Not only do I think we need to explore the left's view of heroism in a bit more depth before we can proceed, I also know that I failed to cite specific examples of the leftist take on heroism. In order to help me rectify this, Green Day has just released their own version of John Lennon's "Working-Class Hero." I have had the fortune of hearing the new rendition of this "classic" on the radio twice today and found it disturbingly illuminating.
I realize that neither John Lennon nor Green Day are in heavy rotation on many urban radio stations, but what I see in this song is an attempt to get working-class white America to look at the world like most blacks do already. It also does so within the context of heroism, a concept I've already described as essential to the recovery of black America (and frankly, the rest of America, too). I'm sure that many lefties perceive this song as an homage to the poor guy who's never had much of a shot at life. I see it as an ugly attempt to degrade humanity far worse than anything by Nine Inch Nails or AC/DC (and I'm holding neither Lennon nor Green Day responsible for the typos).
As soon as your [sic] born they make you feel small,
By giving you no time instead of it all,
Till [sic] the pain is so big you feel nothing at all,
A working class [sic] hero is something to be,
A working class [sic] hero is something to be.
The first lines of the song refer to an unnamed, amorphous, villainous "they" out to get you. Immediately, the victim in the song is described in terms of us-vs.-them, and the motives of whoever "they" might be are nothing short of pure malice. The setting of the song is one of futile struggle against an undefinable enemy, not unlike the pointless lives of poor black kids hopelessly struggling against a system thoroughly poisoned by the racism of the White Power Structure.
Not only that, they potty-train you and teach you how to speak when they should be letting you have all your time to yourself.
This comes right before a call to be a "hero."
They hurt you at home and they hit you at school,
They hate you if you're clever and they despise a fool,
Till [sic] you're so fucking crazy you can't follow their rules,
A working class [sic] hero is something to be,
A working class [sic] hero is something to be.
Yet more exemplification of a can-do attitude! Not only are working-class kids the only ones who suffer such injustices, studies show that anyone who has ever been "hurt...at home" has no chance whatsoever to make anything of themselves, ever. And even if they don't actually hit you at school in the literal sense (I have no idea of the state of corporal punishment in British schools when Lennon wrote this song, but I know for damn sure it's not allowed in America around the time of the Green Day version), you're undoubtedly a victim of metaphoric violence, which smarts even more considering what you're going through with Mum and/or Dad. "They" are probably driving you "crazy" intentionally so they can keep you out of the way. You have everything stacked against you, even more than India's untouchables. If you're smart you'll just present a threat to "their" power, and if you're dumb it will only prove that they're right to look down on you. So be a hero.
When they've tortured and scared [sic-it's sung "scarred"] you for twenty odd years,
Then they expect you to pick a career,
When you can't really function you're so full of fear,
A working class [sic] hero is something to be,
A working class [sic] hero is something to be.
If the childhood of a typical working-class kid is replete with "torture," no wonder these folks go ballistic over Guantanamo. Not only that, you're supposed to get a job?! Anyone looking for the "root causes" of the mentality that causes endemic poverty in Harlem or Soho need look no further. Those tough-looking dudes you see who obviously spend a lot of time at the gym aren't academically disinclined, violent, or sexually irresponsible, they're just "full of fear." Emphasize with the deep insecurities that manifest themselves as the overwhelming need to violently impress the neighbors. Perhaps you should enhance their deflated self-esteem by prostrating your wallet before them as well.
By the way, you're supposed to be a hero, even though John's making it seem damn near impossible to even fill out an application at Burger King, much less make it through the interview with all that "hurt" and "fear" floating around in the back of your mind.
Keep you doped with religion and sex and TV,
And you think you're so clever and classless and free,
But you're still fucking peasants as far as I can see,
A working class [sic] hero is something to be,
A working class [sic] hero is something to be.
