Bush Was Right (Gack)
This PDF says so!
OK, I know, popular culture is one-sided. But is the answer spewing out shallow nonsense to combat shallow nonsense?
Maybe it is. But maybe we could just get kids to read a William F. Buckley book instead?
The song is just garbage, basically. The music and words are not remotely clever, and are actually rude, nasty, and combative. Even the guitar lick in the chorus is sophomoric ("nyah nyah nyah nyah").
I dunno, maybe I am too elitist, maybe we do need to get down to their level and treat kids like idiots. But if that's what's required, maybe such kids are beyond hope of rational thought anyway.
One of my main points in debating and arguing is that I don't try to actually convince anyone to change their mind or agree with me. Really. I might try to convince someone of a clear fact, but not of an interpretation of those facts. I'll try to convince you what Madison meant when he wrote the Tenth Amendment, but not of what that necessarily means in society today.
I'll instead convince you of why and how that informs my beliefs today; then, maybe they will come to agree with me, maybe not, and that's OK. As long as we understand each other better in the end, that's all I really care about. And juvenile, shallow, "Bush Was Right, nyah nyah nyah" doesn't seem to me to be exactly moving the cause of civil discourse and mutual understanding forward.
I think it would be better if we could instead teach those kids why such songs are shallow and useless as a means to greater understanding and knowledge. I think that's part of why Dylan was so popular. Sometimes he asserted truth fairly strongly, but more often than not he was asking questions, not providing answers.
This is one reason why sometimes I have trouble writing political songs. Not that it stops me. Here's a song called I Am Gonna, which is a very early demo of a work in progress (I've got more verses, more instrumentation, etc.). The last line is a bit too on-the-nose for me, I still think I want to change it. I don't know what line I'm gonna write ...
OK, I know, popular culture is one-sided. But is the answer spewing out shallow nonsense to combat shallow nonsense?
Maybe it is. But maybe we could just get kids to read a William F. Buckley book instead?
The song is just garbage, basically. The music and words are not remotely clever, and are actually rude, nasty, and combative. Even the guitar lick in the chorus is sophomoric ("nyah nyah nyah nyah").
I dunno, maybe I am too elitist, maybe we do need to get down to their level and treat kids like idiots. But if that's what's required, maybe such kids are beyond hope of rational thought anyway.
One of my main points in debating and arguing is that I don't try to actually convince anyone to change their mind or agree with me. Really. I might try to convince someone of a clear fact, but not of an interpretation of those facts. I'll try to convince you what Madison meant when he wrote the Tenth Amendment, but not of what that necessarily means in society today.
I'll instead convince you of why and how that informs my beliefs today; then, maybe they will come to agree with me, maybe not, and that's OK. As long as we understand each other better in the end, that's all I really care about. And juvenile, shallow, "Bush Was Right, nyah nyah nyah" doesn't seem to me to be exactly moving the cause of civil discourse and mutual understanding forward.
I think it would be better if we could instead teach those kids why such songs are shallow and useless as a means to greater understanding and knowledge. I think that's part of why Dylan was so popular. Sometimes he asserted truth fairly strongly, but more often than not he was asking questions, not providing answers.
This is one reason why sometimes I have trouble writing political songs. Not that it stops me. Here's a song called I Am Gonna, which is a very early demo of a work in progress (I've got more verses, more instrumentation, etc.). The last line is a bit too on-the-nose for me, I still think I want to change it. I don't know what line I'm gonna write ...
"It is the common fate of the indolent to see their rights become a prey to the active. The condition upon which God hath given liberty to man is eternal vigilance; which condition if he break, servitude is at once the consequence of his crime and the punishment of his guilt."
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