Binge listening to the music of Leonard Cohen on a Sunday afternoon is good for both mind and soul. Cohen and others like Bob Dylan, Tom Waits, Joan Baez, and many more who performed their lyric poetry to music were the troubadours and trobairitz of the late 1960s to the late-1980s.
That was a time when the something-twenty and something-thirty-year-olds were triggering the establishment with their free speech. I find it amazing that a generation later, it is this same age group that are the triggered. But there was a lot of hate-speech back then. The songs spoke of hating famine, government interference, war, and limits on free expression.
Today that age cohort wants limits on speech, wants as much government interference (except for abortion) as possible (as long as recreational drugs are legal), and finds war acceptable depending on who is leading the charge into battle from behind a big desk of course.
When Al “I Know Something Is Wrong With The Climate” Gore was US Vice President, his wife Tipper had already started the Parents Music Resource Center. The PMRC fought long and hard for labeling of album record covers featuring profane language, especially in the heavy metal, punk, and hip-hop genres. She wrote Raising PG Kids in an X-Rated Society in 1987. Interestingly—or not—Ms. Tipper has not said anything about Rap lyrics in the 21st century. Rap music listeners would vote for her candidates anyway.
Cohen wrote lyrics like this released in 1988. “Everybody knows that the dice are loaded, Everybody knows the fight was fixed. Everybody knows that the boat is leaking, Everybody knows that the captain lied. And everybody knows that the Plague is coming, Everybody knows that it’s moving fast.”
By 1992, Cohen was writing “There’s no one left to torture, Give me absolute control, Over every living soul. Things are going to slide, Slide in all directions. Destroy another fetus now, We don’t like children anyhow.”
By 1994, because of Congressional hearings the previous year, the Entertainment Software Rating Board was created allowing parents to make “informed choices” in video games. Doom was extremely violent as players controlled “Doom Slayer,” “fighting his way through hordes of invading demons from Hell.”
Has much changed in 40 years? Caitlin Johnstone is a “rogue journalist, bogan socialist, guerilla poet and utopia prepper living in Australia with her husband and two children.” She writes for Scoop news out of New Zealand.
Ms. Johnstone: “The oligarchic empire is working harder and harder to bolt down our minds in service of its agendas. Power is controlling what happens; absolute power is controlling what people think about what happens. History shows us that rulers do not fare well after a critical mass of the population has turned against them. They work so hard to manufacture our consent for the status quo because they absolutely require that consent; It takes a lot of educating to keep us this stupid.”
Individually, people are not easily manipulated by others. However, we do fool and manipulate our own selves. But collectively, a group of cockroaches is usually smarter than a group of humans.
This formula never fails. Create fear about an issue, any issue. Overpopulation was popular in the 1960s, as was the pesticide DDT. “We’re all going to die!” Then create mass guilt. “Only a foolish uncaring person would not be vitally concerned.” Then place the responsibility. “If nothing changes for the better, it is your fault because you did NOTHING.”
Replace “overpopulation” with “climate change,” “violent video games,” “hate speech,” “muslims,” “Christians,” “Buddhists,” “unneutered house pets,” and—last but not least—the name of your favorite political candidate.
Leonard Cohen wrote, “Give me back the Berlin Wall, Give me Stalin and St. Paul, And now the wheels of heaven stop. You feel the devil’s riding crop. Get ready for the future, It is murder.” Welcome to Mr. Cohen’s future.
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