Here the powerful description of lament segues into Marxist terminology, telling the poor "fucking peasants" that they can't be "free" because they still consider themselves "classless." Some might even argue that this passage reflects condescension towards the poor, but we know that John Lennon and Green Day care way too much to ever consider such a thing--John must have been showing the "peasants" what other rich people think of them.
By the way, be a hero! But how? It's all so hopeless!
There's room at the top they are telling you still,
But first you must learn how to smile as you kill,
If you want to be like the folks on the hill,
A working class [sic] hero is something to be,
A working class [sic] hero is something to be.
Unfortunately, some of the "peasants" listening to this song might still think it's possible to succeed--they might have heard of, or maybe even actually know a fellow "peasant" who is has become one of those "folks on the hill." Not to worry, just assure them that getting a good job is to "learn how to smile as you kill." If despair can't get them, maybe guilt will. Furthermore, for those who've already bought into the bit about how impossible it all is, this gives them even more reason to hate those who have exploited them by creating their televisions.
So where do we go from here? We've been made "to feel small" by being given "no time," felt "pain so big" we've become numb, "hurt," "hit," either "hate[d]" or "despise[d]," driven "so fucking crazy" we can't make sense of it anymore, "tortured," "scarred," been expected to find a job even though we're "so full of fear," and "doped with religion and sex on TV." You may already be enlightened, but as for me, I feel overwhelmed. What should I do, John?
If you want to be a hero well just follow me,
If you want to be a hero well just follow me.
Ahh, so that's it--if I want to get by in this scary world, I need to let you tell me what to do, to follow your example. I'm not really sure if you're encouraging me to lie in bed all day in the front window of an apartment store with my ugly wife, waltz around the room to "I, Me, Mine" with my ugly wife, do a lot of drugs, write cryptic lyrics, neglect my firstborn child, pose naked in a fetal position for the cover of a magazine (also with my ugly wife), or just wear round glasses, but you're obviously much more enlightened than a "fucking peasant" like me so I suppose you know far more about how I should run my life than I ever could.
I know that Mr. Lennon doesn't speak for everyone on the left, but this does epitomize the attitudes that they utilize to score political points, and he does happen to be one of their icons.. If you don't believe me, simply observe how much feeling they put into "Imagine" as they sing along "living for todaaaaaaay" while intoxicated. Green Day is one of today's most popular cultural opponents of the "redneck agenda" of the average "American Idiot."
Therefore, Green Day deserves our gratitude for resurrecting this song and ensuring that kids across the globe will be hearing these wise words repeatedly on the radio day after day!
But false class consciousness remains. Despite the unrepresentative distribution of ethnic minorities in the National Basketball Association, several prominent black basketball players have resisted the attempts of a pair of academics to portray them as victims.
If only our oppressed masses could transfer the ethic they bring to math class to the basketball court our society would be much healthier.
5 comments:
I already know there will be a well-worded comeback aimed against my comments, but I thought I'd fire back anyway.
While this "us-vs-them" attitude is a leftist device placed on a group of prospective followers, there is a similar attitude utilized by the religious right.
You comment on the blacks (not all, but theportion you're referring to) having this attitude was not without merit. But, I do not believe that this is a leftist only problem.
I, however, grew up in the religious right. I feasted on a steady diet of "us-vs-them." You will hear just as many sermons of self-victimization in a church (the churches that are more politically religious) than you would from a black activist group.
While some of these politically motivated churches are comprised of wealth and political prestige, they constantly tell their own people that they are "under fire" in this country and they need their rights protected (though most of their campaigns tend to be aimed at stripping people of rights).
This is not from someone trying to analyze the other side, I was on that side all my life. This is not stuff I overhear from the left.
Prominent evangelist Ted Haggard urged people to "follow him." While he met with President Bush on a weekly basis, spearheaded a religious right initiative to constitutionally ban gay marriage and presided over his mega-church, he was off scoring meth from a gay male prostitute he was seeing.
So, you while you mention Lennon's flaws, I can fire away at many right wingers who also had a "follow me" kind of attitude who had just as many.
