It's About Liberty: A Conservative Forum
Topics => Entertainment => Topic started by: Glock32 on February 14, 2013, 09:41:50 PM
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I heard this song the other day for the first time in years and caught some stuff in it I never even thought about before. Have I simply started flinching at shadows due to the daily onslaught by this undisguised, incipient tyranny, or does this 80s song from Mike & the Mechanics not seem oddly prophetic now?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ep7W89I_V_g
Even back in the 80s the line about "there's a gun and ammunition just inside the doorway" made me think about a scenario not unlike the one that seems to loom in our immediate future. When I heard it again the other day it was the first time I'd noticed the lyrics, "teach the children quietly, for some day sons and daughters will rise up and fight while we stood still".
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"Swear allegiance to the flag
Whatever flag they offer
Never hint at what you really feel
Teach the children quietly
For some day sons and daughters
Will rise up and fight while we stood still."
He obviously felt or sussed something.
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I love this song and have long contemplated the meaning, fully knowing somewhere in the back of my mind the world was going to shyt.
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Sometimes the unconcious truth penetrates the concious reality.
Well, unless your a libiot.
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I remember this song. I remember 1985 (faintly).
I was rebuilding my life after my (1st) wife had left me and our infant daughter to go "find herself" (I don't think she ever did). The local economy was rebounding after a very stagnant period. I had landed a good job on the heels of some real crap ones and periods with no jobs at all.
And Ronald Reagan was reelected.
Everyone looks at life through their own personal sensitivities, sensibilities, and interests. At the time there was a lot of activism (agitation) coming from the left about incipient tyranny with the Reagan administration. The left didn't know for sure whether or not Ronnie was a true bad-ass but they had seen that, in his dealings with the soviets, he was one helluva poker player.
So when that song came out I assumed that the perspective was that of the left fearing the worst (without the slightest evidence or provocation) from the right. Since I had no inhibitions against appropriating songs from people whose ideologies I didn't respect I didn't give it another thought. In retrospect I believe I was wrong. From what I've been able to glean from various sources Mike Rutherford had no particular political leanings. I read where he supported a conservationist group that was into things like fox hunting - not exactly anything that folks with leftist leanings tend to support.
So, was "Silent running" written as a warning of a coming storm emanating from the right, from the left, or just some free-form expression of a dystopian future? My guess is that it was written with "eye of the beholder" in mind. It means or represents what the listener wants it to mean. The sentiment is compelling exactly because we see the plausibility expressed within it. The left truly believed that Reagan wanted to bring on a totalitarian stronghold (pretty stupid, eh?). We believe Øbongo's own words when he tells us that he wishes "transformational change" - and follows it up by tearing at the seams of every American institution and every American tradition.
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I wish it was still 1985.
:'(
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I wish it was still 1985.
:'(
You and me both!
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I wish it was still 1985.
:'(
God, so do I.
I got beaten up pretty thoroughly - both emotionally and financially but there was still hope for the future in 1985.
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May I have a 1985 without my X?
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Funny, but in 1985 I was about the same age as the kid in the video. But old enough to remember that Reagan presented an air of American strength and optimism, and the difference between now and then is very stark indeed.
The 80s were a fun time to be a kid. We played army all day long in the big field behind my friend's house, and not only were toy guns everywhere they looked entirely real and no fainted or called out SWAT teams when they saw a bunch of kids running around in camo with plastic Uzis.
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I was more of a product of the late 60's and 70's, but I never felt like my dollar had more purchasing power than when Reagan was in office. It was a great time, been a slow (and now a faster) downhill ride since. . .