Comfortably Numb
The other night, purely by accident, I watched the VH1 bio of Green Day; and I was struck by how terribly nice and earnest they were in their outrage and concerns.
It was quite jarring, remembering the contrast with Johnny Rotten or Joe Strummer - punks who were not afraid to stand up for issues, even if they were confused sell outs.
There seems to be a lack of outrage, as a culture too many people have become comfortable and comfortably numb with it; and as the idiocies accelerate, people just don't have energy to be outraged anymore.
The difference is the extreme right, not conservatives, the radical right. They are outraged, even where there is nothing to be outraged about; it mirrors in a curious way the left extremes ~ 30-40 years ago.
But the current radical right is cowardly, they want to be comfortably outraged without having to accept responsibility for their actions; they want wars without having to fight them, or even pay for them; they want laws that don't apply to them.
It is annoying. It is also unhealthy. It is natural for these things to pendulum a little, but a healthy society dampens such swings, and I don't see any dampers on; and I don't think the next swingback will be healthy for the US as a society.
Course little wannabe punks don't care about such things, long as they can sell out and get theirs first. No such thing as a society is there...
I still wish Green Day would to a cover of "London Burning".
It was quite jarring, remembering the contrast with Johnny Rotten or Joe Strummer - punks who were not afraid to stand up for issues, even if they were confused sell outs.
There seems to be a lack of outrage, as a culture too many people have become comfortable and comfortably numb with it; and as the idiocies accelerate, people just don't have energy to be outraged anymore.
The difference is the extreme right, not conservatives, the radical right. They are outraged, even where there is nothing to be outraged about; it mirrors in a curious way the left extremes ~ 30-40 years ago.
But the current radical right is cowardly, they want to be comfortably outraged without having to accept responsibility for their actions; they want wars without having to fight them, or even pay for them; they want laws that don't apply to them.
It is annoying. It is also unhealthy. It is natural for these things to pendulum a little, but a healthy society dampens such swings, and I don't see any dampers on; and I don't think the next swingback will be healthy for the US as a society.
Course little wannabe punks don't care about such things, long as they can sell out and get theirs first. No such thing as a society is there...
I still wish Green Day would to a cover of "London Burning".
posted by Steinn at 3:42 PM
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