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What is music in America? It's this stand-in for political action in a lot of senses. We have no democracy and we have no art culture, and we've long considered politics nebbish-y and hopelessly unsexy. So a lot of what would be considered political activism is channeled into cultural work.

Ian Svenonius

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Ian Svenonius
Age: 56
Born: 1968
Born: January 1
Musician
Singer
Trumpeter
Chicago
Illinois
Channeled
Long
Politics
Would
Culture
Hopelessly
Action
Activism
Art
Cultural
Political
Considered
America
Senses
Music
Stand
Work
Democracy

More quotes by Ian Svenonius

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If a Cuban refugee is escaping, we're saying they're a political refugee, but why isn't a Haitian refugee a political refugee? They're escaping the capitalism and degradation of economic imperialism. We don't call them political refugees we call them unfortunate people.
Ian Svenonius
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We live in a unipolar world at this point with America as a moral arbiter and the whole morality is based on this insane corporatocracy.
Ian Svenonius
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Kanye West hasn't really done anything worthwhile-- except maybe musically, I haven't heard him. But he hasn't overthrown the government.
Ian Svenonius
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Cool thing about Fidel Castro is that the CIA and the mafia - which are both terrible organizations that tried to murder him again and again - haven't succeeded.
Ian Svenonius
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When a capitalist looks at the river, all they can think about is, How can I pollute this river and destroy it and make money from it?
Ian Svenonius
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In underground music, there seems to be this real inability for people to express themselves in any kind of heroic or mythological way. There's this idea that we're all normal joes, and that creating a persona onstage or having schtick is somehow false and misleading and evil.
Ian Svenonius
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I don't like the triumphalism of the American narrative, this kind of chosen people complex that American people have, so it's inspiring to see people snub their noses at the American empire and succeed.
Ian Svenonius