Krist on Democracy, or, Maybe Just Happy...

Last night I went up to Politics and Prose, as per my last post, to see Mark Andersen and Krist Novoselic speak about their respective new books. Mark's presentation came off a bit too scripted in parts, but I know him to be a thoughtful, articulate, dedicated activist who has long been a good shepherd of radical politics in a variety of roles and venues. Krist's talk, on the other hand, was a different story. I should say that a friend of mine who also attended the event encouraged me to write a bit about the experience, during which we shared some suppressed laughs and rolled eyes. Novoselic's book, Of Grunge and Government, which apparently clocks in at just over 100 pages ("some people are calling it a pamphlet"), is (according to his talk, since I haven't read the book) a promotion of electoral reforms, specifically instant-runoff voting and proportional representation. Now, those reforms would be a welcome step closer to what I consider to be legitimate democracy, but they are, in my humble o., a far cry from the changes that need to be engineered to make the US and the world a healthy and welcoming place for all. So the problem is not that Novoselic is excited enough about these reforms, which would be better than nothing were they to be instituted here, to write a book and do a speaking tour. I'm glad he cares enough to look into this stuff and contribute to the national discourse. The problem is that he presented his ideas in such an airy manner, free of historical perspective, and laden with cliche after cliche. It was as if he discovered the idea of proportional representation a year ago (I understand he's 38 years old now), did some research (an aside: there is a lot to be said for the instructive potential of the Internet, to say nothing of its democratizing power, but there was something a bit off about Krist goofily extolling the virtues of Google while standing in an independent bookstore - like where, oh where, would he ever have found out about these things without digitized text?), decided that everything that's wrong with America could be fixed if we focus on these significant but narrow reforms, and then voila! back to the good old days of this nation, which he was bizarrely trumpeting. After his presentation, one questioner added some perspective of her own by drawing attention to the 40th anniversary of Fannie Lou Hamer's Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party's challenge to the national Democratic party's civil rights platform. Krist responded by reciting some superficial pablum about busted heads and dogs and fire hoses and then proceeded to butcher Martin Luther King's quote about the moral arc of the universe bending toward justice.

His narrow focus and puppy-dog optimism lent a Bushian quality to his performance - though I suspect he has the lying and killing a little more under control. It's worth mentioning that Nirvana was a great band, and Krist is to be seriously commended for his contributions to the art world through that medium. Hopefully touring with Mark will help push him toward a more holistic approach to social justice, which will then be reflected in future public appearances. And perhaps, after last evening's talk, he was able to call off a hot date with a search engine and browse the curious, pulp-ish objects that line the walls of P&P - now that he's responsible for one of them himself.