The Most Powerful Image From Last Week's DNC Is This America Made Of Guns

Identity Crisis is about the United States rooting its image in violence and intimidation. By persistently sustaining the largest military in the world we have accepted violence as a our primary solution; being not only viewed as the strongest country but also occupying this role is fundamental to Americans' national identity .

Though both were massive successes — the DNC and Rock The Vote's Truth To Power at 10th & Spring Garden —  it's hard to say which event last week featured more people actually getting shit done. Across a week's worth of panels, talks, performances and activities, Truth To Power got to something neither party is getting, to their eternal detriment — that young people are active, are engaged with the political sphere on a massive and emotional level. It's just that what they've got to say scares the shit out of the political establishment. 

And it's not always said with words. Consider perhaps the most powerful piece of the concurrent Truth To Power pop-up art exhibit: Michael Murphy's Identity Crisis, pictured above. The artist says the following about it, and we'll let him have the last word here.

"Identity Crisis is about the United States rooting its image in violence and intimidation. By persistently sustaining the largest military in the world we have accepted violence as a our primary solution; being not only viewed as the strongest country but also occupying this role is fundamental to Americans' national identity . In order for taxpayers to support funding the military, militarization must first be normalized in our homes, on our streets, and in our backyards. Once violence is normalized as a part of everyday life, it is a only short step to accepting violence as an inherent facet of human existence. Which in turn allows the excuse for our government's continual murder of civilians at home and abroad."