Blind Idealism is... by Tom McCarthy

           I took this photo while walking along the Highline one weekend because I enjoyed the design and thought it left a powerful message. After researching the origins of the mural I learned the true artist’s intent with the contents and where she stemmed her ideas from.

            The mural was created by artist Barbara Kruger and it describes her view on the world as a whole. The original quote comes from Afro-Caribbean philosopher Frantz Fanon and is “Blind Idealism is Reactionary”. When Fanon made this statement he was inferring that religious and political convictions stem from situations from which they arise and not from human nature of individuals. Barbara Kruger took it further by saying implying it’s not only reactionary but more so scary. This means that convictions that people have can and will cause conflicts between groups with other blind ideals. Then, she takes it another step further to say it’s not only scary, but it is also deadly. She relates this to the world in many ways specifically in the world of terrorism and the political unrest in America we are seeing with this current presidential campaign.

            This pertains to our course on the basis of “American” “Religion” “Texts” very accurately based on the material we have studied. In the beginning of class we discussed the Spanish conquest of the indigenous people. Here there were two different groups of people with their own idealism that stemmed from their own upbringings and individual sense of religion and politics. As we learned in class, there was an extraordinary amount of deaths and unjust treatment from the Spanish conquerors on the native people. This continued throughout history as different religions came to America and also during times like the Civil Rights Movement. In modern times this mural can relate to the conflict of terrorism from groups like ISIS. This group has shown to be deadly through their warfare and suicide bombings across the world, which all stem from their religious convictions. In retaliation many countries, including America, have attacked the ISIS groups. Both sides have their own religious and political convictions that have stemmed from prior situations and the outcome has been extremely deadly. Candidates in the presidential campaign have been using this sense of ‘blind idealism of reactionary’ to fuel their support base. It is probably not in everyone’s human nature to go to war in the Middle East, just as it is not probably in everyone’s human nature to riot and fight like we have seen across America during campaign rallies. However, these events all arise from certain situations that have given everyone their own religious and political convictions. It is because of this that Kruger is fearful of the world. She understands that these blind idealisms are not only reactionary but have been proven throughout history to be incredibly deadly.