“The problem with Bob Marley in white America is one of perspective. Many of Marley’s songs are about resistance and violent revolution. The threat implicit in the lines ‘Them belly full but we hungry/ A hungry mob is an angry mob’ or the song ‘Burnin’ and Lootin’‘ isn’t too far from the surface. But lyrics about armed resistance make America’s secular-progressive middle classes — those most responsible for the cult of Marley as a cuddly ‘One Love‘ Rastafarian — uneasy.” Contending that “[l]istening to Legend to understand Marley is like reading Bridget Jones’s Diary to get Jane Austen.,” Slate‘s Field Mahoney argues the merits of Bob Marley’s back catalog, and suggests that US fans tend to overemphasize the stoner and underemphasize the revolutionary.
Tag: Protests
Opp-Ed.
“As a chapter in the continuing history of opposition to dissent, Oppenheimer‘s fate is especially worth re-exploring now. Whether in the closed halls of the intelligence services or in the open sessions of Congress, we need the hard impact of contestation; we need recalcitrant voices ready to challenge the established terms of discussion…Oppenheimer always thought that argued dissent was an inseparable part of patriotism. He was right.” In his review of the recent biography American Prometheus, Harvard’s Peter Galison lauds J. Robert Oppenheimer’s patriotic vision of reflective dissent.
Terrible Lie(s).
Exemplifying MTV’s consistent downward spiral since the heady days of Rock the Vote and Randee of the Redwoods (yes, I just dated myself), Nine Inch Nails drops out of a performance at the Movie Awards after the network got nervous about (gasp!) a “partisan political statement.” “‘We were set to perform “The Hand That Feeds” with an unmolested, straightforward image of George W. Bush as the backdrop. Apparently, the image of our president is as offensive to MTV as it is to me,’ Nine Inch Nails’ leader Trent Reznor said in a statement posted on the band’s Web site.” Hmmm. Well, maybe the Breakfast Club will pick up Reznor’s standard… (Last link via Freakgirl.)
So far, so good.
Aside from one burning float (and poor mask-wearing Rosario Dawson), the first protests against the GOP Invasion Force were both plentiful and peaceful. (I thought the Billionaires for Bush bit was a particularly nice flourish.) I just hope the rest of the protesters this week are better than I am at restraining their anger and contempt over the 9/11 graverobbing about to ensue.
Fortress: MSG.
The board is set, the pieces are moving, and a host of sweaty, overweight middle-aged white guys in short-sleeve dress shirts marches forth to hold our fair city siege. (You think I’m kidding, I was surrounded by a gaggle of ’em earlier this afternoon outside Artie’s Deli…they all had matching GOP 2004 name tags, along with their designated rank in the Noble and Benevolent Order of Somesuch, and they were all sizing up passers-by with sneers that suggested equal parts suspicion, fear, and disgust. Look, buds, the feeling’s mutual. People are strange when you’re a stranger, and y’all are most definitely strangers.)
Meanwhile, it already looks like a 5-Star Grand Theft Auto rampage down at the Garden, with cops everywhere, choppers overhead, and black SUVs with police lights zooming back and forth. 33rd St. is completely cordoned off, Herald Square has become Hardball central, and concrete cinder blocks have been placed at all corners of MSG. Not much of a protester presence at the venue yet, although some forces seem to be gathering around Union Square (where I picked up the button at right.) Oh, yes, it should be a hot time in old New York town next week.
’68 Reasons to Play it Cool.
“When a tree falls in the forest, does it make a sound? If resistance against Bush actually plays into Bush’s hands, is it really resistance?” In the Voice, Rick Perlstein joins the many lefty voices urging caution to protesters during next week’s convention.
Gangs of New York.
Various media outlets preview the protests in store for the GOP convention in two weeks. I basically agree with those who think that the protests will have to be very clever to have anything but a negative effect for the Kerry team. Shrill, violent, and generally idiotic forms of protest will only play right into the hands of the GOP, who are practically begging to have the distinction made between their flag-waving, 9/11-tombrobbing soiree in the Garden and the radical unwashed masses just outside. And given how lazy and bored the national newsmedia acted in Boston, I’d expect that the Talking Heads will be actively seeking out the craziest loons they can muster just so they can turn them into the story. We’re treading on delicate ground here, fellow lefty New Yorkers…let’s not screw this up.
American and Ashamed.
My high school friend Luke, lately the creator of Expats Against Bush, is interviewed by Newsweek on his leading the anti-Bush protests in London tomorrow. You go, buddy.
One Bad Apple.
Alas, our recent Columbia teach-in on the war, which included some of the university’s leading luminaries in all departments, was singlehandedly derailed by the asinine comments of one anthro prof, Nicholas De Genova. Said De Genova, “The only true heroes are those who find ways that help defeat the U.S. military…I personally would like to see a million Mogadishus.” He also argued that all self-proclaimed patriots are in fact white supremacists. Sigh…it’s freak show guys like this who give the entire anti-war movement a bad name. As you can see, Eric Foner calls the guy idiotic in the article, and Alan Brinkley has also declared his comments “abhorrent” and “immoral.” (In fact, even Columbia’s President has now distanced himself from De Genova.) The point is, this joker in no way speaks for the majority of Americans against the war, although he’s already getting a lot of run in the warblogger nation regardless. And, while I don’t want to disparage an entire department, I’m not entirely surprised he emerged from anthropology – I’ve heard similar rants from other radical post-structuralist and post-colonialist-enamored students over in Schermerhorn.
Advise and Dissent.
As the protests heat up in NYC, Slate‘s David Greenberg evaluates the many contributions of American antiwar efforts over the centuries, and reminds us anew that anti-war advocates are also more often than not pro-troop. Something for the Right to consider before they break out the paintball guns.