MIA is a Teabagger

MIA’s new video for the song “Born Free” is supposed to be a fiery polemic against government oppression, genocide, discrimination, and other serious matters, but, in America at least, her vision (or the director’s) seems to have more in common with the Teabagger movement than anything remotely liberal.

In the video, a dark dystopian fantasy is revealed in which the government rounds up a bunch of gingers, takes them out to the desert, and slaughters them in beautiful slow-mo. A powerful statement, no doubt, but one more along the lines of death panels, Obama-Hitler analogies, threat of the government banning fishing, and other delusional paranoid fantasies that do more to distract than to effect change.

I do not believe MIA or any other musician should be criticized too harshly for expressing their views on anything, as intelligent or inane as they may be, because as influential as you may think they are, they are still just pop artists at their core. The tradition of art intermingling with politics is a long and good one. But let’s be real about MIA’s take on this and other issues – her methods are provocative, not dialectic. Yes, there is a place for that, but let’s not kid ourselves about how important she and her music is.