M.I.A. and a Resistance That Has Lost Its Direction

After being removed from a tour by Kid Cudi, M.I.A. was once again quickly classified as right-wing. Her statement that she is a Republican voter makes this judgment seem almost self-evident. But what is truly worth questioning may not be what she has become, but whether the form of expression she originally relied on has already truly reached its end.

 

The reason M.I.A.’s early resistance worked is because it had a clear direction. Her anger was not abstract, but was always attached to specific cultural and political contexts. From Arular to Kala, her work constantly returned to issues of war, migration, and global power structures. From the direct references to guerrilla warfare and political violence in Arular, to the immigrant economic metaphor constructed through the collage of gunshots and cash register sounds in Paper Planes from Kala, and then to the deconstruction of pop culture and political relations in Matangi, all of these kept her expression directed toward those pushed to the margins of global systems. In that context, resistance was not only a gesture, but also meant choosing who to stand with and being willing to bear the consequences of that choice.

 

But as time passed, her anger began to change. In the past, she was targeting relatively clear objects, while now she is more often questioning an entire set of systems such as governments, media, tech platforms, and even the public narrative itself. Under this change, resistance also became different. It is no longer a response to a specific problem, but is closer to a continuous state of suspicion. She no longer clearly points out what she is opposing, but instead maintains distrust toward many things. As a result, resistance slowly shifts from a form of expression with direction into a rejection of the whole.

 

The problem emerges in this transition. When all forms of power are treated with equal suspicion, resistance loses its ability to distinguish. It no longer naturally points toward the vulnerable, nor does it provide value judgment, but only continues to produce opposition. Under this condition, simply understanding her as a shift from left to right becomes an oversimplification. She has not truly entered another camp, but has gradually moved away from the idea of camps itself.

 

It is also at this stage that she begins to turn toward another path. In her new album M.I.7, her conversion to Christianity gradually becomes an important clue. This conversion is not only a change in religious identity, but is more like an attempt at self-purification, a way of finding order within chaos. When the external world appears filled with ongoing wars, conflicts, and irreconcilable oppositions, individual resistance seems increasingly powerless. The structures that could once be named and opposed have now become scattered and difficult to reach.

 

In such a world, resistance is no longer an effective action, but becomes more like a futile repetition. It may be precisely within this sense of powerlessness that faith begins to appear. If the world cannot be changed, then at least it can be understood. If structures cannot be overturned, then the individual can still be purified. Rather than being a departure from her past position, this can be seen as a response and result of the failure of resistance itself.

 

But this also brings new tension. Once resistance is internalized as a personal spiritual issue rather than a response to external structures, it inevitably loses its original political sharpness. It no longer attempts to change the world, but tries to reinterpret it. In this process, the once clear boundary between us and them is erased, replaced by a more vague and even more isolated state of existence.

 

This may explain the contradictions in her current expression. On one hand, she still maintains a strong distrust toward power. On the other hand, she begins to rely on a higher level of order to provide meaning for that distrust. She is both rejecting structure and searching for structure.

 

So the question ultimately becomes, when resistance can no longer change the world, can it only turn into a form of self-repair? And when this repair takes place, how much real direction is still left in the original position?