tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7869202163671423196.post8941530206336363743..comments2023-11-27T22:34:24.079-08:00Comments on SHOCK AND AWE: getting a dragSIMON REYNOLDShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01282478701882900354noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7869202163671423196.post-2796337151392863262020-06-04T07:12:40.498-07:002020-06-04T07:12:40.498-07:00You can add Krist Novaselic the "anarcho-capi...You can add Krist Novaselic the "anarcho-capitalist socialist moderate"David Gunniphttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18146283773515445024noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7869202163671423196.post-66113694269003975722020-05-29T10:17:51.110-07:002020-05-29T10:17:51.110-07:00Very late to this but-
1) Hollywood 'creativ...Very late to this but- <br /><br />1) Hollywood 'creatives' (actors/writers/directors) are a center-left stronghold, but its executives and bureaucrats are either solidly Republican or play both sides of the aisle (donating to both parties, etc.) And of course places like Orange County are where Nixon/Reagan rose up from or played to.<br /><br />2) trying to nail down the exact political position of an entire genre/mode of music obviously is futile, but I think that 'rock' is fundamentally libertarian, but in a way that shifts from left to right depending on the artist and/or era. Doctrinaire Marxist-Leninism or fascism/conservatism never found much of a foothold, but you can definitely discern varying competing strands of anarchism or Randism - the old dichotomy of Blyton via Alan Moore's Land of Do As You Please vs Land of Take What You WantTylerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08388493931455539589noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7869202163671423196.post-69139751844131714622020-05-29T04:26:12.429-07:002020-05-29T04:26:12.429-07:00Yeah, I'm trying to convince myself that writi...Yeah, I'm trying to convince myself that writing a blog is actually more time efficient then letting all these ideas continuously recycle in my mind.<br /><br />Hmmm.Phil Knighthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16214245608032305452noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7869202163671423196.post-16821011358641805372020-05-28T14:23:26.398-07:002020-05-28T14:23:26.398-07:00getting total deja vu - almost certain i asked you...getting total deja vu - almost certain i asked you that once before and you answered with the same link!<br /><br />i wish you would start another blog Phil - on that subject or anything SIMON REYNOLDShttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01282478701882900354noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7869202163671423196.post-44920434552323826332020-05-28T13:00:54.740-07:002020-05-28T13:00:54.740-07:00It's a collective soul or spirit:
https://en....It's a collective soul or spirit:<br /><br />https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EgregorePhil Knighthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16214245608032305452noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7869202163671423196.post-7782880630551207442020-05-28T12:47:04.231-07:002020-05-28T12:47:04.231-07:00what's an egregor?what's an egregor?<br /><br />SIMON REYNOLDShttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01282478701882900354noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7869202163671423196.post-28896103376898720282020-05-28T12:33:58.137-07:002020-05-28T12:33:58.137-07:00I think that's all true, but then I've no ...I think that's all true, but then I've no doubt that there were probably "conservative" celebrities at the Royal Variety Performance who were, in their hearts, strongly left-wing, didn't like the Royals etc.<br /><br />What the "establishment" constitutes nowadays is a bit contested, isn't it? For the Left it's the rich, non-doms, tax dodgers, financiers etc., while for the populist right it's the mainstream media, academia, the permanent state etc.<br /><br />Also, I think it's possible to argue that rock music was/is in many ways right-Libertarian in many of its instincts - "I do what I wanna do, when I wanna do it" - very much *not* about social solidarity, caring for the weak, having a long-term productive base etc. It's very difficult for me to believe that when they come to vote, rock musicians are thinking "what's best for society?" rather than "what's best for me?" The leftism in rock seems to be something of a formal convention that everyone goes along with - if you were to admit to being a Tory it would be as much of an aesthetic error as a moral one.<br /><br />BUT the story of now is that the Boomers themselves are now the old who are dying off, and their egregor is dying with them. And so, slowly, are their social, cultural and political achievements, which everyone (including me) thought were permanent. This is a very important moment, albeit in a somewhat depressing way, in that the world of mass modernity has turned out to be just another will-o'-the-wisp. I've been thinking of starting a blog on this subject because I think it needs documenting, though I just don't have much time. But when these great musical legends die it is very imporant, because their world really does die with them.Phil Knighthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16214245608032305452noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7869202163671423196.post-69805827673877126862020-05-28T10:42:19.686-07:002020-05-28T10:42:19.686-07:00There's a difference between rock performers (...There's a difference between rock performers (identified with the young, with "the people", etc) and showbiz I think. <br /><br />The world of entertainment, variety, Ivor Novello awards, etc is instinctively "Royalist" - pro the establishment - because it knows where it's bread is buttered - this probably goes back to the restoration with Charles II, who reopened the theatres after the Puritan shutdown, whose mistress was an actress. <br /><br />i tend to argue that the implicit message of showbiz is "the world is as it only can be" - it's literally worldly (even though often peddles sentimental happy endings, the power of love, and so forth) and therefore cynical about power, the inevitability of inequality etc. "Money Makes the World Go Around" etc etc. <br /><br />whereas rock was predicated on the idea of change and disruption. not any more, but that was the promise. the youthquake. the old dying off and the young taking over. <br /><br />in America it's slightly different - there's no getting around the fact that Hollywood is rife with liberalism - there's way more examples of actors being left-wing or anti-Trump than there are the opposite (Jon Voight, James Wood, whose else?). There's a gap between the economic interests of these superrich and their value system; it's like an inverted mirror image of the gap between the economic interests of coal miners in West Kentucky and their value system. SIMON REYNOLDShttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01282478701882900354noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7869202163671423196.post-88409783451803883352020-05-28T10:35:23.312-07:002020-05-28T10:35:23.312-07:00I expect you are right, but in this case she sang ...I expect you are right, but in this case she sang a song called something like "Vote for Maggie" at a Tory Party Conference in the Eighties, so she's one of the very public supporters - who are a minority.<br /><br />Kenny Everett was another I think, despite Section 28<br />Often these showbiz types have soft progressive pet issues like being anti-fur or animal testing. <br />SIMON REYNOLDShttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01282478701882900354noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7869202163671423196.post-75626427447824254002020-05-28T04:17:16.015-07:002020-05-28T04:17:16.015-07:00It's statistically impossible that of all the ...It's statistically impossible that of all the thousands of pop/rock singers and musicians, only a handful are Tories though, isn't it?<br /><br />Especially as singers and musicians generally belong to a key Tory demographic, i.e. they are essentially self-employed or small business men and women who are disadvantaged by marginal tax rates.<br /><br />I think that the anti-Conservative sentiments expressed by pop-stars are more often than not purely performative, and just seen as being part of the territory. Like wearing sunglasses, or signing autographs. In the privacy of the voting booth, I have no doubt that a majority of them, perhaps even a significant majority, make their peace with The Man, and put their cross in the box that is labelled Conservative.Phil Knighthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16214245608032305452noreply@blogger.com