This makes me a sad panda
Behold, down from the dewey slops of the lofty mount of rocking comes the National Review (Official Slogan: What's So Bad About Segregation?) with the Top 50 Conservative Rock Songs. Check it out, it's pretty funny. There are already some cogent takedowns from better bloggers here and here.
I don't want to examine the songs themselves (honestly, The Clash? really?) but I would raise an objection to the entire enterprise itself. Here's the sad truth, the devistating reality of the world whose cold, black outlines show in stark relief the hardness of the universe: Conservatism is not cool. Never has been, never will be. That doesn't mean that individual conservatives themselves cannot be cool or write a cool song or paint a cool painting. Stravinksy was practically a fascist, and people seemed to have liked Rush (?!). But the whole principle of conservative political thought stands opposed to anything like the aesthetics of cool, to wit: rock music. Rock is avowedly that strain of pop music that celebrates, nay encourages promiscuous sex, heavy drinking, drug use, crime, and the brining down of The Man.
Even the sort of wussy indie rock that I often listen to is composed with an eye to a decidedly un-conservative lifestyle.
There are surely some conservative rock songs, but on this list of 50 there are perhaps five authentically conservative tunes. The list conflates any opposition to authoritarianism with anti-Communism, the list seems to believe that mistrust of government in these songs is right-libertarianism (not, say, opposition to Vietnam, or mistrust of the Regan or Nixon administrations...which is what the sentiments in the songs tend to be), the list seems to mistake irony for earnestness as in the case of "I Fought the Law," which is decidedly not a law and order song--the outlaw is still the hero, it's just that he lost in this case. There is also the comical over-reading of songs like "The Battle of Evermore" whose politics, if any, seem to relevant only in Middle Earth.
Or when the list makers fall for the fake out in "Sympathy for the Devil," pronouncing that, "The devil is a tempter who leans hard on moral relativism — he will try to make you think that 'every cop is a criminal / And all the sinners saints.' What's more, he is the sinister inspiration for the cruelties of Bolshevism: 'I stuck around St. Petersburg / When I saw it was a time for a change / Killed the czar and his ministers / Anastasia screamed in vain.'" In point of fact, the song paints the Devil as a seductive hero who speaks the truth that "every cop is a criminal..." And yeah, the song mentions Bolshevism, but by the list's terms it also condemns the Kennedy assassination and Western intervention in the Third World. Listen to the swagger in Mick's voice when he sings the song in character as the Devil, Ol' Scratch is the hero of this tale, always getting one over on the squares. Rock music likes the Devil, this is an inviolable truth of rocking.
At the end of the day, the entire project--to find "conservative" rock songs--is a fool's errand. Conservatism doesn't rock. The very attempt to find conservative rock songs belies its own foolishness, liberals don't have to look for cool stuff that reflects our values; it's not a hunt for a progressive, it's a shopping spree. The conservative top 50 contains the song "One" by Creed, which is the least amount of rocking ever committed to CD. Q.E.D.
The very first group of culturally conservative, laissez-faire Republicans in the 19th Century were called the "Stalwarts." It is an apt characterization encapsulated in a single word. In fact, I know more a one conservative who defines themselves against hippness. The counter-strain, the idea that conservatives are the real cool cats, and it's stuffy old politically correct liberals who hate fun is absurd in the highest degree. Yes liberals think that you shouldn't be allowed to call people racial epithets because that's not cool, and we care about policy more than image (as demonstrated by our consistent electoral defeat over the last few years). But so long as the misogynist War on Fucking continues, and so long as it's conservatives that think dissent is treason and art should be censored if it's politically unacceptable...well so long as all of that continues They Shall Not Rock!
I don't want to examine the songs themselves (honestly, The Clash? really?) but I would raise an objection to the entire enterprise itself. Here's the sad truth, the devistating reality of the world whose cold, black outlines show in stark relief the hardness of the universe: Conservatism is not cool. Never has been, never will be. That doesn't mean that individual conservatives themselves cannot be cool or write a cool song or paint a cool painting. Stravinksy was practically a fascist, and people seemed to have liked Rush (?!). But the whole principle of conservative political thought stands opposed to anything like the aesthetics of cool, to wit: rock music. Rock is avowedly that strain of pop music that celebrates, nay encourages promiscuous sex, heavy drinking, drug use, crime, and the brining down of The Man.
Even the sort of wussy indie rock that I often listen to is composed with an eye to a decidedly un-conservative lifestyle.
There are surely some conservative rock songs, but on this list of 50 there are perhaps five authentically conservative tunes. The list conflates any opposition to authoritarianism with anti-Communism, the list seems to believe that mistrust of government in these songs is right-libertarianism (not, say, opposition to Vietnam, or mistrust of the Regan or Nixon administrations...which is what the sentiments in the songs tend to be), the list seems to mistake irony for earnestness as in the case of "I Fought the Law," which is decidedly not a law and order song--the outlaw is still the hero, it's just that he lost in this case. There is also the comical over-reading of songs like "The Battle of Evermore" whose politics, if any, seem to relevant only in Middle Earth.
Or when the list makers fall for the fake out in "Sympathy for the Devil," pronouncing that, "The devil is a tempter who leans hard on moral relativism — he will try to make you think that 'every cop is a criminal / And all the sinners saints.' What's more, he is the sinister inspiration for the cruelties of Bolshevism: 'I stuck around St. Petersburg / When I saw it was a time for a change / Killed the czar and his ministers / Anastasia screamed in vain.'" In point of fact, the song paints the Devil as a seductive hero who speaks the truth that "every cop is a criminal..." And yeah, the song mentions Bolshevism, but by the list's terms it also condemns the Kennedy assassination and Western intervention in the Third World. Listen to the swagger in Mick's voice when he sings the song in character as the Devil, Ol' Scratch is the hero of this tale, always getting one over on the squares. Rock music likes the Devil, this is an inviolable truth of rocking.
At the end of the day, the entire project--to find "conservative" rock songs--is a fool's errand. Conservatism doesn't rock. The very attempt to find conservative rock songs belies its own foolishness, liberals don't have to look for cool stuff that reflects our values; it's not a hunt for a progressive, it's a shopping spree. The conservative top 50 contains the song "One" by Creed, which is the least amount of rocking ever committed to CD. Q.E.D.
The very first group of culturally conservative, laissez-faire Republicans in the 19th Century were called the "Stalwarts." It is an apt characterization encapsulated in a single word. In fact, I know more a one conservative who defines themselves against hippness. The counter-strain, the idea that conservatives are the real cool cats, and it's stuffy old politically correct liberals who hate fun is absurd in the highest degree. Yes liberals think that you shouldn't be allowed to call people racial epithets because that's not cool, and we care about policy more than image (as demonstrated by our consistent electoral defeat over the last few years). But so long as the misogynist War on Fucking continues, and so long as it's conservatives that think dissent is treason and art should be censored if it's politically unacceptable...well so long as all of that continues They Shall Not Rock!
Labels: politics
posted by justin | 1:08 PM
1 Comments:
good, good, I see I finally git some credit around here....
Rock on my li'l ones!
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