My goal was not to go on a rant regarding the religious right, but to provide a mirror insight.
Your claims are mostly valid, but your mentality (I'm treading water carefully here) of the left being flawed and the right being virtuous is a little scary.
I can only say this because neither the left nor the right have ownership of my soul. I have no loyalty to either side. I walk alone.
Okay, now with the stuff I agree with. You know better than anyone that rock and rollers, especially once they made it, rely on their instincts to rebel. They cradle the baby of the little man in their arms while they would never step into that little man's neighborhood at night. Does Lennon and the folks at Green Day give copies of their music to their servants at their estates?
There's always going to be folksy aspect to that music. Some artists will buy into a leftist cause simply because it's a leftist cause.
I've stopped taking musicians seriously along time ago. Though they have that need to voice their concerns and it is their right, most people should form their own opinions on issues and not let celebrities think for them.
Great blog by the way. Some stuff I agree with a hundred percent and some of the items make me sick (isn't that what makes this interesting though?).
You are right about the us/vs-them attitude also being prominent among many conservatives. I agree that it is also counterproductive.
However, a very basic difference between the two attitudes is that the RR categorizes people by belief while the left categorizes people by who they are. You're born poor or black and the left teaches you that your only prayer is to unite behind leftist leaders.
Also, the religious right in no way fosters the mentality that makes it harder to find a job. Yes, they believe in a culture war, but they make no excuses for their followers in the economic sense.
Sorry if you find some of my views "scary" or one-sided, but the left shares every flaw of the right but adds a bunch of its own. Both are imperfect, and both can even poison the minds of their children.
But I also think that the right causes harm despite its beliefs(and that includes the hypocritical Christians), but the left does damage because of its beliefs.
The right is a flawed and hypocritical attempt to do the right thing, the left is based on nihilism (see onecosmos.blogspot.com for details). I would love to observe the flaws on both sides so as to rationalize fence-sitting (which I did for years), but although many on the left are good people, their philosophy is poison so I have to fight it, even if many of my allies are flawed.
Very good point about giving their lyrics to their followers. Supposedly, Michael Moore treats those who work for him like vassals. I know members of a wait-staff who were not tipped by Jesse Jackson.
Thanks for the compliments, but what makes you feel sick?
Sick might have been a strong word and I am responsible for phrasing that sentence in a rather poor way as well.
The views don't make me sick, it's just that I think all this is tiring. At the end of our lives, we won't be looking back fondly on the hatred we spewed on the other political side nor the pride we had for the side we chose.
In the end, it's friendship and family that really have meaning.
I think it's healthy to talk about politics, but, like everything else, I think balance is needed in life.
There will never be a grand solution that will be rendered. This grand solution will not thank the many people who spent hours upon hours upon years talking back and forth about these issues.
Maybe I have burnout?
Interesting on the us-vs-them argument. True, people of faith tend to discriminate on belief, but those non-believers become a race as far as they are concerned (see Bill O'Reilly use the cute term "SP's."
Funny thing is, and this is a tangent, Fox News creates one big term for secular progressives. They never point it out that some secularists are conservatives and some are liberals. There are many republicans who are sickened at the fact that the religious right highjacked their party.
Back on track though, don't you think for one minute that the Al Sharpton's and Jesse Jackson's purpose in life is to keep fueling a fire. What job would they have if they didn't?
I do agree with Lennon's line about religion. I see religion being used as the black man's opium. For two hours a week they attend a concert complete with a fashion show and a raspy voice minister telling them what they need to do to ressurect their community.
It's the same onld song and dance though. Their cities aren't getting any better. Not that I'm pro-segregation or anything, but the fact remains that there was more black owned businesses in existance before the 1960's.
It takes effort to move from a consumer mentality to a producer mentality. The Jews had many people to blame, but they came here and set up shop (there were just as many white people who despised them as well). And some of these Jews started up business here just months after being freed from the concentration camps.
Blame is snowball that rolls down hill and it only destroys.
