I spent the afternoon at the eastern market, and the late morning at the Smithsonian Natural History museum. While there I was reminded of something. I was shopping through music I can ill afford, but even more so ill afford to live without, when I came upon some reggae: Peter Tosh to be precise. I also stumbled onto some Cubano compilation and Bill Monroe’s best per some company in Jersey.
It was then that I wondered why so little music today comes with such a message, heavy in its payload as did Peter Tosh’s music. With lyrics like, “I don’ wan peace, I wan equal rights an justice”, today he would never find the audience he found in the late 70’s. It is interesting that Peter Tosh and Bob Marley et. al. were so able to personify the image of Christ that Western Christianity promotes, but does not live. Or perhaps it was the times; times marked with the greatness of Dr. Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the guru Gandhi as they led their people out of Egypt to the Promised Land.
Sadly they were destroyed before their lifes’ work could be followed through on. If only our society wasn’t so easily manipulated – which makes me think of the Natural History Museum and it’s insistence on the accuracy of Darwinian Evolution, if only by implication. Is humanity simply finding an environmental change that is not cured by the use of a tool? Is it possible that those able to lose themselves in media are better suited to the new environment of media bombardment or are they made weaker by the susceptibility of placid acceptance? Is the manipulation of a presidential election via mass information broadcasting and bombardment the abstract example of an evolutionary selection method? King and Gandhi and all the flower children of the 50’s, 60,’s & 70’s seem to have wilted under the harsh gaze of media consumption; a thing that has fundamentally changed the world view simultaneously for each of the citizens. King’s message of love and justice for all things has given way to another day for retail sales boosts as celebrators spend their holidays cruising the mall after days of advertising has convinced them King’s memory is best served flexing finances.
(and here i’ve just gone and sunday shopped for CDs)
I have almost the same i for something. Someone told me it wasn’t individual enough, it just faded into everything else in this world. I told them that was what I was going for. She called me abrassive.
someone’s an idiot. they should be flogged and their arms ripped from thier sockets, much like the wings.