submissions
| Cat Stevens – Oh Very Young Lyrics
| 2 years ago
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@[RDM:49219] Good point about true art building up souls, which are the divine, spiritual parts of humans. Too much of today’s garbage either tears us apart or brings us down into unsoulful realms of greed, anger, lust, craving and or vengeance. One point I’d expand on is that I think Cat’s point is not just to love the people around us, but to love humankind overall including future generations that we’ll never meet. Much of the time being kind to people around us benefits us, but not humanity overall. Likewise, sometimes being kind to those around us hurts humanity overall. Take for example a small town of middle-class racists: people who are blatantly racist. If they put a lot of their focus on loving each other, including putting their financial support and time towards helping each other in various loving ways, they’re having a bad impact in two ways: building up and making racists stronger and more powerful; and not helping people who need it far more. |
submissions
| Cat Stevens – Oh Very Young Lyrics
| 2 years ago
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@[MusicOfSilence:49218] I agree with you. As you said, it’s a plea for younger people to not live for themselves, to not focus on getting ahead etc. and rather to use their potential to make the world better and leave something for the next generation. Interestingly, for a long time in the US the focus was on the next generations and sacrificing for their good. This was partly due to the US having had such large immigrant populations in those days, as immigrants often focus on sacrificing for future generations. Then along came the “me” generation (which was people in Cat’s generation), and the focus became far more so on pleasure and self-aggrandizement. It’s amazing that in his 20s, Cat was boldly calling this out to his generation. Unfortunately it largely fell on deaf ears, and still today mostly falls on deaf ears within all generations. |
submissions
| Cat Stevens – Oh Very Young Lyrics
| 2 years ago
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@[masterofreality:49217] I agree with much of your comments. But I disagree on the dichotomy you make at the end about the choice being between helping future generations vs. being at peace. I think another user here has it more right in that the choice is between pursuing and worrying about your own personal goals/dreams vs. focusing on love and making the world better for future generations. In other words, I agree with you that he’s calling for the listener to make love be the anchor for humankind. But the choice is between that anchor of love (that will last after they die) versus pursuing their own self-centered goals that are bound to fade.
I think further support for this is the fact that in most uses (like dream job, dream house, dream boyfriend, American dream, dream vacation, etc.) the word dream is usually used for things that personally benefit us, and not humanity overall. Given that the personal goals are going to die anyway, why not instead pursue “love” that will allow “the world to see a better day” and that will “leave” goodness that lasts after you’re gone from this earth? Doing that will also lead the listener to something else that will last after they die: heaven.
So however hard it is to say goodbye to our own concerns and goals, doing that and opting for love instead is the best path for humanity (a better world after we die) and also the best path for ourselves (heaven). The song is a rhetorical question in that Cat is very much conveying that love is the choice to make. |
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