As far as fence sitting, I don't buy into a rule that there are only two sides and one must be picked. I have my own mind and neither side has enough positives to make me want to jump ship.
So, though I think the fence sitting bit had a negative connotation, not every independent is a fence sitter. We go by the issue, not allegiance to some pre-constructed team.
Again, sorry about the word "sick." It was not meant to define the blog or it's contents.
All forgiven for the "sick" comment--it inspired curiosity, not offense
"At the end of our lives, we won't be looking back fondly on the hatred we spewed on the other political side nor the pride we had for the side we chose."
You're right, from a certaion point of view. I'd rather not "spew hatred" but I see our freedoms eroding, and unless we do something about it, it will only get worse. In Sweden they hate "spewing hatred," and look at what's happening in Malmo: http://www.brusselsjournal.com/node/938.
Indeed, friendship and family have meaning, but so does freedom and making sure that whatever family we have fifty years from now can enjoy what we've got today. The left misdefines "freedom" and proceeds to take it away while ignoring those who really do want to impose fascism on us from outside.
Even if we burn out on politics, politics will never burn out on us. Right now, we live in an era in which things are good enough for us to ignore the awful stuff on the horizon. If we wake up now, we can prevent tragedies that will affect us all profoundly, not just peripherally like they do now.
I also agree that there is no "grand solution," but there is "better than today" and "preventing it all from going to hell."
Yes, there are Republicans sick of the religious right, but I assure you that just about all of them are more sick of the left and islamofascism. The GOP is a huge coalition of interests, and many of its members would love to ditch some of its other members. We've just decided that it's better to ally oneself with someone we don't like than with somebody hostile to just about everything we stand for.
I suspect part of the problem with the black church is that it's talking out of both sides of its mouth. When only blacks are around, it's all about taking responsibility for themselves and their communities, but when a white guy walks into the room it's white America that has to do all the changing. "A house divided against itself cannot stand." They simultaneously talk of transforming lives and make excuses for the inability to transform.
As far as the "fence-sitting," I recognize the negative connotation, and with all due respect, it was intended. The North wasn't right about everything in the Civil War, the Allies (Stalin) weren't exactly angels during WEII, but one side was clearly less awful than the other. Politics, like life, is often about choosing between bad options. However, I strongly believe that once it becomes clear how much worse one of those options is, we have to pick the other one. In no way have I surrendered my individuality by making such a choice--the only person with whom I agree on everything is me.
I wish that libertarianism or something even better were a realistic option at this point, but its not. The fight's too important for me to sit on the sidelines, so I had to jump in, and now that I'm in, I have more influence on allies with whom I disagree than I did before.
I'll be dealing with the differences between the right and left's us-vs-them and whether or not either is a "pre-constructed team" in my next posts.
To show how "fair and balanced" I am, I thought I would show another aspect of the dangers of religion.
Though I'm a staunch critic of the religious right in America, I do think they get a bad shake when it comes from the left. Maybe the left tackle Christianity because it's the predominant religion in America. But, what the left does, and this makes me sick, is they remain quiet about Islam.
For some reason, they allowed Islam to join their coveted list of puppies who are bullied by white America. It's like they see Islam as a near bhuddist like practice that enlightens the mind and brings about peace. If any leftists differ, please shout out now.
I'm no fan of the Christian right in this country, but I will say that Christianity has a Greco-Roman nature to it. That means that there is a certain level of reason. You can see how even Christianity today is liberal compared to a hundred years ago because of the sense of reason that is in place. Christianity, for the most part, filtered out the cruelty and bloodshed over time.
Islam comes from the East where reason is not a respected component. Babarianism, and let's call it what it is, is a big aspect of it. You don't need to be a theologian to know that, all you have to do is look at the fruits it has produced.
I'm curious how John Lennon would have reacted to this modern climate of activity?
I think John Lennon really wanted peace and we have to remember that peace isn't a bad thing. But, you need two dancing partners for that song.
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