With politically-engaged or protest art, including rock music, your impulses can generally go in one of two directions. One direction is nihilism and infantile self-righteousness, a point of view in which one issues blanket condemnations against whatever it is you're attacking or criticizing. In this view, America (or "Amerika" to make it look like some heir to the Nazi Third Reich) is irredeemably evil and corrupt, racist/violent/murderous/greedy/hypocritical, and one issues the verdict from a (self-appointed) position of moral superiority.
The other direction or point of view, the one John Kay and Steppenwolf embraced in their politically-oriented songs (and this was their best and most ambitious of the genre), one comes from a position not of simplistic, blindly condemnatory self-righteousness and infantile sneering, but from a position of saddened and dismayed disillusionment. Kay and Co. recognize the ideals of the first white settlers of the nation, but also their mixed motives and the injustices done to native peoples here. They recognize that America is and has been capable of great things for humanity, but is engaged in violent and destructive projects (the Vietnam war was at its height at the time). They are begging America to return to its ideals, but they haven't given up on the original project.
I think Kay and Co. would disagree strongly with Gimpy Jim. America doesn't "suck"; it has been corrupted, and needs fixing. They would probably side with OWS, or at least with the demonstrators who want reform, not the ones who want to sneer and destroy with nothing positive to put in its place.
Gimpy Jim, if America sucks what place would you prefer? Iran? Zimbabwe? N. Korea? Perhaps Europe, where the EU is working so harmoniously for the prosperity of all?
I came here to post a comment, and realize that mbrachman pretty much expresses my sentiments on this song. Listening to it right now as I type, and it's still a fine, fine expression of "big picture" political self-examination.
I came here to post a comment, and realize that mbrachman pretty much expresses my sentiments on this song. Listening to it right now as I type, and it's still a fine, fine expression of "big picture" political self-examination.
Yes, Kay & Co. express hope in this song. The litany of power abuse (slavery, genocide of the indigenous, etc.) is sad, but carries the promise of betterment. The switch to the "present" (in the '60s) day, powerfully expressed in the theme change, expresses a tragic despair that, somehow, we failed to get the train firmly on the tracks....
Yes, Kay & Co. express hope in this song. The litany of power abuse (slavery, genocide of the indigenous, etc.) is sad, but carries the promise of betterment. The switch to the "present" (in the '60s) day, powerfully expressed in the theme change, expresses a tragic despair that, somehow, we failed to get the train firmly on the tracks.
That failure has changed a little bit in character, but the fact is that the situation now (2012) is pretty much the same as where Kay leaves off in this song: The American people are fat and lazy, and the "leaders" have merely honed the tools of psychological exploitation of the collective will-to-fail to a fine edge.
There's a powerful reigning image in Monster, and it's the Americans' failure to comprehend the fundamental cowardice that is entailed in a reliance on superior military power as an expression of national identity. On that image, alone, we can safely say that things haven't substantially changed in America from the post-War mil-ind-complex expansion described in the song. And, in that sense, Kay's song achieves two goals which are normally mutually exclusive in pop songs: It is both intensely political, yet also timeless. It was then, is now, and probably for a long, long time will be, a fine challenge to the American mindset and a spur to an urgently needed self-examination.
With politically-engaged or protest art, including rock music, your impulses can generally go in one of two directions. One direction is nihilism and infantile self-righteousness, a point of view in which one issues blanket condemnations against whatever it is you're attacking or criticizing. In this view, America (or "Amerika" to make it look like some heir to the Nazi Third Reich) is irredeemably evil and corrupt, racist/violent/murderous/greedy/hypocritical, and one issues the verdict from a (self-appointed) position of moral superiority.
The other direction or point of view, the one John Kay and Steppenwolf embraced in their politically-oriented songs (and this was their best and most ambitious of the genre), one comes from a position not of simplistic, blindly condemnatory self-righteousness and infantile sneering, but from a position of saddened and dismayed disillusionment. Kay and Co. recognize the ideals of the first white settlers of the nation, but also their mixed motives and the injustices done to native peoples here. They recognize that America is and has been capable of great things for humanity, but is engaged in violent and destructive projects (the Vietnam war was at its height at the time). They are begging America to return to its ideals, but they haven't given up on the original project.
I think Kay and Co. would disagree strongly with Gimpy Jim. America doesn't "suck"; it has been corrupted, and needs fixing. They would probably side with OWS, or at least with the demonstrators who want reform, not the ones who want to sneer and destroy with nothing positive to put in its place.
Gimpy Jim, if America sucks what place would you prefer? Iran? Zimbabwe? N. Korea? Perhaps Europe, where the EU is working so harmoniously for the prosperity of all?
I came here to post a comment, and realize that mbrachman pretty much expresses my sentiments on this song. Listening to it right now as I type, and it's still a fine, fine expression of "big picture" political self-examination.
I came here to post a comment, and realize that mbrachman pretty much expresses my sentiments on this song. Listening to it right now as I type, and it's still a fine, fine expression of "big picture" political self-examination.
Yes, Kay & Co. express hope in this song. The litany of power abuse (slavery, genocide of the indigenous, etc.) is sad, but carries the promise of betterment. The switch to the "present" (in the '60s) day, powerfully expressed in the theme change, expresses a tragic despair that, somehow, we failed to get the train firmly on the tracks....
Yes, Kay & Co. express hope in this song. The litany of power abuse (slavery, genocide of the indigenous, etc.) is sad, but carries the promise of betterment. The switch to the "present" (in the '60s) day, powerfully expressed in the theme change, expresses a tragic despair that, somehow, we failed to get the train firmly on the tracks.
That failure has changed a little bit in character, but the fact is that the situation now (2012) is pretty much the same as where Kay leaves off in this song: The American people are fat and lazy, and the "leaders" have merely honed the tools of psychological exploitation of the collective will-to-fail to a fine edge.
There's a powerful reigning image in Monster, and it's the Americans' failure to comprehend the fundamental cowardice that is entailed in a reliance on superior military power as an expression of national identity. On that image, alone, we can safely say that things haven't substantially changed in America from the post-War mil-ind-complex expansion described in the song. And, in that sense, Kay's song achieves two goals which are normally mutually exclusive in pop songs: It is both intensely political, yet also timeless. It was then, is now, and probably for a long, long time will be, a fine challenge to the American mindset and a spur to an urgently needed self-examination.