it to me, that I am
not so blind as to not see that this video and the quoted words (not necessarily the
poem per se) seem to make a thinly-disguised pejorative polemic
against the election of citizen Trump - who has been elected as president,
by the people, in what I understand was a
fully democratic process that the people have been contentedly using for donkey's years. So I am categorically
not advocating nor supporting arguments one way or the other regarding that democratic process.
- So, yes, I can see that the polemic was probably made by people amongst the minority that "lost" - those voters who presumably didn't vote for Trump and yet who may still wish to see their religio-political ideology forcibly trump the wishes of the democratic majority ("sore losers", as some have called them).
- And yes, I can see the irony in this, but that does not detract from the beauty of the poem nor from the legitimacy of the inspiring hope that the democratic process can be improved still further, because it certainly doesn't seem to be there yet - even the president-elect said, quite seriously, that the election process was "rigged", and his opponents and detractors have belatedly claimed that "the Russians did it", or something (Yeah, I know - right? Them darn Ruskies.), rather than seek an internal locus of control for responsibility for failure to win the election (or rig it properly in their favour, if they had rigged it - as the president-elect may have been implying).
- And yes, I can see that one implication there, of course, could be - from what he said - the hope that the president-elect intends to change something to better align things with a pukka democratic process, because, as a relative "wild card" he might just be the right person to do that, whereas the status quo so-called and self-styled "professional" political candidates sure as heck weren't going to do anything in that regard, having apparently studiously ignored the opportunity to do so over the last 8 years and seeming at times to have been more concerned with attacking/dismantling the American Constitution, rather than making it a stronger democratic construct to ensure a more egalitarian society with improved access to equal franchise, freedom and liberty. So, sure, there's the hope that he will try to fix that for all whilst he "drains the swamp". We shall see.
I should also say that one thing I don't support and
didn't like about this otherwise rather good video is the raised fists, which could potentially be a further discrete fascistic incitement to the sort of mindless post-election violence against people and in "protest" riots that was experienced (if not encouraged) in parts of the US. However, I
am aware that that mindless violence was probably committed by and probably revealed a lot about a relatively small minority of American people and their perception of the need for real "democracy" - the majority presumably seeing it as being undemocratic to go around thumping people and causing property damage because your party lost a democratic election to a sizeable majority, or something.
Published on 22 Dec 2016
In these dark days Amanda Palmer and Neil Gaiman found comfort and hope in the work of Leonard Cohen. Together they recorded this new version of “Democracy.” Amanda composed the piano and Neil recorded the lyrics. Their friends David Mack and Olga Nunes created this stunning video to go with the song.
A storm is brewing. PEN America will help writers and artists and citizens survive and thrive through this maelstrom.
Join Amanda and Neil in supporting PEN America today. www.pen.org
