Art vs. The Government

By now, you've surely read the headlines about the Adult Swim promotional campaign that brought the city of Boston to a standstill. (LINK)

What strikes me as frightening in the fallout from all of this has nothing to do with the fact that "bomb squads scrambled throughout the city and its suburbs, snarling traffic and mass transit in the city," but the idea that city leaders are hellbent to make sure somebody is punished for the incident.

First, let's be clear. This wasn't a "bomb scare that turned out to be a hoax."
It's a public art project that an overly paranoid government turned into a bomb scare.

The irony of all of this is that the objects in question, which are only slightly more sophisticated than a Lite-Brite, were placed in several cities including Los Angeles, San Francisco and Ground Zero, New York. You would think if anybody is going to overreact to a "suspicious object," it would be New York.

Of course, nobody in New York, L.A. or San Francisco reacted to the public art project because - well, it's New York, L.A. and San Fran... three cities practically choking to death on public art projects.

So why did the city managers in Boston freak out? A complete lack of a sense of humor. I mean, we're talking about a Space-Invader alien flipping the bird here.

Sadly, as the city leaders in Boston do their best to recover from the embarrassment (nobody likes it when they don't get the joke), the government will step up efforts to insure that similar "guerrilla marketing" and art projects don't cause the same kind of panic. In fact, upon learning that several of the light-boards had been in New York for more than a week, the NY PD was reportedly dispatched to take them down.

And while we're beginning to get used to the notion of the "chilling effect," somehow I don't think a government crack-down on art is going to play to well with the people who make it.

I'm reminded of a quote from Benjamin Franklin lately:
"They who would give up an essential liberty for temporary security, deserve neither liberty or security."

In an age where our leaders come up with creative ways of explaining how by removing our freedoms, they're ensuring our freedoms, we need more people who are willing to give our government the finger. And if they do it with a Lite-Brite, so much the better.