"... the Negro’s great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen’s Councilor or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to 'order' than to justice; who prefers a negative peace, which is the absence of tension, to a positive peace, which is the presence of justice."
Martin Luther King
It is my view, at this particular moment in time, that 'moderates', whatever the issue in question, are forever mankind's stumbling block. Armies of moderates will infiltrate polling stations across the UK in 2015 to thwart all attempts by free-thinking individuals to affect change. Imagine letting these fuckers decide what music you listen to for the next four years.
By Mountain Forehead
I have had a think about this, and I agree with you this middle of the road mentality is insidious. I am not convinced though that any moderate political party, or "centre" government of any shade will decide upon people's interest in music or go about banning things .In fact, it promulgates the myth that we are "free" if such music, entertainment, sex and drugs are widely and legally available, or if regulated at least able to be commodified and turned into profit. So it is a particular type of cultural life which is an outgrowth of capitalist economics, just like "bad gut bacteria" if you eat too much junk food.
ReplyDeleteJust look at the charts at the moment - there is a kind of permissive "musical freedom" which permits Miley Cyrus to wantonly (almost gynaecologically) objectify herself, but it is absolute artless pig shit. People meekly go along with whatever the media, MTV or radio tells them to buy. It's a bit like the old argument: the "Orwell" vs "Huxley" version of dystopia; the one proscriptive where books and music are burned and banned, the other askance at the availability of these things, but the mass of people are not bothered about making use of them, or banally avoid thinking deeply about them. I think we are definitely in Huxley's world. Whether that is by design of the scheming 1%, or an artifact of degenerate capitalism, is something to think about.
I saw the film “12 Years A Slave” last night, and it touches on some of the themes you have identified, especially the MLK quote. Get yourself a pen name, and some labels/ tags if you are going to write on the Blog. There are "Civil Rights" and "Politics" tags for your thought- provoking posts.
South Utsire