By Abdulaziz Lamlum, Film & TV Director living in London

During the last few years, Libya has been through various phases of political instability, one can question how all these years and stages go by without success? Surely there should be at least the whiff of success along the way. One could also question that maybe politics being ill mannered and not functioning smoothly due to the fact that “politics” itself is not the cure for the country?

Political power is the undoubted cause for changing ultimately a countries way. Political figures and leaders are trusted to shape the future of a generation. In todays Libyan society everyone has a political vantage point, it is fair and also not a crime to have a political opinion (even if it may seem so at times), on the contrary, it is very healthy to be engaged in political affairs, after all, the decision of your future would be in someone else’s hands. The unfortunate problem is that everyone behind their keyboard seems to be a politician, and everyone has their own way on how he or she would run the country. How does one escape the never ending loophole of political correctness and actually make the country get a move on?

There are two things that influence change, art and law. A law can change the daily life of any citizen. Art can be more powerful at times by influencing the nation, it evokes the viewers feelings, it allows the audience be their own superior, art convincing a viewer is more effective than any law, since the attack of art goes straight to the psyche. Combing the two can be as successful as it is disastrous, if the viewer is convinced about a certain vantage point on a topic through art, anything that then gets forced on him or her via a law or through aggression will always leave a negative trail, convincing someone is always better than forcing someone, and that is where art really comes in. The beauty and downfall of politics is that it relies heavily on the arts to get things moving, it influences us everyday, from colour to sound, shape to form, and the combination of any of the in between can evoke different responses.

In a time of trial and error it may seem every approach has been taken, but one considerable methodology to take is for the media to talk about everything but politics, when ALL Libyan television networks (national and private) start broadcasting content ranging from entertainment, education, and daily affairs, that could be the time when people stop seeing all the miserable outcomes of the current political state, and the average viewer can have a cleaner mind-set in moving forward without having a conscious that keeps convincing him or her that the country is doomed.  This would only work if ALL the channels stick to this style of content programming, leaving the news only at the allocated news hours, allowing the viewer chase up bad news if he or she intends to. No more programs preceding that break down the events to the micro detail, leaving the viewer in a state of despondency.

If this hypothetical scenario does not go as follows it leads to several backlashes, the criticism would be along the lines of “How could you be talking about such a pity subject while people are dying in the streets?” Lets face it, it is true, we should all be considerate of any life taken from us, however sometimes boldly ignoring (but never forgetting) events such as this in the news, leads to advancements in the community, the fact of a harsh death that is made avoided reaching the viewer, the viewer then can carry on working, which will then eventually lead to a stronger community. A stronger community results in a better political society, a political society that can then eventually be able to solve and take precautions in maintaining drastic events from ever happening.

The case of moving forward relies in many forms of art, not only television, from films to paintings, from architecture to music. Advancements in artistic fields leads to progression, this is something that tends to be forgotten. Art is not necessarily made to advance a culture. Successful art moves people; it makes the preceptor feel something. The artist has a responsibility in society just as like everyone else. The artist inspires, motivates, and even teaches. If art is done right it could save a generation, if done right it can cause a forty-year-old dictatorship.

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