Excuse me a bit of mental masturbation

So, I've been reading Transmetropolitan again. Ellis' writing is in good form in the latest trade paperback, and he's got me to thinking again, the clever bastard.

All we want is a headrush
All we want is to get out of our skin for a while
We have nothing to lose because we don't have anything
Anything we want anyway...
We used to hate people
Now we just make fun of them
It's more effective that way

Even though I was quite a bit younger then, I remember living in the 1980s. I remember songs, books and movies - good and bad - about the prospect of the United States or the U.S.S.R. bombing the fuck out of each other, trading tank battles across Western Europe or fleets in the Pacific and Atlantic (maybe with some intervention from Communist China). I remember my father having to go out and keep the peace during the Springbok Tour of 1981^*, and the worry in his and my mother's eyes.

We don't live
We just scratch on day to day
With nothing but matchbooks and
Sarcasm in our pockets
And all we are waiting for
Is for something worth waiting for
Let's admit America gets the celebrities we deserve
Let's stop saying "don't quote me"
Because if no one quotes you
You probably haven't said a thing worth saying

I remember when there was political satire on television. People were unhappy with what governments in the world were doing, and they were letting people know about it. People saw views on real issues, presented in such a way that they took it on board, rather than just ignoring the talking heads on the TV.

We need something to kill the pain
Of all that nothing inside
We all just want to die a little bit
We fear that pop-culture
Is the only culture we're ever going to have
We want to stop reading magazines
Stop watching TV
Stop caring about Hollywood
But we're addicted to the things we hate

We don't have much of that, these days. The source material is still there - but we don't have teeth anymore. With the rise of the internet we have access to more information more immediately than ever before in the history of human endeavour, and what do we get? Well, www.bushorchimp.com I guess. Popular culture seems to be content, on the whole, to let politics happen to it, rather than vice versa.

We don't run Washington and no one really does
Ask not what you can do for your country
Ask what your country did to you
The only reason you're still alive is because someone
Has decided to let you live
We owe so much money we're not broke we're broken
We're so poor we can't even pay attention

I like music that challenges me. To name a few: Birmingham 6's "You Cannot Walk Here". KMFDM's "Dogma" (which I'm quoting for you during this piece). Nena Hagen's "99 Luftballons". Blam Blam Blam's "There is No Depression in New Zealand". Ministry's "New World Order". PWEI's "Ich bin ein Auslander". We don't get enough of that, these days. If I were a better composer myself, I'd be tempted to write some of this stuff myself. And while I know there was plenty of vacant Song-O-Matic crap as I was growing up too, it seems that the prevalent political message for the youth today is this: "Fuck society. Get what's yours. Don't let anyone get in the way of your right to do nothing."

So what do you want
You want to be famous and rich and happy
But you're terrified you have nothing to offer this world
Nothing to say and no way to say it
But you can say it in three languages
You are more than the sum of what you consume
Desire is not an occupation
You are alternately thrilled and desperate
Skyhigh and fucked

The irony is that I myself often have enough trouble getting out of that trap. It's easier to be passive. I can philosophise from my armchair or rant away on teh intarweb, but I'm not in a position where I actually deal with most of the stuff that's wrong in the world, even on an irregular basis. We insulate ourselves from all the shit that's out there, frown disapprovingly at the news articles and then go back to whatever we were doing. Modern life seems to have a thin veneer of hypocrisy in many things, and I'm probably just as hypocritical as the rest, in my own fashion.

Let's stop praying for someone
To save us and start saving ourselves
Let's stop this and start over
Let's go out. Let's keep going
This is your life. This is your fucking life

So, what can I do? Hmmm. I suppose I could write letters to editor of the local newspaper. Distribute the arcane propaganda of my mindset to the internet (hello, gentle readers). Write or talk to politicians and regular people, and let them know about things that I think are important. Support causes that mean something good, I suppose.

We need something to kill
The pain of all that nothing inside
Quit whining you haven't done
Anything wrong because frankly
You haven't done much of anything
Someone's writing down your mistakes
Someone's documenting your downfall

A lot of it seems like I'm just intellectualising my naieve world-view into the void. I guess there's still a small chance that I might come up with something somewhere along the way that will help to do useful things - even if it's just inspiring others to think about how they're acting and reacting to the world.

Most of all, I think I need to know, and be myself. Self-knowledge is one thing, but self-honesty is as important, and often missed these days. All going well, something good may come of it in time.

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[*] - He was as against apartheid as any of the protestors. Many people - even his friends - saw him as the enemy because he stood by his duty as a police officer, to keep people safe. He lost friends by staying with his principles, but I admire his having the courage of his convictions, when it came to the crunch. In this, at least, I hope to be very much my father's son.