[John Isbell]

Hi Walter,

Interesting post. Turning to civic engagement, protest in the US often seems to me to choose consumer paths: purchasing choices, product boycotts, sooner than demonstrations or organizing for elections. I have a little experience on this topic, having run a presidential campaign in Monroe County, IN back in 2003-04, and done door to door canvasing often enough. This hand in hand with the slow death of the American union movement. Perhaps the US does a better job of producing informed consumers than informed citizens.

On a parallel track, what people refer to as identity politics feels to me suited to just this cultural moment. I'm not sure I can express this better; I'm just trying to situate the movement in terms of political theory. Clearly it has improved the world in its role as a continuation of civil rights. What is that quotation - one person oppressed is everybody oppressed? The sum of human happiness has increased in measurable ways through the work of identity politics, such as marriage equality in the US.

All this quite independently of any aesthetic question, though those are worth asking. But I'm interested in the political theory, and the consumer question.

Cheers,
John

Update: cross-posted with Andrew, who does a much better job of addressing the aesthetic questions than I do. I'd argue though that popular poetry is alive, well, and quoted daily by tens of millions in the guise of music lyrics...