A Hope for a Nation in Disarray... Music
I don't know the answer. I don't know that the answer is important. What is known is that things are in dissaray. We are broke and in many cases broken. What is missing in the midst of all this social discord and political pissing match is the love that once sustained us, community.
Kids used be tossed out of their homes and told not to return until sundown. Now they can't leave the perimeter of their own yards, should they be lucky enough to have one. People used to stoop-sit and converse. Music. Music was once a universal language through which four shaggy-haired upstarts from across the pond could communicate a message understood and dissiminated in compliment by twanging guitar strings from Kentucky and Mississippi, or by fast-motored soulsters from Detroit. Motown, baby, Motown.
There was conflict to be sure, and violence. There were poverty and power movements like Civil Rights and Vietnam protests. There were gas shoratages and hostage crises. Drugs. Coke and heroin. Then came crack circa 1985. Ten years later technology became the tool of the oldest-standing vice in the storied history of mankind: greed. We segmented after desegregation. We imprisoned ourselves after finally becoming free. We kept communicating but discontinued civil conversation. Today we all talk at once and seldom listen. Things are different now that most of our needs are met and our wants have been exceeded.
I for one don't mind so much the recent economic collapse, save for those who are now homeless and hungry. Especially when the cause is corporate greed and conditioned excess. I think, hope, understand that out of this chaotic and confusing whirlwind of change some things will get better. We will rely on each other once again. We will speak to the people next to us in solidarity and mutual agreement that "shit is fucked up". Things need to change. We need to change. The music and conversation needs to draw us together once again so our children can play and know what it is to be children. Imagination must once again be cultivated and unfettered and unmolested. As they grow these minds will dream and aspire. They won't be told "no". They won't be sold a bill of hollow goods and told to pay shipping and tax as well. They won't be lied to about how great they are as shiftless blobs in front of refridgerators and video-game consoles. They will know they are ok as they are but will want to be better; to learn to improve their surroundings. Invention and innovation. Creativity without compromise.
What we need is music. What we have is love. Let us cultivate the economy of these things into a prosperous and generative culture that can thrive with just a little bit of attentive affection. Can we forget about our tea parties and occupations for moment and remember the songs in our hearts that made us want to be free and be great and be ourselves? For the kid's sakes and our own, I hope the answer once again becomes important. I pray the answer is yes.
