Brooding below cut, you've been warned.
He ain't heavy!
A few months ago a friend of mine was looking for some new music to be exposed to, so I put together a couple of CD wallets of what I considered to be the best of my collection. Granted, I don't have just a ton of music, but I like to think I haven't made too many embarrassing purchases over the years. Some few weeks ago, these CD's were returned to my possession, and I had the opportunity to listen to certain albums that I had just not bothered with in a goodly while. Just this morning, I started listening to "Emotive" (or "eMOTIVe" as it is labeled on the album itself) by A Perfect Circle again.
Emotive was released Nov. 1, 2004, just in time to coincide with the election that year. The album featured 10 cover songs, and two originals, all of which feature common themes that would mostly be considered anti-war. The first two tracks, on their own, are enough to send chills through me. The end of Annihilation posits that humanity faces a distinct choice: peace or annihilation. This is followed by a bass rich re-envisioning of Imagine that while having the same words, completely changes their tone. Uncle John showed us his version of utopia, and asked us to join him in creating it. Maynard and company take this song and in an amazing musical feat manage to make the song take on so many more meanings. Depending on how you listen to it, it could be perceived as anything from a challenge to humanity to make John's dream come about at long last, to a dirge, mourning the loss of that hope.
When I listen to this album, I imagine a time in the late 60's when a pacifist may have gently placed a small flower in the barrel of an automatic rifle pointed at them by their own government. The third track kicks in, and, despite nearly 40 years of separation, I join my thoughts to Nick Lowe in wondering just what is so funny about peace, love, and understanding. I wonder why some people are so afraid of peace. Is it because of the common belief that people are scared of the unknown? Is it because peace would mean the downfall of the war machine that their profits are so closely tied to? Is it because they simply despise change?
Or is it because they can not stand the idea that other people could be happy, when they themselves are not? I don't just mean the celebrity style "no one knows the real me" sort of unhappiness, more along the lines of "I have eleventy billion dollars but everyone despises me" sort of unhappiness. Now, I don't expect all these upper crusters to donate their entire fortunes to the Salvation Army, but I do mean for them to spend the wealth that is failing to make them happy. How much would it take for a couple of the worlds elite to build a water treatment facility and reservoir in a third world country? You know, so things like this don't have to happen. How much beyond that would it take to send enough grain seeds to a region that they could become self sufficient?
A quote that is frequently attributed to Gandhi says that, "the greatness of a nation and it's moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated." This is not because those animals rely on the generosity of man, it is because generosity and care directed towards animals is an inherently selfless act. Similarly, showing this degree of selflessness towards the downtrodden amongst ourselves, those who have nothing to give in return demonstrates our moral progress as a world. You may notice in the utopian societies portrayed in science fiction that there are common themes that dictate our progress, and right to join the alien races that span the universe. In these societies we have abolished poverty and hunger, we are universally educated, and in some we have even done away with money. These markers would indicate that humanity had surpassed the boundaries that money and greed impose.
But this evolution of humanity is slow, and requires new modes of thinking that many of the worlds richest people refuse to accept. We don't have an alien species looking down on us, making us feel ashamed that we haven't progressed any further than we have (and religion has totally failed in this regard as well), so we must rely on ourselves, must change ourselves. Until we manage to put this old-world thinking behind us we will never achieve what we are capable of. Until then, we can only imagine...
A few months ago a friend of mine was looking for some new music to be exposed to, so I put together a couple of CD wallets of what I considered to be the best of my collection. Granted, I don't have just a ton of music, but I like to think I haven't made too many embarrassing purchases over the years. Some few weeks ago, these CD's were returned to my possession, and I had the opportunity to listen to certain albums that I had just not bothered with in a goodly while. Just this morning, I started listening to "Emotive" (or "eMOTIVe" as it is labeled on the album itself) by A Perfect Circle again.
Emotive was released Nov. 1, 2004, just in time to coincide with the election that year. The album featured 10 cover songs, and two originals, all of which feature common themes that would mostly be considered anti-war. The first two tracks, on their own, are enough to send chills through me. The end of Annihilation posits that humanity faces a distinct choice: peace or annihilation. This is followed by a bass rich re-envisioning of Imagine that while having the same words, completely changes their tone. Uncle John showed us his version of utopia, and asked us to join him in creating it. Maynard and company take this song and in an amazing musical feat manage to make the song take on so many more meanings. Depending on how you listen to it, it could be perceived as anything from a challenge to humanity to make John's dream come about at long last, to a dirge, mourning the loss of that hope.
When I listen to this album, I imagine a time in the late 60's when a pacifist may have gently placed a small flower in the barrel of an automatic rifle pointed at them by their own government. The third track kicks in, and, despite nearly 40 years of separation, I join my thoughts to Nick Lowe in wondering just what is so funny about peace, love, and understanding. I wonder why some people are so afraid of peace. Is it because of the common belief that people are scared of the unknown? Is it because peace would mean the downfall of the war machine that their profits are so closely tied to? Is it because they simply despise change?
Or is it because they can not stand the idea that other people could be happy, when they themselves are not? I don't just mean the celebrity style "no one knows the real me" sort of unhappiness, more along the lines of "I have eleventy billion dollars but everyone despises me" sort of unhappiness. Now, I don't expect all these upper crusters to donate their entire fortunes to the Salvation Army, but I do mean for them to spend the wealth that is failing to make them happy. How much would it take for a couple of the worlds elite to build a water treatment facility and reservoir in a third world country? You know, so things like this don't have to happen. How much beyond that would it take to send enough grain seeds to a region that they could become self sufficient?
A quote that is frequently attributed to Gandhi says that, "the greatness of a nation and it's moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated." This is not because those animals rely on the generosity of man, it is because generosity and care directed towards animals is an inherently selfless act. Similarly, showing this degree of selflessness towards the downtrodden amongst ourselves, those who have nothing to give in return demonstrates our moral progress as a world. You may notice in the utopian societies portrayed in science fiction that there are common themes that dictate our progress, and right to join the alien races that span the universe. In these societies we have abolished poverty and hunger, we are universally educated, and in some we have even done away with money. These markers would indicate that humanity had surpassed the boundaries that money and greed impose.
But this evolution of humanity is slow, and requires new modes of thinking that many of the worlds richest people refuse to accept. We don't have an alien species looking down on us, making us feel ashamed that we haven't progressed any further than we have (and religion has totally failed in this regard as well), so we must rely on ourselves, must change ourselves. Until we manage to put this old-world thinking behind us we will never achieve what we are capable of. Until then, we can only imagine...