I never liked this song so why would I write about it?
Simple, I’m not writing about the songs themselves. I mentioned before that I will likely be writing about songs that are from performers that I had not direct connection with. This is one of those.
I’m going to be writing about drugs, fetishism and racism, so if you don’t want to read about that, move on. I’ll understand but you shouldn’t hide from it. Being unaware doesn’t make you any safer even if it makes you feel more safe.
I’ve talked about how common drugs were when I was growing up and then about how that related to my brief jaunt into the music industry but I have been able to keep myself pretty clean. I am lucky in that regard. I’ve mentioned before that I felt that I needed to for the safety of myself and others. It’s not about some supposed moral high-ground.
I’ve seen enough high-functioning drug users, including alcohol. They’d come home from work, dope themselves up, crash out, then get up and do it all over again the next day. There are a lot of people who you might meet during the day who are high on something and you would never really notice. Of course, then you meet people who are completely sober and yet you think that we’re on something.
The high-functioning people don’t get noticed though. They aren’t usually the problem. What is the saying, “it’s not a problem until it is.” The ones that we remember are the ones who are behaving badly. Like the neighbors of mine who were using and dealing from one of the apartments below mine, one of the men who threatened me with, and then attempted to sell me, a gun, and so on.
However, I did not know this song’s drug relationship until I decided that I was going to write a SotD on a song I don’t like. So, why would I do that?
Simple answer, I’m weird.
Complicated answer is that songs that make us uncomfortable are sometimes even more important than those that make of feels safe, loved or in-tune with ourselves or others. Why? There’s a lot that we as humans, as a culture, as a country, need to confront and denying this doesn’t make our lives any better.
Many forms of art are made to get us to see and think about something. I can appreciate that and still walk away wishing that this kind of thing wasn’t necessary.
So, what has me bothered by the song? The suggestions of racist fetishism and the mentions of symbols which have been appropriated and corrupted by greedy and powerful people with the intent of doing other people harm.
My father was a racist but one of the quiet ones. He never marched against any ethnic group, but he was. He told me. Aside from that, I saw racism, sexism and objectification everywhere.
I have felt this to be some of the most stupid things that we do to each other and the animals we share the world with. To me, it’s like the right hand hating the left hand.
We live together or we die apart. We need each other, even those who we don’t agree with most of the time.
Imagine one of those adventure movies would be if it was all the same person. Each member would have all the same skills, all the same quirks, all the same weaknesses. The movie could be over even before the party got started.
It sure seems like that is the world some people want to live in. A world with only one kind of person, only one style of dress, one set of mannerisms, one warped opinion of what it is to be a man. This world would die really fast because who would keep the lights on, haul the garbage, cook the food, tend the animals and do all the inglorious jobs? None of these people. It’d be beneath them. “That’s woman’s work,” they’d say and slowly starve to death out of stubbornness and inflexibility.
That’s not the world I live in.
I said I was going to say something about objectification too. So much of this is tied together to make a certain kind of person feel justified for doing terrible things to other people, other animals and the world which we all share. It’s like the claim that some people make for environmental and resource exploitation. They would say, “We never believed that it would never run out.” I call bull on that. What that really is, “I wanted to make as much money as possible in the short run, damn the consequences.”
Being responsible is hard and it’s absolutely no fun, as a friend of mine who mostly kicked his alcohol habit, “Being sober sucks but it saves me so much money…I actually paid off my car.”
Friends, our bill is coming and it’s going to be high.
Are you ready?
